Pickleball Pioneers: A Smash Hit in Wake

What's Up, Wake: The Success Story of Home Court Pickleball

In this episode of 'What's Up, Wake,' we dive into the booming world of pickleball, the fastest-growing sport in the United States. Meet Kat and Joe Entwistle, the dynamic duo behind Home Court Pickleball in downtown Fuquay-Varina, NC. Just nine months after opening, their indoor pickleball court has already won prestigious Maggy Awards for being the best place for family fun and best new business, with an honorable mention for the best place for a fun night out. Hear their journey from novices to business owners, learn about their unique business model, and discover the challenges and joys of launching and growing their community-focused enterprise. Plus, get insights into the evolving business landscape of Fuquay-Varina and its hopes for the future. Whether you're a pickleball enthusiast or curious about entrepreneurship, this episode offers a rich and engaging look into how passion and community can drive success.

00:00 Introduction to Pickleball Craze
01:10 Meet the Owners: Kat and Joe Entwistle
01:13 The Pickleball Experience
02:08 Starting a Business Together
03:21 Life in Fuquay and Business Ventures
04:45 The OSI Connection
06:44 Creating Home Court Pickleball
15:50 Challenges of Building a Business
19:25 Parenting and Business Parallels
20:57 The Mural: Bringing the Court to Life
24:05 Future Expansion Plans
25:42 Fuquay-Varina Favorites
29:30 Community Business Wish List
31:27 Conclusion and Contact Information

Creators and Guests

Host

Melissa

Host of What's Up, Wake + social media manager + writer + travel editor

Producer

Joe "Buttons" Woolworth

Owner of Podcast Cary and pusher of buttons.

Guest

Joe Entwistle

Kat and Joey moved to Fuquay-Varina in 2015 to raise their family and immediately fell in love with the heart and soul of this town. Their love for this town pushed them to open Home Court Pickleball as an opportunity to offer a fun and unique physical activity combining both sport and fitness for everyone to enjoy.

Guest

Kat Entwistle

15+ Years in Healthcare | Now Transforming Lives as a Nutrition Coach & GM at Original Strength Institute | Owner of Home Court Pickleball in downtown Fuquay Varina | Dedicated to Sustainable Health Solutions

What is What’s Up, Wake?

What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.

14 What's up Wake
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Melissa: [00:00:00] We're causing quite a racket today on What's up Wake, we're talking about the fastest growing sport in the United States. Pickleball with the main and broad Maggie Award winners for best place for family, fun and best new business, as well as honorable mention for best place for a fun night out all after only being open for about nine months.

Sounds like their idea to [00:01:00] open an indoor pickleball court was ACEs. It's time to serve up some fun with the owners of Home Court Pickleball Kat and Joe Entwistle. Thank you both for being here. Thanks for having us.

Joe Entwistle: Hey, thank you.

Melissa: So I'll, I'm gonna start out by saying I am a, I'm gonna even call it a pre novice of pickleball player, but I, I've taken some lessons and I can see why people are not just in love with it, but obsessed with pickleball.

Yeah, because it. It's being active, but not in like a, you know, if you're out of shape, you can still do it. If you're super in shape, you can do it. It's really something for everybody. Yeah. Is what I've found.

Kat Entwistle: That's absolutely the case for sure. Anyone can play.

Melissa: And you guys are also novices, or do you

Kat Entwistle: play a lot?

Oh, this is fun. I like to say that I am more of the novice. Okay. I'm more of the one that creates the space and [00:02:00] facilitates the people coming into play. Mm-hmm. As opposed to the player.

Joe Entwistle: She, she makes those that are uncomfortable with playing comfortable.

Melissa: Okay. Oh, and let me tell our listeners, you guys are a married couple.

Yes. Who have entered into business together. I'm sorry. Yeah, let's confirm.

Joe Entwistle: You made me, you actually made me take a steps.

Melissa: You did. There was a blank look in his eyes was like, what, what we are? Yes. Yes, we are married. Okay. So, Joe, do you play often?

Joe Entwistle: Yeah. I, I, I, this is so funny. I, anybody that comes like, oh, you're, you know, one of the owners, you must play a lot.

Frankly, half the reason why we wanted to open it was because I wanted a place where. We had more time to play the sport, so I was playing casually maybe even playing for a year. So it's I'm definitely in the novice range. I'm, I'm also one of those people that makes the, those nubs comfortable with playing.

