Reading, where tennis has grown, looks to fix up its courts

Globe Sports Section, Thursday April 26th, 2007 ~ by Mike Lipka

 

Damaged Birch Meadow Park tennis courts in Reading.  Town Meeting tonight will consider their renovation.

                 When Kate Kaminer and Lorraine Salter started the Reading Tennis Open in 1991, it didn’t take long for the tournament to catch on, attracting talented players from across the region.

 

                 But last year after the 16^th version of the tournament, Salter and Kaminer looked at each other in disbelief.

 

                 “We were like, ‘Why do these people keep coming back here to play in this thing?’ Salter said.

 

                 The reason the duo was so puzzled was the shoddy condition of Reading’s six courts at Birch Meadow Park, adjacent to Reading Memorial High School.  On one, a thin crevice cuts down the middle of half the court; on another, a 2-inch wide, moss-filled gap graces one of the doubles alleys.  Most are uneven and cracked.

 

                 “They’re in tough shape,” said Bruce Appleby, the Reading boys’ tennis coach for the past 45 seasons.  “They tried filling in one, and it didn’t work.  It was still a Grand Canyon.  You really can’t fill in.”

 

                 According to some accounts, three of the courts could be more than 70 years old.  When Appleby started coaching the Rockets in 1963, there were just those three, and the others were built a few years later, at the inception of the girls’ program.

 

                 Until the mid-1990s, the courts even had chain-link nets, until the Friends of Reading Tennis – the organization run by Salter and Kaminer – helped purchase new nets.  Now, despite perennial finishes in the Middlesex League’s top three, the teams still have a sub-par facility, which hasn’t been professionally resurfaced or maintained.

 

                 “They just kind of get worse every year we come back in the sprint to play,” said Dave McGinty, Reading’s top boys’ singles player.  “A lot of times, if I’m looking just to hit with a friend, I’ll find somewhere else to go, go to a different town.  I’m just not looking to go down and play at those courts at all.”

 

                

 

 

                 Salter, a New Jersey native who still plays competitively in multiple local leagues, said she often goes to Winchester or Lexington to play.  In fact, after Salter and Kaminer proposed to raise funds to put toward new courts at the school, they heard some comment that since they weren’t typically busy, Reading must not be much of a tennis town.                         

 

                 But Salter believed otherwise, and she soon proved her point.

 

                 “We put some feelers out to friends of ours who were tennis enthusiasts as well as community activists,” Salter said.  Eventually, she went to town manager Peter Hechenbleikner, promising to raise $150,000 of the $350,00 the renovations would cost, asking the town for help with the rest.

 

                 Salter and Kaminer began holding weekly meetings at private homes in January, and in just three months, they’ve raised more than $50,000, mostly from small personal donations.

 

                 They’ve also applied for a number of grants, including the Massachusetts Urban Self-Help grant, which /Salter said seems promising with the full support of State Senator Richard Tisei and State Representative Bradley Jones.  The Self-Help grant offers a total of $5 million to a large number of similar projects statewide each year.

 

                

                 The final step for the project could be taken tonight, when Town Meeting will vote on whether to fund the remaining $200,000 of the project.

                 “We’re expecting it to,” Salter said.  “The momentum in this town for it is huge.”

 

                 The courts would be another piece to the brand-new complex at Reading High, which includes a freshly renovated school and field house, a FieldTurf football field, and a number of other improvements, which together totaled about $54 million.

 

                 Beyond repaving the courts, the improvements would include $90,000 for lighting, which would minimize light pollution beyond the courts, and wheelchair-accessible features, which were especially important to Salter, a special-needs therapist.  The Reading Tennis Open also has competition in wheelchair tennis.  This year’s event is June 2 through 10.

 

                 For Appleby, who has coached the high school team for nearly a half century, the courts have been a long time coming.  Appleby can recall the days when Concord was in the Middlesex League and when a Reading program in its infancy could never finish higher than fifth in the league, unable to compete with Winchester, Belmont, Lexington, or Concord.

 

                 Over the years, the team has improved, and the Friends of Reading Tennis have purchased nets, uniforms and even an $800 ball-toss machine.  But the Rockets haven’t even been able to se the machine because the electrical outlets at the courts are shot.

 

                 Appleby said Reading’s could be the worst courts in the league, despite the team being among the best.

 

                 “It’s time to fix them up,” the coach said.  “Instead of just doing a patch job, which doesn’t really work, we’ve got to try to go the whole way, get USTA-sponsored events there and stuff like that.  I mean, if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it the right way.”

“Why do people keep coming back here to play this thing?”

 

Lorraine Salter, Tourney founder

The Boston Globe