The condition of the West tennis courts has gradually worsened over the years as cracks and fractures have formed in areas where players need to maneuver, at times even resulting in injuries. To remedy the damage, construction broke ground in the beginning of May on a new court surface.

“The total cost of the project is going to be about $733,000,” activities coordinator Brad Jodarski said. “The 1970s was the last time since they were updated.”

The new tennis courts will include many new features and developments that West has never had before, serving as significant improvements for players.

“They will have lights, which will be a major change, and there will be a new color scheme,” Jodarski said. “There’s going to be a red outside and a blue court and the plan is for them to be open and available for use on August 1, 2021.”

Because the construction of the courts began during the tennis season, tennis coach Kyle Curtis and players faced a conflict; they could not play at West.

“Not having courts for a season is definitely not ideal, but I believe when it is all said and done this minor bit of inconvenience will be well worth it,” Curtis said. “Our practice schedule has changed to 5:30 through 7:00 PM at Oshkosh North when we would normally practice from 3:45 to 5:30 PM on our courts.”

A major difference for this current season would be that the competition setting has changed.

“Playing our home matches at North is really not too different from a normal year as our JV would usually play their home matches there, so this year it did not create any scheduling conflicts that would cause us not to have courts for a match,” Curtis said. “Obviously for varsity it was a minor change.”

Due to the quick paced nature of sports, assistant tennis coach Nicole Bouzek has experienced second-hand plenty of bruises and sprains.

“Players get injured for many reasons and it wasn't abnormal to have someone fall and twist their ankle,” assistant tennis coach Nicole Bouzek said. “Tennis courts, just like all sports facilities, have certain standards they must be at to play, and ours were deteriorating and not quite to the standards they needed to be anymore.”

Most players are more focused on the game than they are on the court itself; it is not easy to avoid tripping on cracks and holes. Junior Sierra Soukhapaly finds it troubling that this seems to even be a problem.

“I wasn’t paying attention to where I was running and my ankle got stuck in a decently big crack and my momentum kept going which resulted in my sprained ankle,”she said. “The courts were in pretty bad shape. I can understand having a few smaller cracks, but the biggest issues were the huge cracks which are what caused my injury.”

With the boy’s tennis season currently starting off, there are no courts available at West for the players to practice on since they are now broken down to a field of dirt. Many players are looking forward to getting new courts, as being able to play without having to worry about injury due to the old surface will be an extremely positive change.

“I think the new tennis courts will be really nice,” junior Sam Lightner said. “The rest of the team and I are super excited to play on them.”

The construction of the new courts seems to set future players up for a much safer and more enjoyable game. In general, Curtis finds that getting new sporting equipment is always motivating for any player or coach, considering that this will generate new beginnings for upcoming seasons.

“I am excited to see what the final product will look like,” he said. “I cannot wait to play on them next season.”

By Sydney Maki

May 28th, 2021

Oshkosh West Index Volume 117 Issue 8

Lights to shine brightly as tennis courts receive long overdue facelift