Georgia Mountain Pickleball’s new outdoor playing venue rivals top facilities nationwide

The city of Hiawassee, GA in Towns County is tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northeast Georgia and is home to the GA Mountain Fair, the GA Mountain Big Green Egg festival, music concerts and a stream of car, bicycle and motorcycle events geared towards young active retirees.

It’s also home to a very vibrant Pickleball community, known as Georgia Mountain Pickleball. Two and one half years ago the county was just completing a new Recreation Center and they agreed to put permanent lines in for 4 indoor Pickleball courts on the basketball courts. This started the wave of Pickleball in our county and, as word spread, more and more people were drawn into this sport. We soon were bursting at the seams and, due to our growing numbers and to many disruptions of our 3-day a week schedule at the Rec. Center from basketball camps, games, etc., we began to look for possible additional venues.

Mr. Bill Kendall, our County Commissioner, is very sports-minded and was impressed with our commitment, drive, enthusiasm and growing numbers and agreed to help us renovate an abandoned county owned 4-tennis court complex that was both unsightly and non-functional with multiple cracks, weeds, rusted fencing, and mold and mildew covering the court surface. The original plan was to clean up the courts, repair the cracks and paint the surface. Our Pickleball group formed a work party and did the clean-up and were preparing to fill in all the cracks when the county, in their desire to help, filled all the cracks with road tar. This rendered the courts unusable due to the soft nature of tar and the fact that paint won’t adhere to tar.

The complex sat for several months in this condition. In the meantime, we received permission to revamp two abandoned tennis courts at the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds and played there for over a year on 4 makeshift courts even though the surface was quite rough and uneven.

Eventually our Commissioner, who was impressed with our dedication, enthusiasm, and still growing numbers, entered into negotiations with Signature Tennis Courts, Inc. out of Woodstock, GA whereby, with the county’s help with some of the materials, grading and equipment, they would completely resurface the complex with 6”-8” of compacted gravel, 2”-3” of asphalt, a sealer coat followed by 2 coats of paint, court lines and permanent nets. The project was completed in September, 2015, just 2 days before our first regional tournament.

The Towns County Pickleball Complex is now a dedicated 14-court state-of-the-art facility situated on Lake Chatuge with beautiful mountain views as a backdrop. We’ve since added a paved parking area, windscreens, several benches and awnings for shade. Total cost for this renovation to this point has been just under $100,000. Our future plans are the addition of a covered pavilion, rest rooms and lights.

Since opening, we’ve staged several small tournaments for charities and just completed our first major one this past May that exceeded all our expectations. We estimated the economic impact to our community for this tournament was over $400,000. We’re having our first sanctioned tournament, the Georgia Mountain Pickleball Fall Classic, September 16th-18th, 2016 which will be run by PickleballTournaments.com.

Our goal is to make our county a Pickleball destination whereby visitors can come and experience the beauty of our area and play Pickleball at our beautiful complex. There are several wineries in the area, and the area is rich in bed and breakfasts, cabins and cottages, hotels, motels and resorts, as well as several 4 and 5 star restaurants The area has three TVA lakes — Chatuge, Nottely, and Hiawassee. Thirty minutes away is the German Village Town of Helen, GA, and Brasstown Bald, the tallest peak in Georgia, and over 10 beautiful waterfalls. There are dozens of hiking trails and the Appalachian Trail passes through Towns County. For campers, there are several large RV resort centers in the area, including one adjacent to the Towns County Pickleball Complex. Brasstown Valley Resort and Spa is a world class resort with a long list of amenities including a Championship Golf course.

For a fun-filled sightseeing, camping, hiking, horseback riding, fishing, water skiing vacation combined with playing Pickleball, this part of the Blue Ridge Mountains should be on everyone’s “Bucket List” of things to do. We invite you to come join us and “Elevate Your Game” here at the Towns County Pickleball Courts and Complex in Hiawassee, GA.