As of this semester, NSU students have access to one of the fastest-growing sports in the nation: pickleball. Due to a collaborative effort between NSU Athletics, Office of Facilities Management, and Recreation and Wellness, anyone with a RecPlex membership can use the new pickleball courts on campus.
“One of our core values is student centricity, so as long as we can produce amenities for the students that make the life on campus a little better, they can break away from the academics that they’re having to do,” said Daniel J. Alfonso, executive vice president for Facilities, Public Safety, and Campus Services at Nova Southeastern University.
Recognizing the underutilization of the former tennis courts, facilities management took advantage of the popularity of pickleball to create a new space for students to enjoy.
“This space is for students so we want to make sure that we have things that you guys will actually use and enjoy. If we see something that’s underutilized and we’re able to scrape together some funding to make it into something that you will use more often, then that’s something we’re going to try and do,” Ayanna Stephens, director of Design and Construction, said.
When Alfonso first pitched the idea of pickleball courts to NSU leadership last year, their willingness to fund the project was initially hesitant. The perception of pickleball as primarily an “older people” sport resulted in some pause.
“Some of the folks said, ‘oh no that’s for old people.’ So we waited a few months for when the new fiscal year kicked in, appropriated the amount of funds that we needed to do it, and then Ayanna and her team did the magic,” Alfonso said. team did the magic,” Alfonso said.
That magic involved a collaborative effort led by Stephens, who oversaw the design and construction, and included key partnerships with President Harry K. Moon, the RecPlex, and NSU Athletics. Within NSU Athletics, head men’s basketball coach, Jim Crutchfield, played a particularly influential role in the court’s design.
“Crutchfield loves pickleball and he was very involved in the design of the courts. We had three courts in the initial design until Crutchfield got involved and was able to work with us and the vendor who installed it, so we were able to get six on here,” Stephens said.
Alongside his experience coaching basketball at West Liberty University, he also was a former head tennis coach, where he won 11 league titles. Crutchfield’s interest in racquet sports extended to pickleball, making him a valuable asset to the project.
Robert Baroniel, assistant athletic director of athletic external affairs, explains how Crutchfield would play tennis every day at 10 a.m. for many years until he started playing pickleball.
“We connected him with the facilities team and let him be like a sounding board in the design and the construction of the courts, so he was almost like this unofficial consultant,” Baroniel said.
Aside from coach involvement, student input, facilitated by RecPlex management, also contributed to the project. For the past three years, the RecPlex offered portable pickleball courts, where they would set up the nets on existing badminton lines.
“Each week, a couple days a week, when we would put up the nets, we had a lot of feedback that it was popular, with them saying that we wish we could do this more,” said Tom Vitucci, assistant dean for student services and director of recreation and wellness.
That feedback proved to be a good indicator of student interest, as the permanent pickleball courts have become very popular.
“I go on average to play pickleball two to three times a week. It’s a sport that anyone can play and you can learn it on the spot. It’s such good community building and when I go every Tuesday with a group of people, everyone knows us,” said Catalina Cusano, senior international studies major with a minor in philosophy.
Looking ahead, access to the pickleball courts may soon extend beyond students, as the RecPlex and Facilities Management staff are hopeful to provide all NSU staff with accessibility as well. The courts made an impact on the community with the success of the first NSU pickleball tournament, on Jan. 25. NSU Athletics plans to make the pickleball tournament an annual event held in January.
“We hosted our first pickleball tournament and that event was really neat. We had undergraduate students, graduate students, parents who were in town visiting students, people who are just local pickleball lovers in the community, being 60 to 65 years old to 30 to 40, all playing,” Baroniel said.
The diverse participation in the tournament is precisely what brings joy to Facilities Management, who value seeing the courts actively used.
“The reward is in seeing people using it because it’s sad when you build something or create something and it’s underutilized so to see people out here, to drive by and hear the tapping of the ball on the racket all the time, that’s the reward,” Stephens said.
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