YTA Expands into McLaren Park
Youth Tennis Advantage, squirming under a shrinking budget that caused four program cuts, is nevertheless breaking new ground with programs at the long neglected McLaren Park courts, which it plans to resurfac
e.
The new site comes after four of YTA’s 11 Bay Area program sites got eliminated in a budget squeeze. In San Francisco, Youngblood Coleman in Hunters Point and Ella Hill Hutch in the Western Addition got axed in June. The after school tennis program at Ella Hill — in a neighborhood marked by gang activity and violence and often in the news — was likely the most successful athletic program at the Webster Street complex. It drew a number of high school varsity players to workouts.
Two of McLaren’s six courts on Mansell Avenue are playable and being used for a new summer kids drop-in program, Tuesdays and Thursdays 4-5:30 p.m. The YTA received a $25,000 USTA grant to resurface the remaining four, but more fundraising will be needed for the job. The Oakland nonprofit wants to expand operations there in the fall. It plans a free after school program and is considering charging for adult classes and lessons on an ability-to-pay scale.
The YTA has been working on site development ideas with Rec and Park and Friends of McLaren Park and other entities and city officials. USTA NorCal held block parties on the courts May 31 and July 11 to acquaint the neighborhood with the advantages and fun of tennis.
“The more time we spend there, the better,” said Loretta Conway, YTA executive director. “There is so much potential.”
City Open Nixes Prize Money (Again)
San Francisco’s budget woes made it inevitable that Rec and Park would not restore prize money it cut last year from its NorCal showcase men’s tennis tournament. In June, Terry Schwartz, director of Recreational Services, confirmed it.
“With the significant casino online reductions in budget and staffing, there will be no way we can fund cash prizes for this year’s event,” he said a few days before he was laid off himself.
Since 1901 the tournament has attracted the best players in Northern California to the Golden Gate Park tennis courts, once known as “The Cradle of Champions” for the national champions and Davis Cuppers it turned out well into the ‘30s. In ‘68, it was one of the first NorCal tournaments to add prize money on the cusp of the revolutionary Open era. In recent years, the men’s winner received $800 and other late round winners got smaller amounts. The doubles and women’s Open events, shared in prize money, too.
Last year, after the tournament website announced the elimination of prize money, men’s Open entries plummeted from 64 in ‘07 to 29, with no player ranked among the area’s top 25 among them.
“That’s just terrible to hear about the prize money,” wrote Kurt Streeter to Inside Tennis in March. Streeter, a former Cal star, won the men’s Open singles in ‘94 and was a three time runner-up. He’s now a Los Angeles Times sports columnist.
“Of all the tournaments I ever played,” Streeter said, “all over the world, the San Francisco Open is probably my favorite.
“The characters, the restaurant festival next door (in Sharon Meadow), the music (drumming from Hippie Hill), the way San Francisco culture is reflected in that tournament. Nothing better.”
In Brief
Correction: IT incorrectly identified the court surface supplier in our July article on the San Francisco Tennis Club. The SFTC’s 12 indoor courts are DecoTurf. The 12 rooftop courts are DecoColor.
San Francisco State continues to put the best face on its tennis courts off Lake Merced Blvd. Every June the school does maintenance surfacing of one of the three tiers in the complex. This June the five-court north tier got holes and cracks filled and swabbed with three layers of paint and re-lined. The $22,000 cost, according to a school spokesperson, comes from fees the public — mostly leagues — pay to play there. The other two tiers were done in ‘07 and ‘08. SF State has no tennis teams, however.
That annual morning swarm of youth on the Golden Gate Park tennis courts will happen August 13. It’s the National Junior Tennis League Regional Rally, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente and put on by the YTA and USTA NorCal. Hundreds of kids from all over Bay Area play games and
