Resurfacing of tennis court completed

Over a busy summer that witnessed the speedy construction of the new “Court of Dreams” outdoor basketball and volleyball facility, a more subtle, perhaps lesser known project also took place at Saratoga High—the resurfacing of the tennis courts.

What may seem like merely a minor adjustment, though, had in fact a major impact.

“Thank god, finally,” sighed junior player Catherine Nguyen at the thought of the recently finished job.

The varsity No. 2 singles tennis player is pleased with the vast improvements made to her sport’s playing area. These vast improvements were made more apparent by comparing the retched conditions of the courts prior to the resurfacing.

“There were huge cracks,” said assistant principal Joe Bosco. “Just the idea of finally getting them relatively usable again was enough incentive to finally get the job done and chase the cracks away.”

The severity of the problem was so extreme to the fact that unfriendly weeds were actually sprouting out of the crevices.

The school paid the $40,000 price tag with deferred maintenance, or money given to schools from the state of California to refurbish the campus. The administration had been angling toward resurfacing the court surface for some time; however, the resurfacing didn’t take place until this summer because it was not a top priority in times of reduced funding from the state.

“I think it will represent our school a lot better because before we were one of the best teams in the league, but we had one of the worst tennis courts around,” said Nguyen. “Just the idea that we can play without tripping over a crack changes our mind-set a little.”

The girls’ tennis team celebrated the refurbishing of the courts at a ribbon cutting cermony held Sept. 9. This grand opening featured the chamber choir singing The Star Spangled Banner and ceremonial first serve hit by Bosco. The ceremony preceded the first girls’ varsity match of the season, a practice match against St. Francis.

Although the problem has been solved for now, the administration is prepared to battle more cracks and crevices if they reappear in the future.

“If cracks come back in the future, we’ll just have to do it all over again,” said Bosco.