GREEN COVE SPRINGS - The City Council and the Board of County Commissioners hosted the ribbon-cutting ceremony to welcome Clay County's newest pickleball courts. 

With the snip of the iconic oversized scissors, pickleball players formed a line to play on the six new courts, which are located at the Augusta Savage Arts and Community Center at 1107 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The courts are open every day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was a celebration for pickleball players everywhere, but none more so than Glee Glisson, Director of Clay County Pickleball. She was the passionate pickleball player who helped stir interest in the recreational project three years ago. 

As a resident of Green Cove Springs, Glisson made multiple pitches – or "serves" – to her local representatives, including Commissioner Kristen Burke. 

"I drove Kristen Burke nuts," Glisson said. 

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the nation, and Clay County has fallen in love with this new sporting trend.  

Dozens of members from Clay County Pickleball convened at a BCC meeting last December.  One by one, with fervor, they urged the BCC to consider funding the recreational project. With the "ball in their court," the BCC delivered by successfully forming an interlocal agreement with Green Cove Springs City Council, which funded and planned the court's construction. 

Glisson expressed gratitude during the ceremony. 

"It has been a pleasure. It has been a chore. Thank you, everyone in the county and the city, for the hard work you do," she said. 

There are now 26 pickleball courts in the county.