Many people insist that they wouldn’t change anything about past events, but I don’t believe that. Realistically, wouldn’t anyone jump at the opportunity to fix a mistake or do something better the second time to reap more benefits? I certainly would have. Imagine that you’ve just returned from playing in the NEAC championship with your team, and the next thing you know you’re in a meeting about the suspension of your program. Would you have played differently? The Keuka College Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams have been recently suspended as part of an ongoing issue with the courts. Over the past four to five years, the school has spent upwards of $53,000 to maintain the tennis courts (resurfacing, replacing equipment, painting lines, etc.).
Over the course of last year’s winter, the upper courts re-cracked and due to being on warranty, were costless to fix; however it was discovered that this would be an ongoing problem. The company that had previously resurfaced the courts would not warranty them again because when they were originally installed long ago, they were not installed with any regard to current practices regarding factors such as water drainage. In the past summer alone, anywhere between $9,000 and $10,000 was spent on small fixes, but to truly fix the courts they would need to be torn up and rebuilt from scratch. However, the school would ideally like to keep the courts for as long as they are safe to use so that students may still utilize them for recreational purposes. It is assumed that the school would need to survey the surrounding land for drainage before they can attempt any kind of reconstruction, and they are currently attempting to find a grant that will partner with them to conduct that study. It has been noted that the upper courts are more extremely effected than the lower courts, but the latter will face the same amount of damage over time. As I’m sure you can imagine, everyone in attendance to the meeting was shocked and upset about the condition of the program. We just returned from NEACs, and we’ve improved as a team immensely over the past few years, so why was this happening? Why us, instead of someone else? Is it over for the tennis team? Will we ever be able to play again?
According to Mark Petrie, VP for Enrollment Management and Student Development at Keuka college, the tennis program is “Suspended, because you don’t want to cut something entirely—that means it’s over, and that’s not our intent.” The school has also voiced its concern about bringing in new recruits without a solid promise of a program. It would be unfortunate for a student to commit to Keuka with the idea of tennis being a deciding factor, only to find that the courts aren’t playable or that they become unplayable mid-season and the team is forced to withdraw from the conference. You may be thinking, what about other courts? The local high school has courts, but according to the Athletics Director, Coach David Sweet, “Schedules were discussed but did not mesh in a way that would work out for either party.” And the Penn Yan boat launch has courts, how about those? The idea was tossed around about working with Penn Yan Recreation to use them, but the courts were built with community taxpayer money and it’s assumed that the town would like to leave them open for taxpayer usage. “Even if we paid rent on them or something, they weren’t too keen on the idea of it,” Coach Sweet added. We could play only away matches, but that would mean higher travel expenses and would not solve the issue of where practices would be held. According to the school, as of now all avenues for a solution have been exhausted, but they are very willing to explore any options that come to the door.
On a personal level, members of the tennis teams were confused and angry because we were not informed that there was an ongoing issue. It didn’t sit well that we weren’t kept in the loop. According to Coach Sweet, it was known that there was a potential problem, but it wasn’t known that the same resurfacing company would refuse to warranty the courts again due to liability of current damages. With the new maintenance lead, Tony Tufano, and a couple of outside individuals, the school was able to realize that the issue was from lack of appropriate design during initial installation of the courts long ago. The school was fighting an uphill battle and forced to make a decision, learning that some fixes cannot be made without a complete overhaul. Should we have a bad winter, it is believed that the courts will become unplayable. Whether the courts heave or not, it is still planned for a study to be conducted on the area so that the school can plan for future repair of the courts. We all hope that a solution is in sight for this problem; the tennis team has been growing at an incredible rate, and we would like to keep our momentum going.