Melissa: Yeah. Well, and I would think too, that your plan might have thwarted by the fact that you think you own the place you get to [00:03:00] play, but you want it booked out for everybody else so much that you don't get to play on your

Joe Entwistle: own court. It's really, it's. It's kind of comical 'cause people come, oh, you must be playing all the time.

I'm like, I maybe getting out there once a week if I, if I'm lucky. And you know what? That's purposeful. I want people playing. I like people seeing, having fun. I. Half the fun for me is just, is just watching it.

Melissa: Yeah. And you guys are not from Fuqua. I will. Let me also go back and say home court. Pickleball is in downtown Fuqua.

Purina, yes. Which is a massively booming area now. Is so neat to see as a native Raleigh native triangle native. How much Fuquay has grown in the last few years? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of crazy.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. I mean, we've been here for 10 years. 2015 is when we moved down.

Melissa: Mm-hmm.

Kat Entwistle: We went to a wedding in Chapel Hill the previous year and we were like, you know what, let's do it.

So we moved from DC and. Even in the short time that we've been here, 'cause 10 years is sort of a blip in the whole scheme of life. There's been a, [00:04:00] a lot of change. Mm-hmm. And it's been really cool to see it and then now being a part of it as a, a downtown business owner.

Joe Entwistle: Well, especially moving to somewhere of a, of a town name I couldn't pronounce.

Oh, yeah.

Kat Entwistle: You know,

Joe Entwistle: and we looked and we would looked everywhere and, and our realtor said, oh this, this place called Fuqua. I said, I, I can't live there. I can't pronounce

Melissa: it.

Joe Entwistle: That is one

Melissa: thing I just read this morning that it, it was a. A questionnaire that said what what is a, is a, a noticeable trait that you can tell immediately that somebody is not from here.

And one person said they can't pronounce Fuqua. Yeah, so true. So you guys settled in downtown Fuqua? But you work in the building that you share the pickleball court with, is that right Kat?

Kat Entwistle: Yeah, so I am the general manager and nutrition coach at Original Strength Institute. I actually started there as a member in 2019, and then slowly sort of infiltrated my way into.[00:05:00]

A lot of the aspects of the business. So I work very closely with Danielle Meda and Tim Anderson, the owners of OSI and

Melissa: they let me and just. Say real quick. They also won a Maggie Award they did for Best Fitness program.

Kat Entwistle: Yes, they did. So you're

Melissa: just surrounded by winners?

Kat Entwistle: Yep. We're, we're just trying, trying to bring, you're taking over all of Maine and Broad, in other words, honestly, every

Joe Entwistle: time you mention that we've met, won something, I've got Oh, yeah,

Kat Entwistle: yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's, it's really cool to be a part of their community. In, in 2000, end of 2000. 23, I left my corporate job to go full-time at OSI. I had been working behind the scenes, coaching behind the scenes and really just said, Hey, it's time to take the leap. And so left healthcare, left Project management, I.

Still doing elements of that in the role that I'm in now, but it's, it's been a fun experience.

Melissa: Yeah. I would think all of those roles would certainly behoove you in, in, in the aspect of owning your own [00:06:00] business Yeah. And starting something from scratch too.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's been a really. Fun and interesting, challenging but exciting ride for sure.

Joe Entwistle: She, she says it really nicely. We, we had no idea what we were doing.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah.

Melissa: Do we, I would think most people don't when they're starting a business, you know, and that's probably more, people would not start a business if you knew what you were doing and what you were getting into, because it's a lot of work.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah, it is. I mean, honestly, the only, we aren't taught anything. We're all just sort of making it up as we go along. Right. So. Do the best that we can and step back and go, Hmm, how can I do that a little bit better? Or how can I do that a little bit differently?

Joe Entwistle: We just do ours with a really nervous smile.

Kat Entwistle: Maybe him,

Melissa: not me. I'm like, let's just do it. Let's all, yeah, go for it. Yeah. Yeah. So you're connected with OSI you. You share space. Yes. Your roommates essentially. So how did you originally envision. Hey, that space looks like it could be a pickleball court. Was it the right length?

Joe Entwistle: Listen, [00:07:00] you might, you might wanna tell the quick version of, of even how we ended up in that space.

Melissa: Please do. Yeah.

Kat Entwistle: What is that quick story? Well, I mean,

Joe Entwistle: we were in a 3,500 square foot spot when it was OSI.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. So, at the end of 2023, so when I was. Transitioning out of my full-time corporate role. We were at OSI working on figuring out where our next home was going to be. We had been outgrowing the space that we were in for a period of time, and there were a few circumstances that sort of took place that were, required us to sort of make the, make the leap.

