President Lesley Hallick and Director of Athletics Ken Schumann celebrate ribbon cutting for the Holce Tennis Courts with the Pacific tennis teams.
After two years, Pacific tennis returns home
Dedication of the Thomas Holce Tennis Courts officially brings the Pacific tennis teams home after two years of practices and matches away from Forest Grove
FOREST GROVE - Pacific University Director of Athletics Ken Schumann may have said it best: “Good things come to those who wait.”
For Pacific’s men’s and women’s tennis teams, that wait was two years. Two years of rising at 4:45 a.m. for a 6 a.m. practice in Beaverton and a quick return to make 8 a.m. classes. Two years of late night practices, sacrificing precious study time to hit the ball as late as midnight. Two years of not playing a home match in front of a home crowd.
Those two years came to an end Thursday as the University dedicated the Thomas Holce Tennis Courts with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a serving demonstration. While the teams had been using the courts for their non-traditional practice season for over a month, the ceremony was certainly cause for celebration and reflection.
“This new facility is state of the art and a beauty,” said Dayna Wong, a fourth year member of the Pacific women’s tennis program. “We have a place where we can play our home matches in front of our friends, faculty and fans. There hasn’t been a day that we have not been out playing on them.”
Brian Jackson echoed Wong’s sentiment. In his third year as head coach of the Pacific men’s program, he sees the new facility as a catalyst to growing what is already an improving program.
“It’s difficult to stay motivated when you are not able to practice to the extent you would like, and when you perform, you are not able to have your friends and professors cheer you on,” Jackson said. “I promise you that (the teams) are driven to continue our upward path and prove that they deserve such a wonderful facility to call home.”
The Holce Courts are more than just a home set of courts, but gives Pacific a club caliber facility. The venue, at the corner of Cedar St. and University Ave., is comprised of six Plexipave courts. Three of the courts are covered by a medal roof and lighted, allowing for practice and play throughout the year. The courts are already being lauded as one of the best in the west at the small college level.
It’s quite a feather in the cap for a program that has been homeless for two seasons.
The University’s former home, also known as the Holce Courts, became a victim of the University’s rapid growth over the past five years. The four-court venue was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Gilbert Residence Hall. With no land on which to construct new courts, the varsity programs were left virtually homeless.
The loss of their venue was another hard blow for the programs, which had been struggling through a long stretch of adversity. From 2001 to 2008, the Pacific men’s program had won a grand total of six matches and never more than three in a year. The Boxer women had struggled more, winning just three matches during that same time span.
Then came the aspect of every practice and every match becoming a road trip. Without home courts of their own, the closest suitable venue for practices was the Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation District’s Tennis Center in Beaverton. Every practice required a 30-minute bus trip each way.
Scheduling and classes forced the teams to practice early in the morning or late at night. The women often drew the morning slot, loading onto a bus at 5 a.m., and often with blankets and pillow in tow. An hour and a half of practice was followed by another 30-minute bus trip to get back to campus in time to shower and make it to 8 a.m. classes.
The men pulled a later practice time, which was no less grueling. Practices after 9 p.m. meant a return to campus around midnight. While certainly not a late hour for the common college student, the schedule cut into time usually set aside for studying or on-campus activities. Either schedule required uncommon commitment.
“In my mind, any one of us who caught the bus to go to tennis practice those two years were real student-athletes,” said Wong, a chemistry major from Hilo, Hawaii, who called the stretch the toughest of her athletic career. “We all had to adjust our schedules dramatically not only to practice and play matches, but also to study and keep up academically.”
But in the light of adversity, the Boxers began to flourish thanks to dedication of Jackson and women’s coach Sandy Garry. In 2009, the Pacific women won eight matches, qualified for the Northwest Conference Tournament for the first time since 2005. Their fourth place finish was the best for the program since 1983.
The Pacific men just missed their own trip to the NWC Tournament, finishing with seven victories and saw five players win at least seven matches in the singles. Both teams saw their win total surpass what they had done over the last seven years combined.
“The biggest challenges has been the fact that we haven’t bee able to provide our student-athletes the opportunity to achieve their potential with ample practice time,” Jackson said, “and not being able to enjoy the support of a Pacific University crowd.”
The covered surface provides another advantage. With the old Holce Courts, rain still forced the teams to either travel to Tualatin Hills for practice or fight with other spring programs to use the University’s fieldhouse, located in the Pacific Athletic Center. Not anymore.
“We will enjoy practicing on those occasional spring days that we get sun, but I especially like the covered courts for those rainy Oregon days,” Wong said. “No more hitting balls in the water or driving rain.”
Jackson hopes that the net result will be a continued upswing in the quality and success of the program. That will likely not only manifest itself in improved play of current players, but by being able to attract better players with a first class facility.
“Pacific University has always valued athletics, but in recent years that value has reached a whole new and exciting level,” Jackson said.
Again, good things have come to a pair of coaches who have waited.
BOXER BYTES: The Holce Courts opened for use in June…The site continues over 100 years of varsity athletic use at the corner of Cedar St. & University Ave. The site was Pacific’s home football field until 1992, and then was Tom Reynolds Soccer Field from 1992 to 2007…The new Holce Courts also brings the program full circle. The University’s original tennis complex was located just south of the current site, where Price Hall now sits.
Posted by Blake Timm (timmbr@pacificu.edu) on Oct 2, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Edited by Alana Kansaku-Sarmiento (kans2166@pacificu.edu) on Oct 18, 2009 at 5:24 PM
