Meet Christy Howden of Wolverine Pickleball

Today we’d like to introduce you to Christy Howden

Hi Christy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Wolverine Pickleball was founded in 2018 by Christy Howden and Leslie White out of a pure desire to play more pickleball. We started by running community education programs to teach more people to play and renting school gyms and tennis courts to run tournaments and build the community.
In October 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, we opened a 4 court pickleball facility that we boot-strapped and DIYed with the help of our community of players. It was very gritty, no frills and it was all word of mouth that filled the faiclity. In April of 2022, we opened up the other side of the warehouse for another 4 courts. All in the background we were pursing building a premier pickleball facility.
In December 2024, we opened our indoor 12 court world class pickleball facility with all the amenities. Locker rooms, event and lounge spaces, self serve tap wall with beer, wine and cocktails. Outdoor bocce, cornhole, foodtrucks, sand courts for beach tennis and beach volleyball.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Always hiccups along the way from practically no one knowing what pickleball was in 2018 and educating them about it and getting them into the sport. To opening during a pandemic and it wasn’t cool to say we were getting together, though we always kept it safe in a drafty warehouse and never had a covid outbreak. To being turned down by multiple banks for financing our project because no one else had ever built a custom pickleball facility before.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Wolverine Pickleball?
Wolverine Pickleball is not just pickleball. We are a community hub for pickleball and are busy everyday- all day. We have never had a day without pickleball since we opened our first courts Oct 19, 2020, even on Christmas day we have people playing pickleball. We offer all sorts of unique pickleball events for our community ranging from pickleball pros coming in for clinics and even playing in our pickleball party mixers, tournaments, themed nights and different session games. We also have an extensive pro-shop of pickleball gear. Our lounge area always has players lingering and mingling over a drink from our tap wall and playing games. Our outdoor space is another community hangout with firepits, food trucks, bocce lanes, sand courts for beach tennis and beach volleyball.
We are especially proud of the strong community we have built, we often hear testimonials how our community has changed their lives. Members have never had so many friends of different ages and different walk of life, improved physical and mental health to name a few.

Pricing:

• pickleball court time $25-40 per hour
• pickleball session play $13-20 per person
• Learn to Play Pickleball $30 per person

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wolverinepickleball.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wolverinepickleball/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WolverinePickleball/