Thomasville GA
Pickleball Association

The History of Pickleball in Thomasville

In 2015 pickleball made headlines when the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) released data showing that it was the fastest-growing sport in the nation; but it still took some time for that popularity to spread to Thomasville. In 2017 the Thomasville Butler Mason YMCA invited all those interested to come learn to play the popular sport with a funny name and local residents Greer Cox, Chuck Gee, Ronnie Satterfield, Robert “Bubba” Sullivan, and Terry Solana were some of the very first Thomasville players that learned to dink, drive, and drop between temporarily taped lines on the YMCA basketball court.

As it became obvious the game was growing in popularity, the YMCA permanently painted three indoor courts over their gymnasium floor, but the local players still petitioned for the city to build outdoor courts as well. The city agreed and converted one of the existing outdoor YMCA tennis courts into three pickleball courts. Regularly scheduled open play started on Monday mornings but as the number of players increased it expanded to include Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings as well. Residents were hooked on pickleball and they couldn’t get enough!

During this time the Butler Mason YMCA courts were the only outdoor public pickleball courts from south of Macon to the northern Florida panhandle and there was a large influx of players from all over the South traveling to Thomasville just to get their pickleball fix. Out-of-town players came from Moultrie, Albany, Tifton, Cairo, Camilla, Bainbridge, Valdosta, Tallahassee, Madison, and Monticello alike and most of these communities have now built public courts to accommodate their own pickleball communities that started right here in Thomasville.

In 2018, Thomasville resident Herb Williams became the local Ambassador for Pickleball USA, the governing body for the sport of pickleball. Herb began inviting people to play and offered free lessons in order to educate the community and grow love for the game. As the increasing number of pickleball players outgrew the capacity of the three outdoor YMCA courts, a committee was formed to advocate for additional public courts but the City Manager and City Council were not receptive to the idea at the time.

Around this same time the Thomasville High School tennis courts were scheduled to be resurfaced and after seeing the popularity of pickleball, the school system decided to create four new pickleball courts in the space previously occupied by one tennis court. Although this provided a few more courts, public play was prohibited during school hours and morning pickleball players still had nowhere else to go to get in a game.

In 2021, Thomas County residents voted to approve a local sales tax called ESPLOST (Educational Special Purpose Local Ordinance Sales Tax). Revenue from this 1% sales tax could only be used for school related projects and former Thomas County Schools superintendent and pickleball enthusiast Terry Solana contacted the Thomas County School Board urging them to allocate some of the ESPLOST budget towards new pickleball courts. The school system agreed and suggested using two of their existing tennis courts at Thomas County Middle School for the project. A small committee of local players was formed to design the new pickleball courts and after meeting with school officials and local contractors, the courts were completed in 2021 and lights were added in 2024. The Thomas County School system allows public use of their courts from 8AM until 10PM and these courts have remained a mecca for the Southern pickleball community, with players from surrounding cities still traveling to join the competitive yet friendly social games they say they can only find here in Thomasville.

Still not satisfied by the lack of local public courts, the Thomasville Georgia Pickleball Association was formed in 2020 as an LLC to provide a vehicle for hosting a successful pickleball tournament. The association once again tried approaching the newly named City Manager about building a new public pickleball facility to hold future events and accommodate the expanding player pool. The new City Manager was very receptive and enthused by the idea, and so in the summer of 2025 the Association decided to change to a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in order to receive tax-deductible donations and grow and sustain the sport in the area. Board members were recruited in July of 2025 and a concerted effort was started to have pickleball players speak at city council meetings and advocate for building public courts in the city, particularly a new multi-court complex located at Cherokee Park.