By Scarlett Tarango & Isabella Capulong
Benicia High school is home to many great sports teams, including our tennis teams. The campus has 6 tennis courts that are frequently used by students, but are these courts too outdated? The courts lack one major component, bleachers.
A variety of Benicia High students use the courts. Currently, there is an active season of fall girls tennis, they have 26 players on the team and in spring there’s boys tennis. Besides our tennis teams, the PE classes also often use the courts for different sports.
The performing arts building is set to be completely remodeled by next year for our dance, band, and drama students, and our high school football field has been newly remodeled as of 2017. Other areas in the school like our tennis courts may be becoming neglected upgrades. The tennis courts are one of the very few areas on campus where there are no bleachers to watch games.
Though the idea of bleachers on the tennis courts would be nice, getting them installed might not be as easy. Coach of the girls tennis team, Delvin Watts stated, “Tennis for the girls usually attracts 15-20, maybe 25 spectators. Bleachers would be great but not feasible.”
There is very little room on the court where bleachers could be installed without entirely remodeling the courts. “There is no room on the courts and with the blue panthers wind screen it would be tough to look through to see the action if the bleachers were outside the courts,” said Watts. While bleachers would be useful for students and spectators, there just simply isn’t enough space or spectators at games for the school to completely remodel.
Even though adding bleachers may not be possible as of right now, that doesn’t mean the tennis courts should be ignored for upgrades. When asked what other upgrades might be useful for students, Watts incited, “Lights for the courts would be amazing for fall tennis.” Smaller upgrades for the courts like lights would be a great start to making sure the courts stay updated.
beniciapaw.com 