USC may lose its recreational tennis courts, and students and professors are raising a racket.
According to members of the club tennis team and USC tennis professors, USC allegedly has plans to demolish the recreational tennis and pickleball courts as a part of the baseball stadium expansion and has yet to make plans for a replacement for fall 2024.
Players of USC’s Club Tennis Team, who use the courts for their practice, said they are concerned about whether they can play next year.
“We aren’t feeling super supported by the university right now,” said Elizabeth Stuart-Chaffoo, the club team’s co-president. “They’re not giving us answers.” According to a USC Recreational Sports statement, the existing recreational tennis and pickleball courts will be removed in May 2024 as part of the development of new Athletics facilities in that space.
“The university is actively investigating options for replacement of these courts in order to continue providing access to recreational tennis and pickleball facilities for the USC community. Further information will be shared in the coming months as details become available on this initiative,” the statement said.
Khai-Ly Tran, the club team’s vice president, started a petition on Feb. 12, which urges that “USC prioritizes the replacement of these tennis and pickleball courts elsewhere on campus by the start of the fall 2024 academic year or with the same urgency as the athletic expansion.”
The petition aims to show how many people care about these courts, according to Stuart-Chaffoo. It already has over 1,000 signatures, and the number continues to increase daily.
Stuart-Chaffoo spoke highly of the team, explaining how it has given her some of her closest friends and a community outside of her classes. Her teammate, Hannah Jiang, who is a co-captain, conveyed a similar feeling of distress as if the courts are ripped up, the club team will have nowhere to practice. Jiang is a junior and hopes to have one more tennis season for her senior year.
“Club Tennis is my primary source of activity, getting outside, being active and staying healthy,” Jiang said.
But the benefits of tennis apply to a much broader crowd than just the Club Tennis Team.
Timothy Burton has worked as a tennis professor at USC for about 18 years.
“I’ve never seen those courts so busy my whole life,” he said. “I’ve never seen how this many people interacted, played and socialized.”
USC teaches about 15 tennis classes each semester, which all have about 20 students. The university also recently added pickleball classes. So, the tennis courts are a big part of the school’s physical education department.
Burton said he asked the athletics department about the possibility of using the David X. Marks Tennis Stadium, which is used for the Division I tennis team, for his tennis classes.
“We’ve asked the athletics department multiple times about availability, but we have no answer,” Burton said. “They’re really slow to get back to us.”
Even if the club team and tennis classes can use the tennis stadium, it may be more unlikely that recreational players will have that luxury.
Jiang said she sees the demand for the courts among the USC community when “people will literally line up outside the courts waiting to use the courts as soon as we’re done with practice.”
Burton said he also often asks recreational players to leave as the courts are full when he needs to teach a class.
Joshua Maya is a physical education professor who teaches both tennis and pickleball. After starting this position at USC in 2023, a colleague asked him whether he plans to teach other sports.
Maya said he plans to teach golf and yoga if the courts are not replaced, but he said “pickleball is a more special class to teach.”
Maya added that he likes how pickleball is a collaborative sport that forces his students to laugh and have fun with each other.
“People have the most fun in that class,” he said. “It creates these friendships and more of a connection.”
He also explained how pickleball is growing nationally and internationally as many universities add pickleball programs.
“This is the time to get ahead of the game, not take a step backward,” Maya said.