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On May 20,
2009, at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 30 minutes after arriving
at Diamond Lakes Tennis Center for check-in, 3.0 ladies teams
Shellnut, Stanton, Reynolds and Swann took the “Small Step” into
Augusta public tennis’ greater future when they walked out onto the
eight brand new courts, and hit the very the first balls over the
very first nets ever standing at this brand new
facility. |
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This State League Championships is, of course, the first-ever event to be
held at Diamond Lakes. These ladies took the courts even before the
facility’s grand opening, slated for the first weekend in August.
Construction crews broke ground at the new facility, located about 15 miles
from Newman, in October of 2008. If you’ve been out there you’ll see
there’s still plenty of space (some five-and-a-half acres, to be kind of
exact) that has been cleared, upon which to build. The eight courts
currently there are just the first phase of a very large project that, when
complete, will be home to an entire athletic complex. Still to come are
eight more tennis courts, a golf course and driving range, soccer fields,
and an area for beach volleyball.
The tennis facility portion of the project totals about $900,000 - so far.
The USTA is proud to have contributed $50,000 of that hefty amount through a
USTA Public Facility Funding Grant awarded to the City of Augusta Recreation
and Parks Department.
A
building with a pro shop (and restrooms) at the tennis facility are next in
line for construction. What? No restrooms there now? That’s right, but
don’t you worry about the ladies out there, sent off on this “tennis
expedition” of sorts. They’ve been enjoying “executive restrooms” (that’s a
fancy name for some very nice port-o-lets). But these things are actually
very clean, they smell nice and fresh, they have running water, and they’re
air conditioned! In fact, we’ve had trouble getting some of the ladies to
come back out into this humidity! Another great thing about this brand new
facility - brand new roll-dryers. Well, they were brand new Friday. I
believe they’ve been used a fair amount since then. These pretty new courts
sure do shine – even in the rain!
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