Tennis anyone?
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Kurt Johnson
Tennis anyone?
That’s more than a casual invitation to pick up a tennis racket these days in Aurora, as a long-term vision to grow the game is coming into focus now in Streeter Park.
A story in last week’s edition reported that a six-week tennis clinic will be offered each Saturday from Aug. 20-Oct. 1, providing lessons to kids and adults of all ages and skill levels. The clinic is being coordinated by the Aurora Tennis Facility group, in conjunction with the United States Tennis Association.
That’s a big step forward on an initiative that first began way back in 2009. At that time, for those keeping score at home, the swimming pool was showing its age, as were the tennis courts nearby. Rather than take on both of those projects at the same time, a group of tennis enthusiasts hit the pause button, refunding donations that had been already been made toward a new tennis facility. Five years later, after the new pool had been built on the site of the existing tennis courts, the group picked up the ball and began building momentum, eventually raising more than $300,000 for what debuted in 2018 as a state-of-the-art four-court tennis complex. The City of Aurora was a partner as well, donating the land and offering to own and maintain the facility once it was built.
The group’s vision from the beginning was to not only provide a place to play tennis, but to grow the game by including people of all ages. In today’s world, that means pickelball, a game that has attracted new players to the court across the state and nation, and certainly here in Aurora. Lines were added to make the courts flexible in hosting both tennis and pickelball, which proved to be an ace decision.
It’s worth mentioning that the local tennis group set a goal of building a top-notch facility, knowing that the bar had been raised in Streeter Park with the new pool and nearby Auroran’s-4-Diamond Sports complex. The quality of the courts helped convince USTA officials to include Aurora in its tennis clinic series, with one official concluding that it was a “no-brainer” to offer lessons at such a nice facility.
Aurora has upped its game in terms of recreational facilities in recent years, no doubt about it, and it’s nice to see tennis included in that mix. Here’s hoping a whole new group of folks young and young at heart pick up a racket and give the sport a try.
Kurt Johnson
