The Crookston High School tennis courts have new fencing and the courts themselves will be resealed sometime in July. The fencing portion of the project is already complete outside of a couple of small details that need to be finished.
Activities Director Greg Garmen said it was time to fix up the courts. “We had a couple of things happen last year, we had a wind storm that blew down the Northwest corner a little bit, and over the years, the frost has continued to push up the fences a little bit, so balls are rolling underneath them,” said Garmen. “We felt it was time to do something, and the board agreed.”
The grounds crew helped get the new fencing up and complete the job. One of the biggest changes to the courts is removing fencing on the inside of the complex. “We had been going to Alexandria for years, and their courts are side by side with a stretch down the middle just like ours,” said Garmen. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve discussed putting bleachers in the middle and giving fans the chance to watch from inside the courts.”
Garmen acknowledged that it would look a little different for fans, but it will give fans the freedom to watch any match they would like or multiple courts at once now that the middle will be wide open.
The City of Crookston is also redoing the courts over by Highland, and Garmen says they plan to use the same company to reseal the high school courts. “We’re due for a resurfacing, so we’re going to take care of that and change the color scheme as well,” said Garmen. “We’re going to go with navy blue and grey for the colors. We would’ve gone navy blue and gold, but then it may have been too hard to see the tennis ball.”
Garmen joked that it might have been a home-court advantage to go with navy blue and gold for the colors but decided it would be best not to. The resealing will take place sometime in July and will need to be finished by the end of the month as girls tennis starts up on August 16 this year. “I told the company we need to have it done by the end of July because,” said Garmen. “It’s taking more time at Highland right now because they needed more layers, our courts shouldn’t, as we’ve only resurfaced our courts once, so I’m hoping they can get on the project and get it done sometime here in July.”