So Danny and Tim did a lot of research and ended up getting connected with the tart family. So Scott and Christie Tart. Found shops on Maine. The old location there, it's about 15,000 square feet. And so we got in there and we were like, man, there's a lot of space here. And Danny and Tim had wanted to find other health and wellness people or like-minded folks to come in and share space.

To kind of fill up some of the space. We weren't thinking [00:08:00] that we would need all of that. So that's how home court sort of came to be. We'd always talked about wanting to do something and we said, heck, why not? Let's go for it. So that's how Home Court came to be. To answer your question, yes, it is pretty much the exact right size for a pickleball court with enough space for a little bit of walkway on the sides, as well as some, some space on the end.

And in addition to home court pickleball, we've got Southern Wake wrestling also inside OSI as well, so,

Melissa: oh, I didn't realize that. Yeah. Yeah. So

Kat Entwistle: we've got Southern Wake wrestling, and so that's elementary, middle, and high school wrestling programming co-ed, so male and female.

Melissa: So wrestling is another sport that, at least within North Carolina, maybe it's always been popular everywhere, but I've been seeing more and more.

Wrestling stories out there, so that must be booming as well.

Joe Entwistle: Yeah, yeah. We've got a lot of roommates.

Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like it. Yeah, it's good. I hope you all get along.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah, yeah, we do. We do. It it. But it's been really cool to partner with Danny and Tim and they had a really great vision of creating this, [00:09:00] this wellness community.

So even inside of OSI, we have the nutrition coaching, but we also have a physical therapist as well. So you sort of come in and it's a, a one stop shop from training to nutrition to, improving mobility addressing injury. And then you also have the, the wrestling and then the pickleball as well.

Melissa: All the fun stuff.

Yeah,

Joe Entwistle: and, and I mean, original strength is also, it's, it's one of, its backbones is, is movement. And so pickleball is just easy, right? That's something that anybody can do. It doesn't matter. Age, skill level. Anybody can pick up a racket and, and come on in there. I should say Pat, I call it a racket. Oh my gosh, it's a paddle.

She,

Melissa: she said racket beginning. I said racket, and so I, I was catching myself when I, I said racket in the beginning. It is a paddle because pickleball, for people that don't know, it's kind of a blend between. Tennis, ping pong badminton, ping pong. Yeah. It it, and it, it, and it, the ball itself looks like a wiffle ball.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's really a blend of all of these things.

Joe Entwistle: I tend to tell people, fun's, [00:10:00] it's, it's giant. It's giant ping pong, you knows. Essentially it's,

Melissa: yeah. Sorry for all the pickle ballers. We just

Joe Entwistle: offended. Yeah. They're, oh, they're probably sitting here going, he said racket. Oh my god.

Melissa: I know, I know.

Joe Entwistle: I saw the

Melissa: look you guys pass between you.

It like, oh, this idiot is talking about racket. Not at, not at all. I, I did used to play tennis and I was, I played for years and I was still a novice at tennis. But I do feel like there are a lot of similarities between tennis and pickleball. One thing I will say that is, is, is similar is the old, the older generation I would play with against, with tennis.

They're very serious about their tennis playing. Yes. And I've noticed the same to be true with pickleball. It is

Joe Entwistle: true,

Melissa: yes. I mean, they're hardcore.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. In the off season. So we have a really fabulous community center group and some of the. Over 55 community groups. So when it's too cold or the community center is closed they come over and [00:11:00] play and they are some of our more serious players.

It's,

Joe Entwistle: and really good.

Kat Entwistle: It's really intense. Oh yeah.

Melissa: Oh yeah. They would, they would whoop whoop up on me on the tennis court. Yeah. And the pickleball court. Yeah, for sure. They're

Kat Entwistle: serious, but they're, they're some of our more fun players to have on the court. They also are hooting and hollering and having, having a great time, so, yeah.

Melissa: Yeah. Well, so you touched on one thing, the fact that you guys are an indoor facility and there's not a lot of those around.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. So our model's a little bit different. So we are the only indoor facility downtown. We are inclusive to all ages, all skill sets. And our model is not open play, meaning you just come in at a particular time and you play with who you ever, you play with.

