THOMASVILLE — Thomasville’s YMCA hosts a wide variety of sports. This weekend, another, lesser-known one made its way into the docket.

The Butler Mason YMCA hosted a pickleball tournament Friday and Saturday, the first event of its kind in Thomasville, with some top-notch players from Tallahassee, Florida, traveling for the festivities.

The sport is a sort of crossover between table tennis and badminton that features a smaller court and a lower net. The YMCA is currently adjusting some of its facilities for a newfound demand for the sport.

“It’s new to town,” Thomasville YMCA CEO Tom Everett said. “This is the first event that Thomasville has hosted related to pickleball. Out of the Butler Mason YMCA, the city has repurposed a tennis court into three pickleball courts.”

The event had participants of different age groups, but pickleball has a characteristic that makes some people from an older demographic take to it.

“The whole idea is that you don’t have to move that much like you do on a tennis court,” Everett said. “That’s why it appeals to that particular age group, because there’s not that much running back and forth.”

After hosting a tournament for the first time, the YMCA is hoping this little-known sport can gain some traction with the new facilities that it’s opening up.

“I’ve had people in Thomasville ask me for several years, ‘Why don’t we have any pickleball here?’” Everett said. “I did some research on it and sure enough, down in Florida where there are some retirees, it’s a great activity for people who want to stay active. I really see it as a sport that’s going to be growing here.”