June 12, 2020 · 0 Comments
By Brian Lockhart
The Orangeville Tennis Club is up and operating with players now being allowed on the courts.
It was a soft opening compared to most years.
The Club didn’t have their annual grand opening, clean-up day, and barbecue this year due to the COVID-19 crisis, but at least they are back out on the courts.
Tennis is one of a handful of sports that have been given the go-ahead to start up for the season.
Golf is the other sport that has been given the thumbs up by the provincial government.
With the opening comes a bunch of new rules.
There is a code of conduct from the Town of Orangeville posted at the courts.
New rules include singles play only between members who aren’t related. Doubles is allowed as long as everyone on the court from the same family or household.
The directive also suggests de-santizing and refraining from hand shakes, fist bumps, and high-fives.
The Club is welcoming new members and lessons are underway, but the lessons also come with rules of conduct that must be followed.
“Because of the late start – we normally open in April – we’ve reduced the membership fees by 20 per cent,” explained Club president, Rosanne Brett. “It all on our website. The fees are already reduced. We do have some rules to follow because of COVID and they are posted on the gate.”
Tennis as a sport, naturally has players social distancing on the court, which is why the province deemed it okay to get back out and play.
“You’re out in the fresh air and you can only get four people on a court to begin with,” Rosanne said. “We were not able to our registration, barbecue and opening day. That all got cancelled. If someone wants to join, they have to join and pay on-line. Our leagues are now on hold as you can only play doubles if you’re from the same household, and most of our leagues are doubles. This is a sport for young and old, families, and singles, for anybody, and it’s outside in the fresh air.”
For Club pro, Mike Soden, the new directives have altered the way he teaches the sport on the court.
“The lessons are going to change a bit,” Mike explained. “We had popular group lessons and we just can’t offer them this year. Our most popular thing, especially for kids, was we had large group lessons. We had up to 12 kids on the court and we’d play fun games. We just can’t do that. In the classes I’m doing here today, we’ve got two members from one family doing a semi-private lesson. Because of the restrictions, it’s more private or semi-private. Parents will come with their kids, which is great because they can all be on the court together. They can all be on the court because they’re all in the same household.”
Last year around 60 kids had lessons at the Club. This year, with close to the same number of students, the classes have to be spread out.
Mike is the only pro at the Club so he has his work cut out for him. He works with players to determine their skill level and goes from there to teach them sport and hone their skills on the court.
“It’s a recreational club so we’re going to have a lot of beginners,” he said. “Every year we’ll have 25 or 30 new members. Every year we’ll get a whole new slate of beginners coming in.”
To learn more about the Club you can visit on-line at www.orangevlletennisclub.ca.