We do rentals by the hour or two hours, and so you really get to curate your private pickleball experience when you're on the court. It's who you bring to the table or to the court with you rather. And so. We've created this really like private welcoming, [00:12:00] inclusive experience for, again, for any, anyone to come and play.

You don't have to stand in line, you don't have to put your paddle into a queue when you're on the court. It's, it's your time. And the really cool thing is that I. We don't have like a formal check-in process. And people have been really respectful and really cool about when it's their time to get off the court, they get off the court and when it's their time to go on the court.

And it's been, that's sort of, I think the social experiment of all of this. It's like, can people get on and off the court without, making it weird.

Melissa: Yeah. And I, I think that for me, I really like that model because it's intimidating to go to a court and you, you know, hang up your paddle or whatever you do on, you know, the, I don't even know how to do it.

Yeah. The people that go and you kind of wait your turn and you're supposed to hang your paddle on, on the, on the fence and, and, and, and just. Hope that people are honest about that is so nerve wracking to me that I would much rather have a set time that I know I'm, [00:13:00] I've got this, this time that I can play.

Yeah. And then I leave.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. And it's guaranteed play time too. Right. So in that, in that queing scenario, you could be standing out there for a period of time and only get a couple of games in Right. For an hour. I'm pretty sure you can get three solid games in, in an hour. Mm-hmm. And that's playing two 11, that's not playing to seven.

So like three games, guaranteed that's pretty spot on in two hours. Like you can bring more folks and maybe you still only get three games in, but you've got a, a larger community vibe happening on the court. Yeah. And again, it's people that you, you chose to come with.

Joe Entwistle: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And those folks that you know, are uncomfortable with playing or, hey, we don't even know where to begin.

We have lessons. So that's always fun to watch. So we get a lot of people that come in, they know they can be in a private spot, have their instructions and, you know, decide if they want to keep playing. Come back to us every now and then, and it's just, it's just nice to see that evolution. The other piece I just wanna add on is the community page.

So, you know, obviously as a business, you, you know, when you're getting up, you know, started, you, you build the website, you've [00:14:00] got the, you know, Facebook community or Facebook page, and I. You're hoping people are following your business, but one of the smarter things, this is something you came up with Kat, was we push people to join our Facebook community page, not so much the business page, because it's a spot where people can talk freely and, and look for, you know, game mates you know, find other friends and people like kind interests to come out there and play the sport.

And I, you know, I find that to be another fun opportunity to kind of build that community.

Kat Entwistle: It's weird when you call me Kat.

Joe Entwistle: It sounds weird when I call her cat, he's a cat. Am

Kat Entwistle: I in trouble? Usually, it's also outside of the gym world. I go by Kathleen. And so, so it's also just weird. Can

Joe Entwistle: I just, I like, lemme say this, if I ever called her cat when we were first knowing each other, I, I don't think it would've went well.

Melissa: Yeah, I mean, I, I've been married for almost 25 years and if my husband says Melissa, I look at him and say. What'd you say? Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like calling me a bad word. Yeah. Don't, don't say my name. Yeah. I was like, am I in trouble? What did I do? If I

Joe Entwistle: call her Kathleen, the full name, then it's, [00:15:00] why are you calling me by my, by my full name?

I don't know what to call you. Yeah, yeah.

Melissa: Just, just honey. Yep. Be safe and just, just nod in her

Kat Entwistle: direction. Yep. I get distracted by that whole comment 'cause you just called me Cat and I was like, what

Joe Entwistle: it, it felt weird saying it, so that's, yeah.

Melissa: I would like to just focus on the fact that you're business owners.

Can you, even outside of pickleball, just the fact of owning and starting a business from the ground up, what would you say have been your [00:16:00] biggest challenges? .

Joe Entwistle: When we were, when we were building the space you know, finding a vendor or someone that could manufacture something that would be identical to the feel on the outside was important to me. Like I was like, there is no deal breaking here. We've got to make sure that people that are outside, when they come inside are having the same feel.

I. And so we found it. But the process of getting that down, I'll let you jump in, was Yeah, we cried a lot. Real tears? Mm-hmm.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. It's okay. It's, sorry. Crying's good for you. I highly recommend. I'm like looking. If you need to cry, go for it. The floor was just as a project manager. It was a very frustrating experience.

We had different textures. There was carpet. There was enough glue to like glue the entire globe. I don't know how all of that glue came to be in existence, but I. We found a lovely person to help us get up the glue 'cause there was not enough time in the world. Sounds like you

Melissa: have some glue. PTSD. Yeah.

