Ryan Warrick, Campus Carrier Staff Reporter
Elizabeth Bradford, Editor
In October, a truckload of packages from the United States Tennis Association (USTA) arrived at the Rome Floyd Tennis Center. The tennis rackets inside the boxes will soon be in the hands of many of the elementary school children in the Rome area.
Local tennis enthusiasts are working hard to grow the sport in the Rome community before the Tennis Center of Georgia (TCG) opens. With the construction of the 74-court facility likely to commence in the first quarter of 2015, Berry College administrators are also now discussing the ways the facility could offer work experience opportunities for students at Berry.
Since tournaments will only occupy a portion of the facility’s open hours, tennis professionals in Rome see a strong, local interest in tennis as crucial to the success of the TCG, according to David Elmer, assistant professor of kinesiology at Berry.
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| Photo illustration by Max Wave Media The construction of the Tennis Center of Georgia will likely begin in early 2015. |
Cristian Lopez, founder and co-owner of Rome Tennis Management (RTM), is collaborating with Rome’s elementary schools to organize after-school tennis programs for students. He is also in discussion with the Boys and Girls Club to add tennis to their curriculum.
“The community’s going to have to work together because there’s not enough people playing tennis,” Lopez said. “My goal is to be the company that grew the sport, that made it happen. There’s so much more to do than just the tournaments.”
Lopez and his associates also want to create tennis programs for handicapped and mentally disabled children.
“We’re hoping to have a lot of things in place by the time that the facility is built, but the truth is that there’s a ticking clock,” Lopez said. “Those courts are coming.”
Rome Tennis Management is looking to recruit Berry students to help teach tennis in the local school systems next year. Kinesiology department chair Angela Lanier said these students could then be certified to teach tennis at the TCG.
Lanier and Elmer said the kinesiology department is involved in the preliminary stages of developing a sports management major, which would be involved with the TCG. The major will be offered in the coming years.
“The USTA wants Berry to be involved from an academic standpoint,” Elmer said.
The new program would not focus solely on tennis but would be a more-inclusive sports administration major. Internships at the TCG for Berry students interested in sports management, tennis and exercise science are a very real possibility.
Danny Price, the general counsel at Berry, said the college’s student work program was looking to staff a few positions at the TCG.
“We don’t want to just monopolize all the jobs that might benefit the local community,” Price said. “But where we can, put students workers in, and they get good experience, and be a benefit to the tennis center. That’s something that is definitely being planned.”
Dean of Students Debbie Heida said Berry would be allowed to host invitational tennis meets at the TCG.
The City of Rome will soon review bids for the general contractor to build the facility. The TCG Steering Committee currently has a initial blueprint for how the tennis center will actually be positioned on the site.
“I can’t share it,” Price said. “But it looks really good.”
The funding for the Tennis Center of Georgia was the major focus of a special-purpose local-option sales-tax bill, which narrowly passed a referendum among residents of Rome and Floyd County in November of last year.