The public tennis courts at a high school near Lake Norman, N.C., are closed indefinitely after someone damaged the court by adding pickleball lines, the school’s athletic director said.
“During a recent use of our tennis courts, pickleball lines were taped to the court’s surface, pulling up the competition tennis lines when removed,” East Lincoln High School athletic director Chris Matile said in a Facebook post late Saturday afternoon, as reported by The Charlotte Observer.
“As a result, the tennis facilities will be closed to the public until further notice."
No one has come forward to confess to adding the pickleball lines, Matile told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday. He asked anyone who knows who added the lines to email him at [email protected].
“These were two brand new courts that cost close to $300,000 and were just completed in June, through a lot of hard work by our tennis coach, Rollin Mackel, and many in our community,” Matile said.
It’s not clear how much it would cost to paint on new tennis court lines. The contractor who installed the new courts is on vacation, and school officials hope to connect with the company next week, Matile said.
The contractor installed the courts with money from a grant the school obtained from Mooresville-based Lowe’s Cos. Inc., funding from Lincoln County Schools and “our own funding through athletics and our athletics booster account,” Matile said.
It’s still unknown whether the damage was intentional, although Matile said he doesn’t think it was.
“We just unfortunately have gotten to a point in society where we feel like we are entitled to do what we want to do, without thoughts on how our decisions can affect the next person — in this case, our tennis team and our athletic department,” he said.
Officials are adding signs to the courts to make clear they are for tennis play only, he said.
“We will get it fixed and then hopefully reopen to the public,” Matile said. “We have many in our community that enjoy playing tennis for fitness, enjoyment of the game and opportunities for families and friends to come together for some outdoor fun.”
According to sources cited by The Charlotte Observer, pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in America, but tennis is still the more popular of the two, with roughly 10 million more participants nationwide.
