Cooks Hill Community Church in Centralia didn’t set out to build a sports facility. It set out to get Lewis County families moving together and ended up with a pickleball facility. The resulting “Cooks Hill Courts” offers four indoor/outdoor hard-surface courts with permanent nets. The facility strives to meet community members where they’re at, pickleball-wise and beyond.
Other avenues of the church’s healthy-family initiatives include its Lewis County Maternity House for pregnant and parenting moms of infants, the dual-language Cooks Hill Childcare Center on the church campus, the Lewis County Diaper Bank, which provides about 40,000 diapers a year to community members, and a toddler sports program. Amazingly enough, it was the experience of running the toddler sports program that led to the opening of the pickleball court.
The Rev. Emily Faley, lead pastor at Cooks Hill Community Church, explains that it was with an eye on healthy families and knowledge of Lewis County’s high obesity rate that the church began running the toddler sports program over four years ago. “Tot Sports” introduces activities such as gymnastics, basketball, soccer and track & field. Then, when the children become school age, the kids and their parents are familiar with the sports, and their parents are more apt to prioritize it in their schedules.
So far, they’ve had over 600 toddlers go through the program. With that success in hand, the church leadership considered how else they could utilize the church campus to benefit the community health-wise. Emily explains that the leadership asked themselves, “What can we do that is sports-related but that isn’t already in the community that other ages can also participate in?”
“Well, we have a lot of people in our church that love pickleball so it was kind of an easy step,” Emily explains. Pickleball is appropriate for a lot of different ages, from very young people on up through the very elderly can play the game. “So, it just felt like if we’re going to go from toddler sports to something else, we might as well go to something that could span all the ages.”
Pickleball, which got its start on Bainbridge Island in 1965, offers an unusually wide welcome mat. It has a low barrier to entry for beginners and older adults yet also offers enough strategic depth and physical demand to hook competitive players of any age.
Volunteers and a Lucky Cancellation
Emily reports that the project, from beginning to end, was the product of massive volunteer hours and donations. And fortunately for Cooks Hill, another organization in Washington had already ordered the 70×40-foot steel building but then cancelled the purchase before the building was installed on their site. With that, Cooks Hill Courts was able to purchase the building at a reduced price and construct it on their site at 2400 Cooks Hill Road, behind the Cooks Hill Community Church.
The indoor/outdoor courts are designed for all-weather play with lighting for early morning and evening play. The players are out of the weather and when temperatures cool, there will be propane heaters installed with filter fabric around the sides of the building to help with the wind chill.
Ten Dollars and a Pair of Tennis Shoes
It’s easy to get started. The courts operate with pay-to-play fees as well as memberships. They intentionally set the price low to enable more people to be able to play yet still cover the facility’s costs. Drop-in fees are $10 for a three-hour session to make it affordable for people while still covering their staffing and facility costs.
Emily emphasizes that no skill level is necessary. “Anybody can come out and learn how to play. We will help anybody learn how to play the game.” First-timers just need to show up with tennis shoes and sign a waiver. The pro shop has paddles and balls for loan and then once players decide what kind of paddle they want for their own, they can purchase them onsite if they choose. The pro shop offers paddles of varying price ranges, depending on what people want. In addition, the pro shop carries beverages and snacks for purchase and restrooms are onsite.
Cooks Hill utilizes the “Opencourt” smartphone app for court reservations as well as online computer access. Information on memberships, leagues, court reservations, and more is available here as well as on the court’s Facebook page.
In addition to Cooks Hill Courts Director Curtis Medved, a certified pickleball instructor, the courts employ other coaches as well as pro shop staff. The courts offer lessons for all levels of experience as well as varying leagues. For instance, one of the beginner leagues is for women over 55. Emily puts it simply, “It’s an important sport because every age can adjust it to their level.”
