While some tennis clubs cater to professionals and aspiring professionals, one club in Cambria, CA, is looking to make the sport accessible to all ages and skill levels.
Raymond Campos, president of the Cambria Tennis Club, is holding a fundraiser tennis tournament and youth clinic at the Coast Union High School tennis courts on Saturday, Jan. 17. The event is open to players of all ages, and with it, Campos hopes to boost the club’s visibility.
The event will feature a Junior Clinic from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and a mixed doubles tournament from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The junior clinic is free and will have tennis gear and lunch provided.
The club recently resurfaced Court 1 at the high school, which cost around $5,000. While the club covered half the cost, the other expenses for the 501(c)(3) business came from donations.
Campos explained that Cambria Tennis Club would like to resurface the second court this coming spring and continue maintaining the courts as they have since 1991.
This, he said, is sometimes a struggle: the club began laying concrete all the way around the courts in recent years to stop gophers from tunneling underneath them — an issue that created sinkholes and damage in the past. This technique also helps stop rain from eroding the courts.
As a non-profit, Campos emphasized that donations for the new courts and other tennis programs would be tax deductible.
While the program is open to families and supports high school tennis, the Cambria Tennis Club’s main mission is to introduce the sport to elementary and middle school students. This, said Campos, helps act as a “feeder program” to the Coast Union’s tennis program.
“Besides the obvious benefits of learning hand-eye coordination, the unique thing about tennis and children starting to learn the sport at a young as is that they will learn problem solving skills,” says Kirk Moritz, co-tennis director at CityView Racquet Club. “This sport is not just about physical skills, it’s going to challenge kids mentally and emotionally. It is a wonderful sport to help a kid grow up.”
But playing the sport has other benefits for all ages.
Steve Tignor, a contributor to Tennis.com, wrote about the benefits of the game for adults and how it changes between childhood and adulthood.
Tennis offers stress-relief, said Tignor, but it’s also a chance for people to interact with one another away from competitive work environments.
“As a kid, I played tennis to win,” Tignor writes. “As an adult, it may mean even more to me: I play it to stay sane.”