The Sunday before last, passholders gathered in the 1930s-era clubhouse to partake of strawberries and cream and watch Rafael Nadal dismantle Tomas Berdych in straight sets during "Breakfast at Wimbledon." Then they went out and played some tennis themselves.
But this isn't some exclusive private-membership entity like the River Forest Tennis Club, several blocks to the west. This is the Oak Park Tennis Center, a collection of nine clay courts at Harlem and Ontario, probably the single-most misunderstood recreational resource in the area.
First, there's the anomaly of an Oak Park organization located on the River Forest side of Harlem. Second, this is a public facility, not a private club. To reinforce that notion, they recently changed the name from "Club" to "Center" and eliminated the term "member," changing it to "season passholder." You can pay to play for the whole season or $15 per hour per person. The center is open to all Cook County residents.
In fact, the center is on property owned by the county, although that took some investigating to nail down. Located in the shadow of the Tudor-style Cook County Forest Preserve District headquarters, the center sought a long-term lease several years back, but the ownership of the land was contested. Thanks to the efforts of Cook County Commissioner Pete Silvestri, among others, three years ago the county extended to the center a 10-year lease.
Their future temporarily secure, OPTC could now refocus on their campaign to resurface the courts, which hadn't been redone since 1970.
"The life of clay courts is about 20 years," says current OPTC President Rich Schuler. "We went twice that long." The project, which began under the direction of Schuler's predecessor, Jay Strode, was scheduled for completion in 2008 but they had to "wander through a minefield of permits," Schuler said, and construction didn't begin till this past November. Then winter came hard and early and work was postponed till mid-March.
Clay courts
But the fences have been replaced and trenches dug to install the new Welch Tennis HydroGrid Court Maintenance system, which brings water from a plastic reservoir beneath the courts to the surface to keep the clay moist. The Har-Tru "clay" is actually a mined, composite material, different from the red clay on the courts at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris (site of the French Open). Har-Tru's smaller granules are easily blown by the wind unless they're kept moist.
"On a hot day," Schuler says, "it was like playing in a sandbox."
Hosing down the courts left them unevenly watered, and you had to close them for a couple of hours to do so. The underground system keeps the clay just damp enough so the courts play smoother.
The project cost more than $400,000, and the center is still paying it off, but the results, Schuler says, make it all worthwhile.
"These are the only public Har-Tru clay courts in Cook County," Schuler says. "The county realizes this is a great example of a public-private partnership that provides a recreational resource it couldn't provide on its own."
The problem is convincing the public that it's public.
Getting the word out
"We're always fighting the 'exclusive' perception," Schuler says. In the winter, he plays indoors at the Tennis & Fitness Centre in Oak Park and when he brings up OPTC as a summer option, people usually say, "You've got to be invited by a member."
"Not true," Schuler says. But they've struggled to get the word out. OPTC currently has about 170 passholders, but would like to bump that number up to 200. In the past, he says, the center's board wasn't so eager to publicize their existence, "but that's changed," he says. "The lease arrangement gave us more impetus and our goals more emphasis."
OPTC is a nonprofit organization with a 10-member volunteer board. They have a pro (Pat Heneghan) and two assistant pros, who make most of their money running tennis camps for kids and giving private lessons. In addition, Heneghan earns a salary as the center's general manager.
A season pass starts at $570 for a single player, but anyone can pay the hourly rate. The season starts around April 15 and ends Columbus Day weekend (when the clubhouse closes), but passholders have access to the courts as long as the weather holds. Schuler says some years he's played through Thanksgiving weekend.
For those who haven't tried playing tennis on clay, Schuler says, "it's a great surface, especially if you're older or less in shape. It's a softer material and you don't get the wear and tear that you do on concrete." After a set on harder surfaces, he says, "I can't play for 2-3 days. Here I can play for 2-3 hours. It's a very forgiving surface."
And this new surface, he says, is "1,000 times better. I'm ecstatic the way the courts are playing now." Based on conversations with other clubs that use the new system, they expected the courts to play soft, "but we've heard very few complaints." Drainage has also improved considerably.
"After a hard rain," he recalls, "it took hours of soaking up and brushing. Now we can play 35-40 minutes later with minimal maintenance. That's huge with the weather we've had lately."
Socializing
One of the advantages of a facility like this, Schuler says, is the opportunity for social interaction. A long, shaded wooden porch separates the clubhouse from the courts and players can relax there and socialize. You can drop in by yourself and usually find someone to play.
The porch is also the setting for Sunday teas and Wednesday Nassau nights (the latter instituted this summer by Schuler, who serves Bahama Mamas and Yellowbirds, drinks he learned to make in the Caribbean). Tournaments are held, including the USTA Midwest Senior Men's Tourney in early August, which brings players from all over the region. They also run "century" tournaments (where the combined ages must exceed 100), blind-draw round-robins, and a "Bring a Ringer" doubles tourney. Tuesday is Women's Night. Thursday is Mixed.
Schuler plays mostly doubles. In fact, that's how he first encountered the center. His father, a passholder for over 30 years, invited him to play and they were set up against a couple of old geezers wearing knee braces, who promptly dispatched them with frightening efficiency.
"They beat us 6-1, 6-1. They knew all the angles," recalls Schuler, who had up to that point been a softball player and coach. He realized, "It's hard to get 10 guys to the diamond. With tennis you only need one or two others. In softball, you only get to bat 3-4 times. In tennis you get to hit the ball a lot more."
For camaraderie in softball, he adds, you went to the tavern after the game. At OPTC, he says, you bring a cooler and have a cold one on the porch with other players.
The clubhouse, in addition to the large screen TV set inside an old stone hearth surrounded by couches, offers full locker rooms with showers. Schuler calls them "quaint," but they allow passholders to play before work or during lunch and shower before going back to the office.
Holding court
Tennis court use has seen a resurgence in Oak Park in recent years as the park district has resurfaced some of its older courts. To attract new passholders, Schuler says, "We have to differentiate ourselves from the public courts, of which there are many of good quality."
To that end, they have an open house planned on Sunday, July 18 with open court time, food and beverages, and mini-lessons with the pro. You can also meet some of the older members, such as Janet and Paul French. Janet is a member of the Chicago Tennis Hall of Fame and a former pro here. Paul, in his 70s, likes to show up during the hottest part of the day, ready to play. Or Nelson Campbell, 88, a lifetime passholder.
OPTC also makes their facility available to non-profits for fundraisers, such as the one last Saturday for the Animal Care League. Things are quiet on Sunday evenings, which is when you're likely to find the West Suburban Tennis Patrons using some of the courts. The non-profit is run by Mel Phillips, a former pro at OPTC, who is on a mission to introduce at-risk kids from Maywood and the West Side to tennis. OPTC passholders help out as mentors and instructors. They also donate racquets and balls for kids who can't afford them.
The Oak Park Tennis Center is another of those well-kept secrets, waiting to be discovered, a community in search of players.
"If it wasn't for the Harlem traffic noise," Schuler testifies, "it would be a little piece of heaven."
