A better playing surface at the Englewood High School tennis
courts awaits residents and students now that a refurbishing
project has been completed.
Dave Henderson, supervisor of school maintenance, operations and
transportation, said the refurbishing project was badly needed
because the courts were not in good condition.
“Over the years, some serious cracks developed in the court.
Also, the layout needed to be changed because there were eight
courts crowded into the area,” he said. “The company patched the
cracks and resurfaced the area. The court area was redesigned and
now there is better spacing as we reduced the number of courts to
six.”
The courts are jointly used by the school district and the city
parks and recreation district. Each of the agencies contributed
half of the $34,000 it cost to refurbish the high school tennis
courts.
Jim Tucker, boys and girls tennis coach for Englewood High
School, said the courts were in need of attention. He said, in
particular, some of the cracks had grown wide enough that the high
school teams usually didn’t use those courts.
“I have looked at the courts and they really look nice,” he
said. “I am looking forward to next month when we begin practice
for the boys tennis season on these new courts.”
He did say the change from eight courts to six will make it a
longer day for the high school tennis teams.
High school tennis teams usually have three singles players and
four doubles teams. With eight courts, all the varsity games could
be played at the same time and, if there were contenders, a JV game
could be played on the eighth court.
Tucker said Englewood was the only school in the Jefferson
County League with eight courts. Now, however, like most venues,
there will be six courts, which means one varsity match will not
start until one of the other varsity matches is completed. The
coach said usually it is the No. 4 doubles team that waits for the
open court.
Tucker usually has several players on his junior varsity roster
but they don’t play a lot of matches because quite a few schools do
not have junior varsity tennis programs.
The coach encourages young players to be part of the JV, sets up
as many matches as possible and frequently, he will have the
assistant coach accompany the JVs to Belleview Park so they can use
those courts for their matches instead of having to wait until
varsity matches are completed.
The courts are jointly used by the high school and the
community. The courts are lighted and get a lot of early evening
use.
“I love to play on the high school courts,” Englewood resident
Suzanne Contratas said. “My husband and I play tennis with a couple
other couples and the lights make it possible for use to set up the
matches to start about 7 p.m. when it is cooler and we pretty much
have the courts to ourselves.”
No one knew the exact date the high school courts were built
but, one long-time resident said the courts were completed at the
same time the swimming pool was built in 1967. Tucker, who has been
in the district since the 1970s, said the courts underwent a lot of
work in the late 1980s when they area was redesigned and the wall
between the upper and lower courts was added.
In the latest round of work, the most obvious change is the
color of the playing surface as the once-green courts are now EHS
Pirate blue.
Henderson explained the contractor submitted the possible colors
for the courts and, for a number of reasons which included the fact
it was Pirate colors, he selected blue.
