Fiend at Court Unplugged
Last Saturday was a beautiful sunny day in my childhood hometown. It was also perfectly windy. It is Wichita Falls, after all. Lately I have been making a point of hitting serves on windy days while facing the sun. It builds character. My plan for last Saturday was to hit a basket or two of serves coupled with some backboard work. I was thwarted by a kids tournament which fully occupied all the courts at the club. (Huzzah!) This is what brought me to the tragically locked gates of a local junior high school blocking my access to beautiful tennis courts and a backboard.
Wichita Falls used to be a tennis hotbed, but now it is a tennis wasteland. Yes, there is a small pocket of dedicated tennis players clinging to competitive play. However, with one tennis center shuttered and the other with no active ongoing tennis engagement programming to speak of, no one can argue that the current tennis culture is a far cry from the glory days of my youth.
If I had to point to one thing that precipitated the demise, it is perfectly encapsulated by the picture above. The schools and city systematically lock the tennis courts effectively blocking public access. The general consensus is that the reason the courts are locked is fear of vandalism. The result is that there are a lot of very good courts that are inaccessible outside of formal programming. Consequently, there are no casual players in this town which means that there are no players to fuel the pipeline of future tennis enthusiasts.
There is an opportunity for the USTA and Tennis Industry Association to help. If municipalities and school districts are concerned about vandalism then the USTA can mitigate those concerns with a grant program for repairing vandalized courts. The local CTAs could get off their duffs and organize court maintenance days to build a sense of community ownership of these facilities. It is a heck of a lot easier to maintain an existing court than it is to get new courts built. It simply doesn’t take the same level of investment.
Additionally, the USTA and Tennis Industry Association should start a nationwide PSA campaign that tennis courts were meant to be open. Perhaps even put together a fact sheet and official policy statement to support people who are advocating for that in their local communities.
I am starting down that path at both the local and national level. Wish me luck.
