Tennis, anyone? City leaders irked by lack of camp

Dayton rec department wanted to raise cost of participating this year.

The city of Dayton did not offer tennis camp this year, disappointing some elected leaders who say it’s important to provide access to nontraditional sports for the youth in the city.

Mayor Nan Whaley also criticized the city’s recreation department for waiting until June to open the courts at Jim Nichols Tennis Center, missing most of the spring because of renovations, with more work still outstanding on the hard-surface courts.

“I want to be clear that in the future we don’t do that,” Whaley said.

In 2016, Dayton’s Recreation and Youth Services department teamed up with KTC/Quail Tennis Club to offer a low-cost tennis camp at the Jim Nichols center at 2424 Ridge Ave.

The Grand Slam Youth Tennis Camp returned last year, seeking to make tennis available to under-served Dayton youths who don’t have access to clubs or indoor tennis facilities, officials said.

Last year, participants received two weeks of coaching (five nights a week) from certified and professional instructors for $20.

They also received a new racket, and the program capped out at $30 per family, per session, to allow siblings to join at little additional cost.

But the city is not providing tennis camp this year.

The city’s recreation department wanted to raise fees on participants, but KTC/Quail did not want to do that.

KTC/Quail receives donations from its members via the Jack Heinz Memorial Tennis Fund for Kids to help pay tennis pros to run a camp for under-served youths who otherwise wouldn’t have opportunities to play the sport, said JP Heinz, manager of the tennis club.

The club does not want to charge youth anything to attend camp, but the city has to charge people to use their facilities, he said. KTC/Quail this year instead decided to partner with the YMCA to bus youth in their summer program to their facilities for tennis camp, Heinz said.

Tennis camp was a great form of outreach for urban youths, and Dayton should restart the program and reestablish the relationship with the KTC/Quail Tennis Club, said Dayton City Commissioner Chris Shaw.

“I want to make sure we can make this happen next year,” Shaw said.

Not everyone adores basketball and baseball, and some youths,

if given an opportunity, may find out their passions lie in other sports, like tennis or golf, he said.

The city needs to provide diverse recreation options because that improves residents’ quality of life, which creates more favorable conditions for attracting new residents and businesses, Shaw said.

“Recreation isn’t just something the kids do in summer — it really is a catalyst for economic development,” Shaw said.

Elected leaders had another concern about tennis in Dayton.

On May 23, the Dayton Commission approved a $149,000 contract to resurface and recondition courts at Jim Nichols.

The clay courts at the tennis center are being renovated and are expected to open June 11. The city will offer league play and court rentals.

Whaley said the timing of the court improvements were poorly planned, because a good chunk of the tennis season will be over by the time they open.

She said the city needs to do a better job of sending projects like this to bid earlier in the year to ensure the work is completed with adequate time for people to enjoy the amenities.

“You are not going to have a tennis season, basically,” she said. “Spring is really when tennis is played more, is my understanding.”

There were some delays because it was a rainy spring and the contractor was busy with other projects, said Stephan Marcellus, the city’s recreation manager.