You see a glue stick, you cringe.

Joe Entwistle: Oh, [00:17:00] the glue is pulling up Old carpet that wasn't meant to ever be pulled up. Yeah.

Kat Entwistle: So, so, and then the, the timelines are just so the floor and which you kind of need to have a really solid floor for the pickleball court. But I would think the floor in challenges in general, I think it's opening a business is.

This like black hole, right? You put together the business plan, you do the projections, you're like, this is how it's going to go. These are the people we're gonna see coming in and like maybe we got it 25%, right? I don't know. Oh, that's f pretty, I think we did pretty good from a budget perspective. We did pretty good from a timeline perspective.

But we've. So I'm a scientist by education, and so I'm very analytical. So like marketing the creative aspect of things is just not. It doesn't come firsthand to me. Mm-hmm. So when I'm thinking about who are we marketing to, I very much need to experience and experiment collect data. And so, and maybe that's an element of marketing that I'm just not familiar with, but it, that the marketing element has been [00:18:00] kind of challenging since we've, and who our audience is and who we want to have come into the building has, has sort of evolved since we we opened as well.

Joe Entwistle: Yeah. I mean, a small business or any business building, anything in general is just. Hard. I thought it would be easy. I don't know why. Fi I'm a finance guy by trade, so I was like, oh, we've got this, we've got all mindsets. And, and you see these different variables that you don't think about that comes up and it makes it exciting.

It makes it, there are days where you're scratching your head saying, why do we do this? But you know, I think I always end to take a step back and go, but look at what we did. Yeah. You know, look at the people that are coming in there. This isn't, this isn't a business that we built to say, this is where we're gonna quit our jobs and, you know, become bajillionaire.

That's not it. We wanted something that was, you know, local and accessible to downtown. Which you said earlier is just, is growing. So seeing the, the foot traffic and it's, it does take a step back and you kinda smile and go, huh? It's pretty cool.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. I think one cool thing is that [00:19:00] our kids, we have a nine and an 11-year-old.

They're turning 10 and 12 this year. And they were really involved in, in the project with us, and I think that's something that we. I guess didn't really think about them seeing the hard work, them, them getting to be a part of it, them chattering, oh, we can't wait to work the desk at the court. There is no desk at the court.

But we can't wait for that to help people get checked in. Yeah. And give them stuff. And so it's been cool to have them along for the ride as well. And for

Melissa: them to see that you, you dream something up and you have followed it to fruition is, yeah. Quite remarkable as parents, I would think. Yeah.

Kat Entwistle: So it's been,

Melissa: it's been cool

Joe Entwistle: actually, this, this, this court is almost like having children.

There's no instruction manual. Yeah.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah.

Joe Entwistle: You know, they, they just, they, you, you start something and you have it, and then you go, well, now what do we do? Yeah. And that's kind of where. That's kinda what we're doing.

Kat Entwistle: I like to joke when we became parents, right? The only thing they taught you not to do was shake the baby, right?

They're like, here's this class. You must go to it. It's super important. And then they're like, everything else, you're gonna crush it. You [00:20:00] got it. And we're like, what? What? You're handing me this human being? Yeah. So the business plan is kind of like that course, right? They're like, here's, here's your business plan.

It's gonna go just like that.

Melissa: No. No, it's not.

Kat Entwistle: It's not. But that's okay. That's part of the joy and excite excitement of doing it.

Joe Entwistle: And I'm gonna say your name, a cat over here.

Kat Entwistle: Oh. Them fighting word. It's okay.

Joe Entwistle: Sometimes, sometimes it makes me kind of like do one of these, but she uses the term, I sort of sweat a little bit.

She goes, oh, you know what I'm just collecting data, right. Scientists, she's like, I, I, sometimes I'm like but it's true. I mean, everything is, is a learning experience, right? So. That's a, it's a, it's a term. She's always kind of thrown around and, you know, okay, what did we learn this week? Or what are the groups of people that we're, you know, focused on?

Or, you know, how can we get people out here making sure they're having fun? What type of feedback are we looking for? You know, how do we do customer service? Oh my God, I can rattle off thousands of things. And you just sit there and you're like, I

Melissa: talk a lot, don't

Joe Entwistle: I? Huh.

Melissa: Don't answer that. Do not answer that.

Joe, you talk

Joe Entwistle: the right amount.

