Peninsula Tennis Club’s Wednesday Morning Clinic
From the Third Option / July 22, 2022
Public park tennis in San Diego began a hundred years ago this month when players raised $5,000 to build what is now the Balboa Tennis Club.
The number one racket sport in the country is also the fastest-growing, with 6.8 million new and returning tennis players in 2020 alone— a growth spurt of 22%. Research claims it adds ten years to a player’s lifespan; data also reveals it to be the safest sport to play during a pandemic.
One of the main hubs of public park tennis — Peninsula Tennis Club —is located at Robb Field Park in Ocean Beach. Home to Point Loma High School tennis, Peninsula also serves 1300 other tennis enthusiasts and wears many hats within the tennis community.
USTA League Coordinator Randie Lettington: “San Diego has enjoyed double digit participation increases for the past 6 years…Peninsula Tennis Club alone has over 23 USTA teams in 2022.”
Women’s Fall/Winter Tennis League Commissioner Eileen Carroll (who runs the 40-year league out of Peninsula with four other members): “our league accommodates between 35 and 45 teams (depending on the season), each with a roster of 20-30 players each.”
Starting August 5th, Peninsula will assist Barnes Tennis Center for the twelfth straight year as it hosts the National Girl’s 16-18 Tennis Championships; the winners receive an automatic berth into the U.S. Open (held late in August).
Tennis clinics have never been busier for Bob Simmons, in his 24th year teaching at Peninsula. “I teach seven groups of 30 students each week, which is all I can reasonably handle; this past Wednesday [July 20] we had 60 people sign up.” The numbers have helped the nonprofit completely renovate over the past five years, with new windscreens, nets, LED lighting, and fully resurfaced courts.
Peninsula Tennis members meet with city officials today (July 22) to discuss building dedicated pickleball courts within Robb Field. 30% of pickleball players do not play tennis, and erroneously believe pickleball is played on a tennis court. Pickleball is actually a separate game with its own special court; tennis patrons will attempt to help this fledgling group achieve individual status.
For more on all things San Diego Tennis, go here and here.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for posting the article “100 Years of the Sport in San Diego Highlights Peninsula Tennis Club” regarding Peninsula Tennis Clubs fight against a hostile takeover by two pickleball privateers. We were hoping that you could also read the following article on our website: https://forebrainunderground.com/tennis-pickleball-other-civil-war-stories/ which goes into further detail as to what these two individuals are doing by trying to dismantle the Peninsula Tennis club. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us, and I would be happy to have some of the tennis players provide a statement.
Thank you,
Dimitry
Come on OBRag! This is not a real article. It is paid marketing piece written by Peninsula Tennis staff. At a minimum it said be labeled as an OP-ED piece. But it is really paid advertising. Boo!
The article you posted and the other one in the comments originate the below media marketing source. They call it “sponsored placement”. In other words Peninsula/the tennis community paid to have these pieces published. Pieces that are written by anti-pickleball folks.
https://www.prnewswire.com/sponsored-placement/
No one paid us to post the article. You’re obviously a partisan in the pickle vs tennis conflict, but seriously, a compromise needs to be reached, and so far no agency or governmental arm has stepped in and resolved this. Both sides have issues, and share a common interest: getting the city to do something.
David, you make a very good point. Hopefully, in the future, OBRAG will require authors to ONLY publish articles where they reveal their full names. Accountability is something that I am sure we can all agree on is vital for healthy public debate.
It was written by Bob Simmons…an instructor that works at Peninsula. He has a marketing guy that publishes “articles” for him.