JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States, and its popularity is evident in the Tri-Cities region.

Pickleball courts continue to pop up across the Tri-Cities. At the Memorial Park Community Center in Johnson City, there is rarely an empty court.

“They are completely filled,” William Hetrick, an East Tennessee State University (ETSU) freshman, said. “And we have something called a paddle system. So people who are sitting they can just rotate after each game is done. So normally they’re just all filled.”

Those who fill the courts are not just from Johnson City. Kaylie Henderson, an ETSU Freshman, said she travels to other courts to play.

“We all go all around the Tri-Cities,” she said. “I’m originally from Bristol, I’ll come and play in Johnson City with my family. And then I’ll go back to Bristol, and I play in Elizabethton.

Henderson is part of a pickleball club at ETSU, where she plays alongside her friends. She said the sport isn’t limited to a specific age range.

“We come out here and play almost every day,” Henderson said. “And it’s a multi-generational sport. We play with all kinds of different ages, all kinds of different people from all around.”

Both Hetrick and Henderson said the pickleball community is built on the courts.

“We could not know like half the people here,” Hetrick said. “But we would get to know them and start playing with them and just have lots of fun.”

“I think you meet so many different people and so many different personalities,” Henderson said. “So you just form that community with them, and you form so many different connections.”

Hetrick said the community is why the sport continues to grow.

“I think it’s just like how the community is and just how welcoming and accepting the community is,” Hetrick said. “You could just literally just walk outside like two minutes down the road and there just is a pickleball court where people all over come and play and you have lots of fun.”