Melissa: Oh, perfect. Okay. Good answer. You guys mentioned the floor, but I want to talk about [00:21:00] the full court sized bright, beautiful mural. Oh, that's alongside the court, which happens to be featured on the cover of the march April issue of Maine and Broad. Who did the mural and how did that come to be?

Oh,

Joe Entwistle: first, shame on you for not mentioning this already, because she beat you

Melissa: to it. We all apologize for she was

Kat Entwistle: going to mention it. Gosh, we we're sorry in advance for not that person, Rachel, I'm sorry. So Rachel Cornett she is a local realtor and artist in Fuqua. Find turn, flip flops is her Instagram handle and she works with Anna Powell Real Estate.

She and her murals are throughout, you know Yeah. They're downtown. Different areas in downtown. Yeah. So we were like, we need to have a mural. And I kid you not, we were like, just something little. Right. And then Rachel, oh yeah, that's right.

Joe Entwistle: We sketched out this like ti like one wall small sized mural.

I actually, I was like, I really like this. Can you paint that?

Kat Entwistle: And Rachel turned it into this like, [00:22:00] wildly beautiful and amazing wall that. Is, I think, kind of brings the whole experience together.

Joe Entwistle: I I have to stop. It's so true though. 'cause when it was just a gray wall and something was missing. Yeah.

Right. Everything's down the floor's, down the net is up. We've got, you know, the paddles are set up. We've got everything ready to go. And I think you and I kind of stood there and we're like, ah, it's missing vibe, right? Mm-hmm. It's missing that, you know, why come here, why play here? Versus an outdoor core.

It's the wall completely. I, it is the wall. The wall. The wall is great. You laughed. I mean, the

Melissa: wall is perfect for, for selfies and, and it's beautiful and things after you play the game because you, it sounds like you had all the necessities and you were missing the. The oomph. Yeah. Yeah. The vibe. I, I'd love for our listeners to go to your Instagram page or, or Facebook page and, and look or go in person.

Yeah. Book a court. Yeah. Go in person. And see what we're talking about because it really is a spectacular looking space. Yeah.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. She did a beautiful job [00:23:00] and you know, she, full-time job, she was also in the middle of moving her daughter. In the process of getting married at school, in college or graduating college.

And she would come at night and yeah. And paint,

Joe Entwistle: I think midnight, one o'clock. Yeah. You know, we're, we're, we're we're knocking walls down, we're, you know, painting and she's in there drafting the mural and

Kat Entwistle: yeah.

Joe Entwistle: That was not something that was, that was, you know, Hey.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. And she kicked it old school with a projector.

Yeah. Right.

Joe Entwistle: Ah, yeah, the old, the, ah, what do you call this for young listeners?

Kat Entwistle: Check out the internet. That

Joe Entwistle: will blow their mind what a projector is. And we're not talking like a movie projector or something.

Melissa: No. I had to show my kids a, a picture of. I don't, I'm older than you guys, I'm sure, but back in the 19 hundreds Yes.

When our teachers would have to roll in a tv, a real heavy box TV on a cart into the classroom so that we could watch Oh, it had to strap

Joe Entwistle: on the, on the cart. Yes. So that fall it wouldn't fall

Melissa: off. Yes, yes. So you, you, you children out [00:24:00] there, Google projector and you'll, you'll see what we were talking about.

Yeah. I would like to know, do you guys have any plans to expand home court pickleball, are you going to,

Joe Entwistle: oh, I can't wait to hear how she responds to this because we didn't, we, we didn't think about that as a potential question.

Melissa: Well, and I know you really, I mean, you, you don't even have one year under your belt.

Yeah. But I, I would imagine that every town needs 10 indoor pickleball courts at least.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. I would say anything is possible. Mm-hmm.

Joe Entwistle: We definitely have thought about it. We've kicked the idea around. And mainly because, you know, our patrons are constantly asking. I said, oh, what's, what's next steps for you guys?

And we sit down, we're like, well, we don't.

Melissa: Yeah, we know yet. Yeah. Well, and now you know how to do the floor. You might as well.

Joe Entwistle: Yeah. Yeah. I, I think the, the only thing is. First, we want to get through a whole year just to kind of see how all the seasons work and you know, kind of make sure that we're feeling successful with this, which I think we are.

But, you [00:25:00] know, going bigger is also a touchy subject, right? You know, you start to lose the same type of feel that we've got in our current space. So. I think we'd have, we would want to make sure that, you know, the excitement, the joy, and all of the things that, the boxes that we're checking right now would also be able to be repeated in a bigger space.

