Correction: the wrong date was given in an earlier version of this article. It has since been update with the correct date of June 9. The Daily Herald apologizes for any confusion.
Alex Crawley is a huge fan of tennis. He’s confident others will love it too if they give it a shot.
Crawley is the head coach at the Prince Albert Tennis Club. The organization will host its first Try Tennis Day in Prince Albert on June 9. Crawley said they’re looking to boost the sport’s profile in the city.
“We’re trying something new,” he said.
“Tennis Saskatchewan has been really trying to grow Prince Albert’s tennis footprint. We had a very active club many years ago in Prince Albert, and for a few years, a little bit less active. Now we’re trying to rejuvenate things.”
The Prince Albert Tennis Club saw steady growth in recent years. The biggest boost came last summer when they started offering youth lessons for the first time in many years.
Crawley said they have about 20 kids in their youth program, which runs Wednesday evenings. Now they’re looking to build off of that momentum.
“We’ve got a couple of really good coaches who are happy to teach people a few things here and there about tennis (and) kind of introduce you to the sport,” he said.
The club also runs two weekly drop-in tennis nights until the end of August, and offers adult lessons Tuesday evening. Crawley said the ball is the main difference between their drop-in nights and Try Tennis Day. It’s a special beginner ball that leads to more rallies, which is what people love about the sport.
“It doesn’t go quite as fast,” he explained. “If you’re a beginner player you don’t have to be having these 100 km/hr balls whizzing by you. You can gradually get your strokes going. It makes it really a lot of fun because you get to start having a rally right away.”
Crawley said pickleball has become really popular in Prince Albert. If tennis is introduced in the right way, he said it can be just as fun to learn.
“People love pickleball because right away you get going in on the rallies and right away you get to have a game instantly, even if you’ve never picked up a racquet before. When you use the beginner tennis balls you can get that similar experience. We hope to get you addicted in the same way that people get addicted to pickleball.”
Crawley said they hope to increase tennis’ popularity so they can host local tournaments. Regina, Saskatoon, and Waskesiu all hold Open Tournaments during the summer, and Crawley said that’s the goal in Prince Albert too.
The club plans to host a small Closed Tournament later this summer.
“The dream one day would be to have the ability and facility to host our own province-wide open tournament like Saskatoon does and Regina does,” Crawley said. “In June, Waskesiu hosts their open tournament. That’s a really big deal, so we’d like to piggyback on top of some of these other events that other cities are offering.”
Try Tennis Day runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9 at the tennis courts on Bishop Pascal Place near Sacred Heart Cathedral. The event is free and attendees do not need to register. Crawley said if attendees like the sport, they can then register for lessons.
Attendees should bring their own racquet, but the club will have a couple spares on hand for those who don’t have one.
For more information, email tennisprincealbert@gmail.com.
Beating the heat
Temperatures soared to over 30 C on Thursday and Friday, but Crawley doesn’t expect heat to be a problem on Try Tennis Day. He said they normally play in the evenings when temperatures are starting to drop.
Smoke could be a concern, however.
“If it’s cooled off below 30 then we’re usually okay with it,” he said. “The heat can be a big deal. The smoke is usually a bigger issue than the heat. We might cancel because of smoke, but it’s pretty rare for us to cancel because of heat.”
@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca
