The Cochrane Pickleball Club Championship is currently underway and reflects just how the popularity of the sport continues to grow. 

Organizer Greg Young says they have about 80 of their almost 300 members participating in the two-day event. Men's and women's events are being held today, divided into three calibres (2.0, 3.0, and 4.0) and the mixed doubles take place on Saturday.

Young says they had a much smaller one last year and this one is a good warm-up to hosting a major tournament in the future. It's also a chance to raise a few bucks toward adding more pickleball courts to the community.

There are four official pickleball courts next to the Frank Wills Memorial Hall on 1st St. E., and the adjacent tennis ball courts have been modified to add four more for the tournament.

Young says there has been a void in tournaments this season due to continued concern over COVID. The only major one was the provincials, hosted by Medicine Hat earlier this summer.

This season, the club's membership grew to 300 from 180. Young believes it's because pickleball is quite sociable.

"It's just a really fun game," says Young. "It's almost like an addiction and we play almost every day. My body's screaming for rest all the time."

"It's such a social game. I'm a snowbird, too, and I go down to Phoenix in the winter and I have met so many people through pickleball. They're good fun people to be around."

A third indoor pickleball is also in the works. So far, enthusiast Bill Cooper has organized two successful ones at the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre this summer.