NITRO, W.Va. –The City of Nitro now has new pickleball courts for residents and others to play on.
A ribbon cutting was held Friday morning for the Indoor Pickleball Complex which is located inside the Nitro Athletic Complex.
The complex is considered the largest indoor complex in West Virginia. It will feature nine courts and will be open for play 24-hours a day.
Nitro’s Mayor Dave Casebolt said that with the new courts, it will give them the opportunity to expand the sport to everyone throughout the state, as well as have future pickleball tournaments.
“It gives us an opportunity to establish leagues for young people and for old people but even more importantly it allows us to have some very large tournaments,” Casebolt said.
The new courts were broken in by pickleball players competing in the third annual Serving For Safety Metro 911 Pickleball Tournament that began right after the ribbon cutting took place Friday. Those tournaments will go until Sunday. This tournament is largest pickleball tournament in the state that has almost 300 players participating from 15 different states.
Casebolt said that the reason they decided to build new pickleball courts because of the excitement surrounding the sport, especially in Nitro.
“We saw the enthusiasm about it, we saw it as an up-and-coming sport and so we decided to do it and you can come down here on numerous evenings and there will be 60, 70 people here playing pickleball,” he said.
He said that if the courts weren’t inside then they wouldn’t have been able to start the tournament on Friday as planned.
Casebolt wants people to know that if you’re looking for somewhere to play, whether it rain or sunshine, they can come out and play at the one in Nitro.
“The enclosure will not only allow this tournament to go on, but it will also attract other players and know that when they come, they’re going to play,” he said.