Ray Cirimele and Margie Del Prete     

It was a typical Saturday morning last April 10th at the Del Mar High tennis courts in San Jose. As dawn broke, the sky was overcast, but as often happens in the Bay Area, the sun came through and brought another lovely day. Six of the seven court were in use, all with doubles play, mostly mixed doubles. Then at a few minutes after ten, a loud voice boomed across the complex. "STOP THE TENNIS. IT’S TIME TO START WORKING". It was Chuck Jacobson announcing the beginning of the latest improvement project, the replacement of the tattered windscreens that were fastened to the cyclone fencing surrounding the tennis courts.

The Saturday morning tennis group, consisting of Apres Ski Club members and their friends, were ready to begin. In the past, the tyro athletics and the ski club had financed and provided new nets, benches, on-site storage for brooms and water removal equipment, trash cans and the original windscreens. It’s no secret that California public schools have been under tremendous financial pressure that has eliminated most non-academic spending, and athletic facilities were among the first to go. A solution to the problem was devised years ago. A predecessor tennis group struck an agreement with Del Mar High. Later, the arrangement was taken over by the current Apres group and their friends. The agreement provides that the tennis players would have access to the courts on Saturday mornings in exchange for providing certain maintenance and improvements. Normally the courts are kept locked to prevent vandalism, but when they are open on Saturday mornings, the courts are available for Apres and their friends and for other members of the public. The courts are locked up again around mid-day. It’s a great example of a win-win situation.

Under the direction of Chuck, about 32 Apres members and their friends started the installation of new windscreens. The guys did most of the hazardous physical work, while the gals kept the guys supplied with lemonade and snacks. The project was kind of like putting up giant sheets of wallpaper except that instead of wallpaper held on with paste, the laborers were installing woven plastic fabric held on with hog rings. The windscreen is heavy, and green and about 10 feet wide and very very long. In addition to keeping the wind from blowing tennis balls around, the dark green color provides a backdrop that aids the players in spotting fast moving tennis balls in flight. The hog rings are angry looking sharpened C shaped segments of heavy wire just over one inch high that fasten the windscreen to the cyclone fence. The hog ring gets it name because it resembles a device that was once fastened to the noses of domesticated pigs to keep them from rooting around in the pigsty. Imagine what those old pig farmers would think if they knew how their invention is used today. But before the fabric is attached to the cyclone fence it must be carefully put into position and stretched out. This requires brave men standing on rickety eight-foot wooden ladders. Well, two rickety eight foot wooden ladders and one sturdy eight-foot fiberglass ladder, but that’s beside the point. Looking up while working on a ladder is much more difficult than it sounds when a bright sun is shining. Then the fabric is positioned and the fastening procedure starts. As with hanging wallpaper, getting started is the hard part.

After the fabric is attached, black plastic rope is threaded horizontally along the middle of the fabric for additional reinforcement and more fasteners are installed. The ground was littered with wasted fasteners when the project was finished. Actually, the project wasn’t quite finished; there was a shortage of hog rings.

But it was almost finished.

Special thanks to Chuck for organizing the project and for bringing the fabric and the ubiquitous hog rings to the site. Also, special thanks to the many tennis players who brought ladders and tools and who raised over $400 for the project; and thanks to the Apres Ski Club for the matching grant. Everyone appreciated the sliced apples provided by Annie Bryant, the homemade cookies baked by Linda Lloyd and the lemonade provided by Margie Del Prete, Darlene Lanham and Shirley Taylor. Everyone is looking forward to playing at the new, improved Del Mar High tennis courts.