Because I know there's some things that get lost. When you go bigger. So, that is something in the back of our minds we're like, well, okay, if we do this, we gotta do it. Right.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. Our mural budget will have to be way bigger. Oh yeah.

Joe Entwistle: Yeah. I think, I think Rachel, Rachel had she'll

Melissa: have to free up a lot of midnight time slots.

Yeah. She would have to

Joe Entwistle: have a few other people

Melissa: Yeah. Help

Kat Entwistle: out for sure. So anything is possible. We'll, we'll leave it that way.

Melissa: Good.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah.

Melissa: Well, I like to end every episode with a what's up roundup, and this time I'd like to do a Fuqua Barina edition. Okay. I'm gonna ask you both this, you do not have to share the answers.

It can be different answers.

Kat Entwistle: Okay.

Melissa: What is your favorite Fuqua [00:26:00] date night spot? Oh, that's a good question. And by the way, you cannot say OSI for any of these answers or home court pickleball.

Kat Entwistle: Okay. Favorite date night. So, Nils Mediterranean over on the Vina side is very delightful ton. And his family are awesome.

Melissa: I haven't been there.

Kat Entwistle: Oh, you should, you should definitely go. I

Melissa: keep adding restaurants and, and breweries and bars to my list of places I need to go, so I'll add that one.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. The library is also pretty great. They took over the old Fuqua Arena Library in downtown on the Fuqua side for drinks.

The mill. We typically, and that's, and they're convenience factor. Yeah. Yeah. Great people. And then ice cream, we've got pints. If you're looking for sort of like a, a boozy fun. Flavor combination. Concoction. Robin, did you say bougie or boozy? Boozy. Oh, so is it,

Melissa: does it ice cream mixed with

Kat Entwistle: boos?

So they can do, you can get it straight up as ice [00:27:00] cream. So friendly to family friendly, all ages. They also have a bar, but then they make some really great like champagne flights they've done. Oh, this

Melissa: is brilliant.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. And so. That's really, really nice. And then fat Cat is another ice cream place that's also in town that doesn't do the specialty.

Boozy drinks, but has a wide variety of ice cream selections, including a number of, what's

Joe Entwistle: the name of that one? Ice cream That I can't seem to remember. Midnight. I don't remember. I think it's called Midnight Chocolate. It might be one of the best.

Kat Entwistle: Ah, that sounds basically, so basically drinks and ice cream.

Yes. . Moonlight Lounge over on the Fuquay side is another, or, yeah, no. Verina side is another great option as well.

Joe Entwistle: She rattled off so many right there.

Kat Entwistle: Did I cover all of yours? I.

Joe Entwistle: It kind of, you kind of saw, I was just gonna har back on Nils.

I that's a really great lunch spot for me. Nine outta 10 times. I'm like, let's go over to Nils Mediterranean. Are gonna get really great, pretty much homemade Mediterranean food.

Melissa: Very good to know. Yeah. Yeah. You're an active couple, to say the least. [00:28:00] What is your favorite activity to do in town?

Can be with your kids, without your kids.

Kat Entwistle: Oh.

Joe Entwistle: Can't say pickleball.

Melissa: Can't

Kat Entwistle: say the gym.

Melissa: Nope.

Kat Entwistle: Honestly, I really enjoy walking around, so popping into the different stores. There's a number of shops up and down on, on both sides of town. And then going into Fuqua Mineral Springs on the Fuqua side.

You guys did, I hate to say this out loud,

Joe Entwistle: is this like a shameful plug for the town of Fuqua? I mean, we, yes. It's, there's no kickbacks for this, but I have to say it downtown Friday. And then Oh, first

Kat Entwistle: Fridays. Yeah. Ah, sorry. First

Joe Entwistle: Fridays, and then there's the, the Thursday one as well. The I'm so bad with these names.

Oh, the,

Kat Entwistle: follow me to Fuqua. Concert series. Nice. But those are really good times to kind of,

Joe Entwistle: to learn the town. So I, I kind of, even though it's on our side of town where the, the court and the gym is you know, they've got Anna's pizzeria there that's open during those times, a really great pizza. But the comic shop I had to shout them out.

Yellowbird Comics, they've only been open for about a half a year. We finally have a local comic book shop, and I [00:29:00] find that to be, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a nerd so I'm just gonna say it. I love comics.

Kat Entwistle: He's got a box where comic gets delivered every month.

