Fiend at Court Unplugged
On a few occasions when the umpire I gave birth to was playing junior tennis, we would arrive at her playing site to warm up before an 8am match to find the gate locked. It’s annoying to not have the courts open to prepare for a match. I have witnessed tennis players, parents, and coaches scaling the fences in those scenarios. We never did, but mostly out of absolute conviction that we would injure ourselves if we tried.
At one tournament my daughter played, the tournament desk official and USTA umpire arrived without a key to open padlocked courts. They had been told that the courts would be open. Additionally, no one knew who to call for help. As a result I have personally witnessed a USTA official helping players scale a 5 foot fence so matches could be played. Don’t try that at home, kids.
Another regular reader of this blog relayed a story last weekend of how her son played a junior team match on padlocked courts. The adult captain of the opposing team showed the kids how to wiggle through the gate for access. My friend spent the entire match hoping the police didn’t show up and take them all to jail.
In my own neighborhood, there are two decaying courts at an administration building that was originally constructed as a Class 3A high school many years ago. That site is basically our third “go-to” option for free tennis courts in our area. A few years ago, a padlock appeared on the gate. The rumor circulating at the time is that it was requested by the teaching pro with the contract to teach lessons on the new high school courts which were also locked. If so, I wonder if the school district or the tennis coaches ever came to the realization that the arrangement benefits the teaching pro at the expense of developing local players. Probably not.
A couple of months after the lock first appeared on those decaying administration building courts, we were elated when people started playing on them again. Closer inspection revealed that someone had disconnected the fencing from the post and rolled it back for access. I have no idea who did that. The ethics of playing there was debated in our household. A couple of months later, the situation resolved itself as the fence was repaired and the lock disappeared.
It is ludicrous to lock a court that isn’t being maintained, but here’s the thing: Someone has actually performed some rudimentary maintenance on those administration courts. New net straps, white duct tape holding the net tape together, and cable ties mending holes in the net have mysteriously appeared throughout the years.
That is the opposite of vandalism. When tennis courts are left unlocked… someone may take care of them.
