Avid tennis players and Jasper Racquet Club members Ann Thomas and Dennis Zaffino are teaming up with a group of racquet-wielding friends to improve beleaguered tennis courts in Jasper. At the same time, they hope to establish new pickleball courts on the site of the current skateboard park behind the Jasper Junior/Senior High School.
The current surface of the tennis courts, located next to the Jasper Activity Centre, is a hodgepodge of asphalt and shock-absorbent rubber tile surfacing. The older asphalt is in rough shape.
“It wasn't that good on your body for older players,” Thomas said.
The rubber tile surfacing is not much better, unfortunately, especially on the hot days of summer such as we have seen recently.
“What happens is, it bubbles up in the heat. This afternoon, you'll just see a little hill,” Thomas said.
That buckling doesn’t just interfere with people trying to play proper tennis matches; that buckling creates a major safety hazard. One bad bounce and you could trip, she said.
“So, yeah, it's not the greatest.”
The sports advocates are looking to the province’s Community Facilities Enhancement Grant program for help. They already have a commitment from the Municipality of Jasper for matching funding for any grant, but that $125,000 aid is earmarked for 2026.
They hope to have all of the funding in place as soon as possible so that the work can be done in 2025.
“The goal would be to take everything out. This has to go,” Zaffino said, looking at the bedraggled tennis courts and admiring the eager and energetic players hard at their games.
The funding that they hope to have in place would resurface the three tennis courts. The hope is that they could still use the existing skateboard park surface for three new pickleball courts.
Pickleball is rising in popularity and has a much lower impact, making it more accessible for players of all ages and abilities. A combination of tennis, ping pong and badminton, pickleball has smaller courts, shorter racquets with larger heads, the net is shorter, and the ball is plastic and covered with holes, giving it the vague appearance of a pickle.
“It’s catching on,” Zaffino said. “Quite honestly, it's because the learning curve is short. There's not a lot of rules, and you can go from a beginner to an intermediate in a matter of months. It's the fastest growing sport, I believe, in North America.”
The Jasper Racquet Club is hosting an upcoming information meeting to garner public support as its members strive to put forward the grant request to the province. Zaffino said that heavy community involvement helps the provincial grant process.
Their goal is to sign up 100 members to the club to help demonstrate the popular support behind the cause.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. Thursday (July 18) at the Jasper Activity Centre.
Those who cannot attend the information meeting can learn more on the Facebook pages Jasper Racquet Club or Jasper Pickleball, or by calling Thomas at 780-883-0334.