Joe Entwistle: Yeah. I have a subscription box and just, you know, it's a, you know, someone local in town that wanted to open up a comic book shop and I just love that.

I love that there's a lot of new local businesses coming out, so that's fun. You can kind of walk around that. So I think, yeah, to that walking, we love just to kind of do downtown stick Boy. Yeah, I'm just now I'm just naming all of our friends. I'm sorry. They're all great. People just rattle off every

Melissa: Fuqua business you can think of.

Joe Entwistle: Yeah, it's all good.

Melissa: So you've mentioned a lot of of Fuqua businesses and you have filled a need in the community with home court pickleball. What is one business you would like to see come to Fuqua Arena? What else is missing?

Kat Entwistle: Oh. Honestly, I think more retail shops would be great.

Melissa: Well now y'all are even getting a target, right?

That's coming soon. Oh, yes.

Kat Entwistle: Not downtown, not, yeah.

Melissa: Yeah.

Kat Entwistle: A little bit out. But I think continuing to have some more retail [00:30:00] shops. You know, we've got Southern Attic, which is what shops on Maine turned into when they moved. There's lollipops, which is over on the other side, and that's more of a children's boutique, but continuing to grow.

The, the, some of the retail clothing gift accessories. We've got curated Craft next door that they sell gifts as well. And there's a few other places that are remembering or forgetting. Sorry guys, but I'm trying to remember all of them.

Melissa: Well, I know one of my daughter's favorite places when they have a dance or something at school is, I think it's in Fuqua Marina.

It's cousin's Couture. Mm-hmm.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. That's inside Southern. They have beautiful southern attic.

Melissa: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They have a side of their store that's, regular gift merchandise and you know, t-shirts and clothing. But the other side is the, I guess the couture side that has all the dance dresses.

Mm-hmm. Prom dresses and stuff.

Kat Entwistle: Yeah. And that's, that's, so Shops on Maine used to be where Cousin Couture was with all of the other, other gifts and and so when we moved, they moved out and we moved [00:31:00] into their location. Oh, I didn't

Melissa: realize that.

Kat Entwistle: Yes. Yeah, so, gotcha. So they moved up over onto Academy and they still have cousin Couture with all of the, the dresses and the pretty clothes.

And then they still have a lot of the gift items as well. Mm-hmm. So really great option. And I think they want a Maggie as well. Oh, did they? I didn't even look at that. I believe they might have. Okay. I'll have to look that up. Yeah. Gives me an excuse to go look at the list again. Yeah. Yeah, I would, I would agree If they won, I would agree with that.

Melissa: Well, thank you both so much for coming today. I really appreciate it. I would love to sign up for a pickleball court rental at some point and just don't watch me because, well, unless you wanna laugh. No, we don't. So we're never laughing at anyone. Oh, there's no possible, yeah. Know that I, I would. Probably change that.

Yeah. Yeah. Where can we find out more about home court pickleball? Yeah, so our website is home court nc.com. And our Instagram is at home court nc, and you just can go either place. We're also on [00:32:00] Facebook Home Court pickleball. And any one of those places will get you to our, our booking site, and you're looking at employee number one and two.

Kat Entwistle: So if there's ever any question.

Melissa: And your kids are the junior employees? Yes.

Kat Entwistle: Yes. Except they're not allowed on social media, so they can't quite help yet. But but if there's ever any questions, any challenges or issues, we're, we're more than happy to help. And for first time players, we do have a code five oh FFF five off for $5 off your first visit, all capital letters.

And if for some reason that's a challenge I. Doesn't work. 'cause sometimes computers do that. Shoot me a note and we, yeah, we will help you out. We also do birthday parties. We do parties. We've had a gender reveal party. We had, we're doing a graduation party in a couple weeks. We have a birthday party tonight.

We got one tonight. Yeah.

Yeah,

Joe Entwistle: so if you're ever wondering where we are on our weekends is that the court sits at the court,

Melissa: well, you pretty much live there because you work at OSI and And you own the court, so, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you just need to. Set up a cot and just stay there.

Joe Entwistle: Yeah, [00:33:00] that's, that's small business life right there.

Yeah,

Melissa: definitely.

Kat Entwistle: So just head to the website, shoot us a note and we're, we're happy to help. So

Melissa: good luck with everything in the future. Thank you. Having, and I hope, having, hope to see you expand one day.

Kat Entwistle: Thank you. Hey, thank you so much for having, I like those positive vibes. Thanks for having us.

Absolutely.