Five Iowa colleges strengthen tennis with facility investments and USTA grants

In an era when budget cuts are causing some colleges across the country to drop tennis programs, it’s encouraging that there are several Iowa institutions of higher learning choosing to invest in tennis rather than cutting back.

By using grant funds supplied by USTA Tennis Venue Services, five Iowa colleges are resurfacing their tennis courts.

“It’s going to be beneficial for each of those universities or colleges with their recruitment efforts,” said John Terpkosh, senior manager of Tennis Venue Services for USTA Missouri Valley. “Building and updating their court systems makes them more attractive. They’re safe and they’re sound, which is a great recruitment tool besides prolonging the longevity of those tennis programs.

“This is benefiting the programs, but it’s also benefiting the university in general. Besides that, it’s also benefiting the community. If you’re going to get into the TVS grant program, you also have to have a community component.”

The five Iowa colleges with projects completed or nearing completion this fall are Buena Vista University, Drake University, University of Iowa, Maharishi International University and Wartburg College.

Including the TVS grants, the five colleges will combine to spend more than $450,000 on the renovations to improve their tennis facilities. Terpkosh provided information on each of these TVS projects.

Buena Vista University

They’re way up in northwest Iowa in Storm Lake. It’s a private college. They are going to resurface their four courts, and they’ll finish it this fall. It’s going to definitely help their program grow because they have not resurfaced those courts for quite a while.

That’s mostly what this grant’s doing — creating interest in upgrading facilities. That’s going to be the common thread among all of them, whether it’s to make the facilities safer for their players or students.

Or even to generate that interest in the college to say, ‘Come and play for us because we’ve got these nice new courts.’

Drake University

They’ve got six indoor courts and six outdoor courts, and they did all 12 on a project that lasted more than a year. They started last fall and winter with the indoor courts.

They just finished up in the spring on the outdoor courts. It’s definitely an enhancement.

It’s going to be a nice look for Drake in Des Moines. Former coach Calvin Song was the impetus behind moving forward with the grant and did the bulk of the work.

University of Iowa

They’ve got an indoor facility as well as an outdoor facility in Iowa City. The initial grant took care of resurfacing the eight indoor courts. In the near future, they will be upgrading the Klotz Tennis Center, which is the outdoor courts. They liked the work on the indoor courts so much they came back and applied for work on their outdoor courts.

It’s a very successful program. The program is done in-house under the direction of Michele Conlon. The Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Center is who takes care of the tennis component for both the varsity teams as well as the recreational part, which is all the rec services.

Maharishi International University

It’s a unique college in the entire United States. It’s named after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from India. It is closely tied to that religion of meditation and improving one’s person. They were able to buy a college that was closing and create Maharishi International University. There’s also a city right next to Fairfield called Vedic City, and a lot of students coming from India transplant to Fairfield, Iowa.

They’ve got an indoor facility with four courts, and that’s what this renovation entailed. They are also applying for a secondary TVS grant, and they’ll be using that money to resurface their six outside courts sometime next year.

Wartburg College

Wartburg is right outside another big state college, the University of Northern Iowa, which is in Cedar Falls. Waverly is a suburb of Cedar Falls. Wartburg is a very successful private college. They’ve got a great indoor facility, and they’re resurfacing their eight outdoor courts.

They’ve always run very successful camps and tournaments. They’ve done everything in-house, which is great. They have a great coach for both programs, Chris Gustas. He sees the value and understands that you’ve got to give back to the community and then bring them in to keep tennis thriving.