Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami was dressed for the occasion on Tuesday as he and the county Department of Parks and Recreation hosted the blessing and opening of the Anne Knudsen Park tennis and pickleball courts.
“Shorts and his own paddle,” said Melanie Okamoto of the Department of Parks and Recreation. “Check out his garb. He’s ready.”
Kawakami lost little time hitting the courts after untying the symbolic lei la‘i (to save the maile in the Koke‘e forests) with retired U.S. Pickleball Association Ambassador John Hodges following the blessing by Cultural Practitioner Sean Chun.
The mayor was greeted by hundreds of people, mostly pickleball enthusiasts from, as Okamoto described, “Princeville to Kekaha,” to the courts that resembled a tournament complete with equipment vendors and food tents instead of a blessing.
The crowd gathered on the renovated basketball courts that sit adjacent to the new courts that feature markings for tennis, but set up for pickleball play on six courts for the blessing and opening.
“This is just the beginning,” said Kaua‘i County Council Member Bernard Carvalho Jr., who was the mayor when Hodges introduced pickleball to the Department of Parks and Recreation and Okamoto back in 2015.
Kylen Dela Cruz, of the Department of Parks and Recreaction, said the original budget for the work in Koloa came in at $639,000 for the six-month project. The project was extended to a year, and the final cost came in a slightly more than $950,000 by general contractor Glover Construction.
Hodges remembered the early days of pickleball.
“Stephanie and I had just gotten here in January 2015,” he said. “By the summer, I put up a U.S. Pickleball Association sign up on the tennis court fence facing Maluhia Road, and I could see all the drivers with their quizzical looks — what is pickleball?”
He said visitors have not realized that this sport is perfect for travelers — you don’t need to deal with golf clubs, and unlike tennis racquets that don’t fit in suitcases, pickleball racquets fit.
The USA Pickleball website says there is a reason so many players get hooked on this sport — it’s easy to start, but hard to stop.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
