June 2, 2004

Court project nets big results

Friends of TC Tennis celebrates six new courts at Central High School

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

       After three years of fundraising and grant writing, meetings and planning, the upgrade of the tennis court facilities at Central High School is done.
      Well, almost - some work on the pavilion is yet to come.
      But a short to-do list did not stop members of Friends of TC Tennis officially dedicated the new courts Saturday morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. After three years and $285,000 of fundraising, they were ready to celebrate.
      "This is an awesome thing," said Larry Nykerk, who co-founded Friends of TC Tennis in 2001. "I want you to look around today and see there's a lot of thank yous."
      With all funding from the project coming from grants, donations and fund-raisers, Nykerk acknowledged two main donors: Rotary Charities and the Oleson Foundation. The Oleson Foundation gave a $60,000 grant the first year to seed the project and made a $18,000 matching grant last year to help finish it. In March of 2002, Rotary Charities donated $70,000 to build two new tennis courts.
      Since it began, the three-phase project was worked around tennis season schedules, tournaments and camps.
      "There are six new courts and also we resurfaced four of the old ones," said Nykerk, who has coached the Central High School girls tennis team for 21 years. "These courts are for the school and the community, they are like public courts."
      Nykerk also recognized Sara and Eric Bergsma for their outstanding support of Friends of TC Tennis. For Sara Bergsma, memories of tennis games past motivated her to help players of the future.
      "I played here in high school and even then the courts were horrible," she said. "To see it done is really cool."
      Sally Miller, a committee member of Friends of TC Tennis, participated in the multi-year effort even though she does not play tennis. She wanted to help because her daughter, now in college, played tennis at Central and was coached by Nykerk.
      "It is such a great program and a great cause that I wanted to support it," Miller said. "Larry inspires a lot of loyalty because he gives so much of himself and the girls get a lot in return for his dedication to the tennis program."
      After the ceremony, a round-robin mixed doubles tournament began as a fund-raiser for Friends of TC Tennis; 56 players participated. Tournament organizers hoped to raise another $15,000 to complete the pavilion, which will include a concession stand, restrooms and water facilities. The now annual tournament will fund future improvements at the courts and others around town.
      "These courts are used by the community and the funds we raise in the future will benefit East Junior High, West Junior High and St. Francis," Nykerk said. "We're not Friends of Traverse City Central Tennis but Friends of TC Tennis."
      Friends of TC Tennis began when the some of the six courts at the high school were more than 40 years old - and looked it.
      Cracks and holes in the concrete made for games that were too exciting, as surprise bounces were part of daily play and injuries common.
      "The courts were terrible, I sprained my ankle on all the cracks and kept tripping everywhere," said Laura Spencer, a sixth-grade student at Eastern participating in the tournament. "The ball would go any way."
      Despite this, the high school fielded winning boys and girls teams for years (and still does). It also hosted numerous invitational tournaments pitting Central players against teams from around the state.
      In addition, an annual summer camp teaches hundreds of people the basics of the game or guides them in improving their play. More than 10,000 youth and adults have attended this camp Nykerk founded 28 years ago. The past few years, the camp has worked with more than 500 students each summer.