Here’s your trivia test for the day:

1. What is the Official State Sport of Washington?

2. What is the fastest growing sport in the country?

The answer is the same to both questions: pickleball.

The sport with the funny name, developed right here in Washington, is sweeping the nation. The numbers are staggering: 4.8 million players in the U.S. as of last year, with a 39 percent growth rate since 2019.

And talk about a sport for all ages! Retirement communities across the country are overflowing with pickleball courts and players, yet the fastest growth in the sport is first among 6-17 year-olds, and second among 18-24 year-olds.

Here in Enumclaw the Facebook Pickleball group has 250 members. We’ve had players come from Black Diamond, Ravensdale, Maple Valley, Auburn, Kent, Buckley, Bonney Lake, Sumner, and Lake Tapps.

All of that is great, except that we have a tremendous lack of pickleball courts here. There are simply far more people wanting a place to play than there are places to play. Communities across the country are building new facilities to accommodate this demand, and I would love to see this wonderful community follow suit.

Here in Enumclaw we have awesome parks, a beautiful golf course, terrific baseball complex, and a great swimming facility, all of which help make this such a marvelous place to live and raise healthy families. Adding a new pickleball complex would be the icing on this great cake we call Enumclaw, and I am hoping the city and business leaders, along with the rest of the community, will eagerly support the idea.

If you’d like more information about pickleball and efforts to build a new facility here, you can go to enumclawpb@gmail.com.

Matthey McCully

Enumclaw