Group partnering with neighborhood to build pickleball courts

Published 1:30 am Friday, June 26, 2026

Pickleball players in Oak Harbor are taking court construction into their own hands.

The city’s plans for pickleball courts have slowed following a leadership change in its Parks and Recreation Department and an ongoing search for grant funding. Partnering with a local homeowners association, however, means the Whidbey Pickleball Association can create courts while renovating an abandoned neighborhood park in one fell swoop.

Darin Cook, president of the Pickleball Association, said advertising and membership revenue will pay for the conversion of tennis courts and basketball courts in the Castilian Hills neighborhood into five pickleball courts, four of which could be finished as soon as September. All-in-all, the project is expected to cost under $100,000.

Cook said paying for the project is worthwhile if it means bringing courts to Oak Harbor sooner, contributing to pickleball’s further growth on the island and sticking it to anyone still in doubt of the sport’s popularity.

“Just to prove them wrong is gonna make me so damn happy,” Cook said. “They have no idea what the demand is here.”

Pickleball courts have not appeared on the City Council’s agenda since February. Brian Smith, the city’s former director of Parks and Recreation, presented a few potential locations for new courts at a workshop that month. Unofficially, the council opted to explore creating temporary courts while the city secured grant funding to build permanent ones, a prior News-Times story states.

Meanwhile, courts have sat unused in the Castilian Hills neighborhood for years, JR Russell, vice president of the neighborhood’s homeowners association, said.

Initially, he sought the city’s help removing abandoned cars from the property. But as he became familiar with pickleball players’ complaints about the lack of courts in the city, he realized the property might provide a solution. Russell approached the city about converting the courts, but nothing came of the idea, and in March, Smith left his position.

At that point, Cook felt the city’s pickleball project died.

“I knew this was probably coming,” Cook recalled. “I could just read the tea leaves.”

Creating pickleball courts is still in the city’s plans, Councilmember Eric Marshall explained. The city is reviewing its priorities as it prepares its next two-year budget, he said, and Smith’s departure also prompted officials to reevaluate the Parks and Recreation Department.

“It just seemed prudent to pull back and reevaluate everything and figure out how we’re going to move forward successfully,” Marshall said.

But Marshall thought Russell might have been onto something and decided to connect him and Cook.

“Anytime that we can think of outside the box solutions to problems that we have and try to find win-win scenarios is the best way to go about getting things accomplished in the community,” Marshall said.

A proposal to convert the courts gained the support of the homeowners association, Russell said. The association is leasing the property to the Whidbey Pickleball Association for $1 a year. Creating and maintaining the courts will be entirely the Whidbey Pickleball Association’s responsibility, he explained. Because the property was already intended for recreation, Russell is unconcerned about potential noise.

Russell said he is confident the Whidbey Pickleball Association will follow through on its plans. Even if it doesn’t, he said, the homeowners association has little to lose.

“We’re giving them permission to just go ahead and try it and do it,” he explained. “So they’re the ones that are basically sticking their necks out to make this happen.”

Cook and company are kicking the tires of fundraising for the project, and as of June 19, already have $42,000 in their possession.

Repairing, resurfacing and repainting the courts to make them suitable for pickleball, as well as installing new nets, fencing and more, is phase one of the project. It is expected to cost just over $60,000, and Cook hopes to raise $64,000 by later this summer. Phase two would convert a basketball court into the facility’s fifth pickleball court, and the Whidbey Pickleball Association plans to raise another $32,000 to do so but not until next year.

Pickleball players have been pushing for more courts on the North End for the last decade, Cook explained; existing courts are limited in number and some are poor in quality. He believes additional courts also could attract players from Anacortes and Coupeville.

To see this through would be meaningful for the Whidbey Pickleball Association and its fellow pickleball players.

“I’d just be thrilled for the community,” Cook said.

Russell is already considering taking up the sport himself.

“We’re pretty excited to see how it goes,” he added.