By: Connie Cao

Pickleball is a sport played nationally, and it’s a fast-growing sport. It is played in several neighborhoods but is very dislikeable. Now it’s the year’s news: non-stop complaints, sleepless nights, and annoyance.

The neighborhood people described the noise as the sound of popcorn popping. Some Mantonik’s Residents complained about the sound of the paddles and the hard plastic balls. As a result, Ottawa told the local club to move the outdoor pickleball games to Centennial Park.

The sound has caused the nation to go into a fury of rage. Pickleball players and neighbors fought angrily as a result of the loudness. These clashes led to several calls to the police and last-ditch lawsuits. Still, solutions need to be put in sight.

“Living here is hell,” said Debbie Nagle, 67, whose gated community in Scottsdale, Ariz., installed courts a few years ago.

For solutions, many have turned to Bob Unitech, a retired engineer and pickleball player who became one of the sound mufflers. He started a company called Pickleball Sound Mitigation. One way that this company is helping is by creating a sound barrier made with fiberglass.

Uneitch said that the sound of the balls could reach up to 100 feet, similar to some vacuum cleaners. Uneitch described two factors that cause neighbors to go crazy: the high pitch of a stiff paddle slamming a plastic ball and the erratic, often frantic rhythm of the smacks

“It creates vibrations in a range that can be extremely annoying to humans,” Unetich said.

Welfonder also adds his opinion why the noise may cause irritable people.

“Pickleball has replaced leaf blowers as my No. 1 noise nuisance,” said Welfonder, who has been sketching the outlines of a new novel set in the present day with a couple of pickleball-loving characters: “I’m making them nasty people.”