Growth in tennis community Pushes court capacity

The boys tennis season has just begun and there is a lot of excitement as the season gets underway. New this season is a player limit of 28 players.

“Each and every season I keep getting more players who want to be a part of the tennis program. I’ve always had a ‘more the merrier’ attitude…That being said, we do only have a limited amount of court space that we can use to practice,” explained Parker Sands, head coach.

There are only 7 courts at Urbana’s home courts at Blair Park and only being able to fit 4 players on each court means the team only has space for 28 players at once. There isn’t much to be done about this situation without overcrowding the courts. And with the ever-growing Urbana tennis community, it may be hard to accommodate everyone who wants to play, so hard decisions had to be made.

“My stance has always been that I want to create a team of ‘tennis players’ as opposed to people who are just wanting to ‘play tennis,’” explained Sands.

When Sands took over the Urbana tennis program, his first team in 2019 was 10 girls. There was no boys season in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next year there were teams of 15 girls and 12 boys, respectively, and team sizes have continued to grow since then.

Though the cap on players may be a disappointment for some, the team is not letting it stop them from making the most of their time on the courts.

“I’m looking forward to the growth of the Urbana tennis community; it’s been growing every year and I’m excited to see how strong we’re gonna be,” said Ian Peters.