The Right Partner Can Cure The winter Tennis Blues - Brief Article

Parks & Recreation, Feb, 2001 by Andre Christopher

Freezing temperatures and accumulations of snow do not have to mean hibernation for park and recreation tennis programs. In fact, it can be a bit counterproductive to enroll people in beginning tennis programs such as USA Tennis 1-2-3 only to have them sit through winter while their excitement for the sport wanes. Partnerships with indoor facilities can prevent the winter blues from icing community tennis programs in those municipalities without their own indoor courts.

For about 15 years, the Troy, Mich., Parks & Recreation Department has worked with the Troy Racquet Club to provide indoor tennis programs for the residents of this Detroit suburb. The two parties actually share the eight tennis courts at Huber Park. From roughly Labor Day through Mother's Day weekend, the racquet club erects a bubble over the courts and takes responsibility for maintaining the courts, which are on city land. In the spring and summer, the Troy Parks & Recreation Department maintains the courts.

Among the three pros who give lessons at the facility, their clientele ranges from 25 percent general public for one to 100 percent general public for another. "A majority of our programs are through parks & recreation," said club manager Kathy Del Dotto.

It is only recently that the club's 1,000-plus members have been able to sign up for lessons or league play without going through Troy Parks & Recreation. Similarly, Del Dotto said, this is the first season there has been a different fee structure for parks & recreation participants who are not club members.

Troy Parks & Recreation tennis program participation goes from about 800 people in the spring and summer to approximately 250 in the winter. According to Troy Recreation Supervisor Elaine Bo, if there were no partnership with the Troy Racquet Club, the city probably would not be able to offer organized tennis programs.

However, erecting a bubble over existing courts is not always a viable option, as the Des Moines, Iowa, Park & Recreation Department and the Central Iowa Tennis Alliance, a community tennis association, determined when they began working together three years ago to provide inexpensive indoor tennis during the winter months.

Des Moines Park & Recreation, with the backing of the Central Iowa Tennis Alliance, approached Drake University about using its indoor courts, as an alternative to the city's two private indoor tennis facilities. This January, these three parties began their third year of collaboration on providing indoor tennis for the boys and girls in the city's spring and summer tennis programs, including the Des Moines chapter of USA Tennis National Junior Tennis League (NJTL).

Drake provides the facility. Des Moines Park & Recreation pays for a university attendant to oversee the facility for two hours of use on Saturday and Sunday evenings, January to March. City park & recreation and the Central Iowa Tennis Alliance join forces to round up participants, who pay about $5 per week.

Everyone benefits.

Drake receives enhanced visibility and excellent public relations within the community. (The university logo is included on all program materials.) The city of Des Moines is able to step up what has been, historically, a solid commitment to its summer tennis program. The Central Iowa Tennis Alliance meets one of the primary objectives it had when it began: to provide year-round junior tennis opportunities.

"Most of it (the collaboration) was spurred on by the CTA," said John Terpkosh, who initiated the cooperative venture as the Des Moines Park & Recreation tennis coordinator and now works as the USA Tennis Development coordinator for Iowa in the USTA/Missouri Valley Section. "That's something we (Des Moines Park & Recreation) probably never would have gone off and done on our own."

Andre Christopher is senior writer for the United States Tennis Association.