McCook receives USTA grant to spruce up courts

A six-court tennis facility was built in 2007 for the tennis teams at McCook Senior High School in a town of less than 10,000 people in southwest Nebraska. Over time, the courts have deteriorated and are in need of repairs. The average tennis court is resurfaced every eight years, while the McCook courts have doubled that timespan.

“Our facility is used heavily, as both our boys’ and girls’ teams practice and compete on the courts in the fall and spring,” said Matt Wiemers, McCook Senior High School tennis coach. “We hold numerous camps, clinics and leagues throughout the summer, and our facility is used for a junior high intramural session in the late fall as well.”

As a result, Wiemers applied for and received a $28,500 tennis grant through the USTA. The Tennis Venue Services Grant helps local facilities improve their courts by paying for repainting, resurfacing, new construction and more.

The USTA grant states “the essence of this initiative is to assist communities, leveraging their tennis facilities to promote lifelong healthy activity and improve their programming by advancing the latest tennis innovations for all program types.”

The work on the tennis courts will begin in July, with the courts hopefully up and running for late summer camps as the sport continues to grow in the area.

“When I started coaching in McCook in 1999, we had 14 summer tennis participants,” Wiemers said. “Over the past 25 years we have grown the summer program to well over 110 participants and now offer several leagues to both youth and adults in our community. We continue to be one of the largest teams in central and western Nebraska.”