City needs expanded tennis courts

Dear editor:

As you know, a small number of citizens are asking to have the only three tennis courts in town completely resurfaced and hopefully adding at least three more courts for the city.

I recently spoke to the mayor in casual conversation about the courts and his concern is the lack of demand to have new courts built, therefore we are a small number of citizens right now. That being said, I believe the demand would be much higher if we had safe, playable courts to play on.

Like golf, tennis is a growing sport and a life-long sport. I believe demand for the game will immensely increase once we have adequate courts to play on and enjoy the sport.

There are 30 courts available in a 2 mile radius near Nampa, Vallivue, and Caldwell High Schools, including courts at middle schools. In the entire city of Mountain Home we have three courts, none in serviceable condition, and no courts at all at the high school. You should see the looks we get and the comments when other high school players and coaches come to Mountain Home to play the Tigers... not the comments or looks a good community would want to be known for. We had two kids qualify for state this year, one being my son, but he had the advantage of practicing on good courts on the base since I am military.

As I have watched Tamzy House perform miracles in the last three years with the student athletes, I have no doubt we would have many more kids qualify for state if they had proper courts to practice and develop on. Her recent summer camps drew 30 kids between the age of 8 and 18 years, most of those kids between the age of 8-12 and her July camp is filling up quickly.

Kids are taking to this sport. We do our best to get non-military affiliated kids on the base to play, but it is not always possible, and quite frankly, it isn't right that an entire community does not have the option to go out and play tennis in their community on safe, adequate, and playable courts.

I am told we displaced school bond money from the courts that were to be built at the high school to pay for other priorities. If tennis courts are not a priority at the high school level, why is our high school the only one I have seen across the state that doesn't have them? I have watched unconfident, quiet sophomore kids who were not the football or basketball players pick up the game of tennis and as they grew through their high school years, totally surprised me by showing me they could learn the game and become very good at it... but more importantly, they were doing something positive in school and in the community and building confidence in themselves as they grew into their adult lives.

This is not just a high school sport issue, it is a family and community issue.

In my two assignments here, I have watched the golf course grow from 9 to 18 holes, along with the arguments of percentage of people who use the course and pouring more money into the course for the select few who can afford to play the game regularly. Yet the course did grow to 18 holes because it was and is good for the community.

Tennis courts, while much less expensive in the long run to build and maintain, are much the same issue. As more people play this growing sport, it provides opportunities for families and individuals to participate and compete in a positive sport/activity. Once you graduate from high school, you may never play another organized baseball, football or soccer game in your life (tough to get 10, 12, 18 players together as adults), but it takes just two people to play tennis and I believe that if this community had safe, playable courts, we would see more and more people playing the game, creating the demand the council and the mayor desire to make it happen.

I say, build it and they will come.

With four to six courts we can have varsity matches without taking six hours to complete a match, bouncing back and forth to the base (which is not always available to the public). Coaches can teach kids with actual play instead of learning through listening (tough to have tennis practice with 30 kids for two hours a night and actually get them court time). We can have community tournaments that will draw people from Nampa, Boise and Twin Falls areas which will bring money into town (much like our annual baseball tournament for the kids), and most importantly, we add something to the city that should be a given in any community, just like a baseball field or a skate board park.

Mountain Home has grown considerably since I arrived here the first time in 1990... it's time to replace the unusable 20 year old tennis courts and give kids and adults alike an option to learn and play the life-long game of tennis.

If you wait for the demand on some issues to occur before you build, you'll never step forward... if you never step forward, you'll get left behind.

Now is the time the school district, recreation department, and the city take action as we are already losing time for some kids and other members of the community who need positive activities like tennis.

Let's not push this problem down the road or make quick fixes to pacify the little people (resurfacing the three existing courts and calling it a day is not a good answer). Build us six new tennis courts, either at the school or in the existing location, that the community and the Tigers can be proud of.

Allen W. Niksich