New Ulm Public Schools have come to the community’s rescue, allowing pickleball play on their tennis courts until the work on Lincoln Park is finished.

Superintendent Sean Koster said school staff members who play pickleball brought the idea to him. He said he wanted to consider all of the variables before agreeing.

“Our community is allowed to play tennis there at any time,” Koster said. “Putting extra tape down [for pickleball], how intrusive would that be to tennis? How much traffic are we talking? I talked with Pat Lang, our facilities director. I talked with Michelle Miller, the middle school principal who governs the grounds and everything to make sure everything was kosher there.”

Koster said he believes the school district should be the hub of the community, and he is happy to give this to them.

Four of the six courts at New Ulm middle school were filled with pickleballers Tuesday morning. The middle school courts, which are usually used for tennis, have given pickleballers an outdoor option with Lincoln Park’s court under construction.

“Everybody gives in to the school district, we need to be able to give back to the public,” he said. “Sometimes that’s in facility spaces, and sometimes that’s in courts like this being available when other community resources are unavailable.”

Laura Schotzko said she has 70 pickleball players on her group’s mailing list. She said she wanted to make sure there was a place where several courts could be used at once.

“It’s easy to set up two courts anywhere with portable nets,” Schotzko said. “I started thinking ‘Where could we play where there’s at least three or four courts?’ This is the best place I could think of. We’ve been putting tape on since right after Memorial Day.”

The mornings are the most common times for the players in Schotzko’s group. Tuesday morning four of the six courts were filled with players. She said there are players in the afternoons as well, and there are other groups in New Ulm besides hers who play.

Schotzko said she has been playing pickleball for five and a half years. In that time, she said the sport has grown a ton in New Ulm.

“When I started it was this group,” Schotzko said. “Now there’s so many more and families show up. A retired couple brought their grandson to Lincoln before it was closed down in the spring to introduce them to it. I heard them say, ‘You can do this in retirement.’ The kid was like ‘I love pickleball.'”

In the future, Schotzko said she would like to see a second outdoor pickleball court built in New Ulm due to its rising popularity. She said there is a dedicated fund for pickleball people can donate to in the Park and Rec department for improvement and expansion of facilities.