For Redmond resident Jim Uyesugi, it was a project driven by his passion for the game.
As The Overlake School girls’ tennis coach and founder of the local non-profit Northwest Sports Foundation, he has been eager to build a tennis facility in the city of Redmond.
“I’ve been working in the Pacific Northwest primarily in the tennis environment for the last six years, helping juniors and doing different training programs,” Uyesugi said. “It’s pretty much all been volunteer up to this point. We’re at a point where we have made the contacts in the community and people know who we are. It’s time we got started building some more tennis courts.”
To rally community support, he decided to go directly to King County and propose a total makeover of Marymoor’s old, cracked and fading tennis courts to help draw more people into the park.
“I said I’d cover half the cost of the resurfacing if they’d cover the other half,” Uyesugi recalled. “The next morning they came out and said, ‘Jim, we’ll pay for the whole thing and you can program the classes.’ It worked out really well for us.”
The project, which cost approximately $23,000, was just finished last week and got rave reviews.
“It was a steal,” said Uyesugi on the price tag of the renovation. “Having new courts like this is going to attract a lot of attention, and people are going to want to come out here to play.”
Uyesugi also commented that there simply are not enough places to play in Redmond, and that it was essential to upgrade the existing facilities before going forward with his ultimate vision of opening up a bigger tennis facility at Marymoor, which currently holds four courts.
“With the condition the courts were in before, even though they were horrible, there are not enough courts around,” he said. “With our tennis instruction programs, we hope to generate more interest, and support, for building more courts out here.”
TENNIS, ANYONE?
In conjunction with the unveiling of the park’s beautiful new courts, Uyesugi has been working with the county and Marymoor Park to schedule summer tennis classes for all ages and abilities.
The classes currently run for one and a half hours, from 7-8:30 p.m. and 8:30-10 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
Each session costs $25 for a drop-in, and participants can pre-register for four classes at the rate of $75, which gives them one session for free.
“We want to make sure the students get a real good experience, both having fun and getting good instruction, so I have at least one and a half instructors per court,” Uyesugi explained. “They get more individual time with the students, helping them to learn.”
In the initial week, the classes drew approximately 16 attendees, with enrollment expected to increase summer rolls on.
“They will continue at least through the end of August,” said Uyesugi of the classes. “If interest stays high, we will go on through September, if the weather stays good.”
For more information or to register for a tennis class at Marymoor Park, contact Uyesugi at jim@uyesugi.org or call (425) 577-9999.
