Posts
Christopher Foy
Professor Fuller
English 111
December, 5 2009
Personal essay Final Draft
The Public Club Resort
I barely believed what was happening! As I deliberately walked back to the base line, I realized that not only had I drawn an opponent that I could actually beat, but my game had also decided to show up that particular Friday evening in southern California. My opponent was using drop shots as if to challenge my speed, which was playing right into my hands. My agility and footwork was (and is) one of my favorite ways to beat people. As I walked to the tournament desk with a prideful smirk on my face and told the tournament director I had beaten my opponent “3 and 3.” The date was June 10 my opponent Nicholas Vance, the venue is one of the most special places to any southern California junior tennis player Barnes Tennis Center.
What makes Barnes so prestigious is a very elusive aura. Obviously its geography doesn’t hurt, in the middle of San Diego right across from Sea World gives the feel of a vacation resort to start with. Barnes, However, is not like that; not in a snooty country club resort kind of way. It was built partially on a grant and public donations to bring tennis to the inner city communities. Unlike all the other tennis centers built under these terms the community actually seems proud of Barnes; like the grant worked. I know there are multiple other places I played tennis in inner city San Diego that I would not return to if you paid me: torn up courts, destroyed nets, trashy low income neighborhoods right next to the courts. None of these factors in themselves are really all that bad but when I’m sixteen years old and my Dad feels like he needs to escort me through the community center to use the bathroom before my match and a hobo smoking a joint starts flirting with my mother, obviously something has failed to work. I say this not to degrade the communities or the efforts of the tennis community in Southern California to bring tennis to the inner city but rather to contrast the amazing success that Barnes has had over the last few decades.
The center itself is like a candy store to any kid who loved tennis like I did. Just the sound of twenty-five courts at one facility with four of them being clay is always an attractive proposal. For a kid who either played at the almost always empty courts down the street with no hitting partners in sight, or the five courted Oceanside tennis center where me and my hitting partners often had to wait for a court. The layout of the courts is beautiful and perfect. The annoying factors of courts built too close to one another and hearing those sometimes heartbreaking words “Ball on!” as you are in the process of winning a point don’t even exist at Barnes. I can’t remember ever happening at any of my matches.
I picked up the game when I was about twelve years old in El Paso, Texas at the El Paso Youth Tennis Center, a very respectable community project in its own right. About eight months before my dad (an active duty Marine) got stationed at Camp Pendelton, I was taking group lessons at the El Paso Youth Tennis Center. The head pro told us that if we had time to go check out the Barnes Tennis Center. I knew of Barnes by reputation before I really knew that much about tennis at all. As my talent at a player increased one of my first tournaments was there. My doubles partner and I got to head up to Barnes for our first youth tournament. We played decently but the entire time I was on the grounds I was just fascinated with the place. It was like a giant green playground. Full of great programs and youth that loved the game as much as I did. Living about an hour away I didn’t get to visit near as often as I would have liked to but every time I loved it.
Barnes is special because it is so unique to any other tennis venue in southern California. It has the facility and programs of an expensive country club but has the environment of your public courts down the street. Players from both backgrounds meet here to do battle on an entirely level playing field without regard for race religion or socioeconomic status just a net, a court, two rackets, and a can of balls and the possibilities are endless. As a player I had my share of tournaments at both extremes. Private country clubs where you didn’t feel welcome unless your dad made 6 figures and tournaments in the slums where you felt uneasy about the drive home if your match went too late. Every time I got the privilege of stepping on one of the twenty-five courts I could feel that this was different. This was different this was how tennis was supposed to be played. If I could ever own or run my own tennis center it would look a lot like Barnes Tennis Center
