The Itasca County Pickleball Association has an interesting story that begins all the way back to 2006! A group of “snowbirds” who wintered in Arizona cleaned out a large Morton building in Grand Rapids and painted a pickleball court so they could play the popular sport. Over the next few years, more and more of their friends joined them to learn this “new game”. Very quickly the small group of friends had outgrown their space and needed to look for new options.
In 2009, the group approached the Cohasset Recreation Department about using the hockey rink at Portage Park as a new venue. The group used chalk to mark the lines but ended up reapplying the chalk after each rain. During the second year, the Recreation Department provided paint and supplies and the group painted seven courts within the hockey rink.
In 2013, the group began to look for additional courts in Grand Rapids to accommodate the growing numbers. Players were just beginning to use the gymnasium at the YMCA for pickleball but there were no outdoor courts within the city. In the summer of 2014, the Grand Rapids Recreation Department painted eight courts on existing tennis courts at Grussendorf Park and, as a result, the numbers of players continued to surge.
In 2015, the original group of friends created the Itasca County Pickleball Association (ICPA) and formed a Board of Directors to govern the association. It was at that time that a Venue Steering Committee was formed to investigate options for building dedicated courts in the area. The steering committee began an important collaboration with the Itasca County Family YMCA, the City of Grand Rapids, and the Grand Rapids Basketball Association to conceptualize an Outdoor Activities Complex (ODAC) including 6 pickleball courts, basketball courts, and a four-square space for children.
The ICPA then formed an Outdoor Courts Implementation Committee consisting of representatives of all our partners to raise funds to construct the complex. After two years of planning, fund-raising, and construction, we celebrated our grand opening on July 18, 2018. At that time, we had the largest outdoor venue of dedicated pickleball courts in Minnesota.
In 2021, an opportunity for in-kind construction support from the City of Grand Rapids was presented because an ice rink and warming house was being built adjacent to the courts. To capture the in-kind opportunity, the ICPA reactivated the Outdoor Courts Implementation Committee to design four additional courts and to raise the necessary funds to move forward. The committee was successful in all aspects of their work, and we celebrated another grand opening of the additional four courts on August 10, 2022.
All the work to build the outdoor complex including 10 state-of-the art dedicated pickleball courts is a result of the hard work and strong dedication of many ICPA volunteers who made monetary contributions and gave hundreds of hours of sweat equity. The ICPA is proud of our work and our strong collaboration with our many partners to achieve our many accomplishments.