Escanaba High School added four new tennis courts making eight in total. This will allow them to hold regional competitions at their school. There will be a dedication ceremony Monday night at 6:00pm.

Tom Penegor, the Escanaba boys tennis coach, said, “So this year we added four new tennis courts and a pavilion this year. The four new tennis courts along with the four existing ones gives us a total of eight. We play four singles matches and four doubles matches. So those are split up on the two sets of four courts. In the middle we have our pavilion and that’s where we put all of our equipment. That’s where people sit and watch and they are protected in case we do get some rain. We also feature bleachers that we put all around the facility so that people can watch the matches. In the past we didn’t have that. They had to watch it pretty much from the end.” 

Dave Wilson, Escanaba’s athletic director, said, “For all these years we only had four courts. The generosity started last spring and summer. We started building four new courts. It’s huge for the kids, for being able to practice on new tennis courts and not being able to leave because we only had the four courts here. We do have tennis courts around town and they are very nice and the city of Escanaba is very generous for letting us use their courts, but we are together here as a team, and practicing together.”

Chris Ogren, Escanaba’s girls tennis coach, said, “Having eight courts together here at the high school means I can coach my entire team in one place. I can see them all. When matches finish in the past we would have to decide to head down to the other set of courts to see if they are still playing over there. Well now when we finish up we are all in the same location and feel more like a team all together in one place playing all of our matches together.”

Darci Stenfors, Escanaba high school’s principal, ‘In terms of students, when you have the type of facility like our football field, or softball field, or baseball field, a team knows they have a facility that is safe and well kept and nice looking, they take ownership and pride in that they help keep it in that condition. You will see our groups use that court in our area taking good care of those facilities for many years to come.”