Tennis club preparing for busy season on the courts

By Ryan McCracken on April 30, 2018.

NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Doug Thomas returns a shot to Richelle Thomas and Riley Danroth during a Medicine Hat Tennis Club Spring Mix and Match game with partner Lauren Danroth on Saturday evening.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tennis Club is gearing up for another great year on the courts.

Members made their way down to the club for Saturday’s annual general meeting and season-kickoff Spring Mix and Match, and president Linda Norris says there’s already plenty to get excited about.

“I think it’s going to be another good year,” said Norris. “We have the City Singles Tournament at the end of May, then we have the Barrie Shave on Father’s Day weekend and this is going to be our 20th year for that. It’s going to be a very big year and we’re going to try to make it extra special.”

Norris says they’ve made a few minor changes to the fundraising format of the Barrie Shave tournament for its 20th year by creating the option to donate directly to the Margery E. Yuill Cancer Centre at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital or to the Canadian Cancer Society. Shave was an important club member who died of pancreatic cancer in 1999 and the club has been giving back in his memory ever since.

“A lot of (Shave’s) family is going to be coming down and a lot of people who were connected with it when it originally started, so that’s going to be great,” said Norris. “A lot of people have said it’s just a really good feeling, that tournament. It just works out to be a really nice weekend and we usually get a lot of people to play in the tournament just because of the purpose of it.”

The usual favourites will also be back this season from the City Singles to the June’s Tim Hortons Medicine Hat Junior Open and the Medicine Hat Open — starting with the singles and doubles tournament in late August before ending off the season with the mixed doubles bracket in September. Norris added membership seems to steadily rise every season and this one has been no exception, especially at the junior level. The club opened its junior program for the season on Saturday afternoon, and Norris says the courts were bustling with young local talent.

“We noticed it already today, we had full attendance,” she said.

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