On Thursday, the tennis community got an early Christmas present
from the Gilroy Tennis Club: A new court.
Shovels in hand, members of the Gilroy Tennis Club, mayor Al
Pinheiro and others involved in the project ceremonially broke
ground on a new court, set to be finished early February, in Las
Animas Park.
Gilroy – On Thursday, the tennis community got an early Christmas present from the Gilroy Tennis Club: A new court.
Shovels in hand, members of the Gilroy Tennis Club, mayor Al Pinheiro and others involved in the project ceremonially broke ground on a new court, set to be finished early February, in Las Animas Park.
The new court is a $70,000 gift – the first of its kind – from the club to the city of Gilroy and will be available for public use.
It will also allow the tennis club to accommodate more teams in its Monterey Bay League competition.
“It’s wonderful,” said Gilroy Tennis Club director and board chairman Marco Renella. “This is good news.”
Because at least three courts are needed to accommodate two teams of players for each league competition, the Gilroy Tennis Club could only have two teams playing at once at the five Las Animas courts. By adding just one more court, the club will now be able to double the court usage for each competition and have four teams playing at once on all six courts. The club has 14 teams that compete year-round.
While much of the $70,000 was earned by the Gilroy Tennis Club from hosting tournaments and private donations, grants helped curb about 20 percent of the costs. In November, the club received a $15,118 grant from the USTA Northern California Section and the National Recreation and Park Association to go toward the new court.
Local contractors Perma-Green Company, Giacalone Electric, All-Phase Electric, Granite Construction, CFI Cyclone Fence and South Valley National Bank have all pitched in on the effort with either discounted or pro bono labor.
The five courts already at Las Animas Park were built in 1999. The city split the costs with the Gilroy Tennis Club, but this is the first time a public court has never been funded by city dollars.
Ideally, Renella would like to see eight to 10 courts at Las Animas so that the club could employ a full-time tennis professional to teach tennis.
“That would fix all the tennis problems in Gilroy,” he said.
The Gilroy Tennis Club has 250 members. A family membership is $30 per year. For more information, visit www.gilroytennisclub.com.
