Families add fun and fitness with backyard sports courts
Nothing quite evokes childhood nostalgia like a lone basketball hoop at the end of the cul-de-sac. How many of us sweated a sunny afternoon away trying to best the rest of the neighborhood kids in a game of Horse?
Pickup sports are still popular, especially the post-COVID pickleball craze—just try landing a turn at a public court on a Saturday morning and you’ll see why. But the simple neighborhood basketball goal, for better or worse, is quickly becoming a bygone.
“Just the basketball goal on the driveway is not enough anymore,” says Tristan Whitted of Niche Outdoor Construction, a landscape design company based in Greer. Whitted is referring to home courts, which a rising number of homeowners are having installed in their outdoor areas. Whether basketball, pickleball, volleyball, or multisport options, it seems private is the way to go. “It’s definitely a popular demand now,” he adds.
In the past year, Whitted and the team at Niche Outdoor Construction have installed multiple courts, in addition to other landscape amenities like pools and patios. But Whitted is confident the demand for home courts in the Upstate is growing, especially when it comes to pickleball.
“In Greenville, we have so many public courts, but in the public realm you do have to share,” he says. “And most people don’t like sharing. [The courts] get packed. People take it seriously. They play seriously and their friends do, too.”
Installing backyard sports courts
Installing a home pickleball court is less complicated than it seems. The best courts are concrete, Whitted explains, overlaid with a special sealant. The surface is still hard, but less crumbly than asphalt and better on joints and hips. Conveniently, the official sealant recommended by USA Pickleball, SportMaster, has a base in Greenville and is the only sealant Niche uses for its courts.
But it’s not just pickleball. Jill Lamm, who works for Carolina Sport Court based in Raleigh, says multisport courts are their number one product. The court installation company, which designs and installs turnkey surfaces in North and South Carolina, specializes in customization.
“There’s no set size, there’s no set color,” Lamm says. “We basically work with the homeowner to design exactly what they’re looking for.”
For multisport options, nets are placed in the middle of the court and attached to a basketball pole and a light pole on either side. The net can be raised and lowered (for volleyball, pickleball, and tennis heights) and stripes are painted on the court according to each sport. Lamm says they’ve even done lines for foursquare, cornhole, and soccer.
While she credits pickleball for the rise in home court popularity, Lamm also sees it as an option parents are using to encourage their kids to get outside and off their phones. And with little to no maintenance, it seems the home court is a win-win for all.
