After 24 years, will Berkeley High get its tennis courts back?

Youth tennis players, coaches and parents gathered at the first Berkeley Unified School Board meeting of the year Wednesday to implore leaders to bring playing courts back to Berkeley High School — and board directors indicated they could soon get their wish. 

The school has been without home tennis courts for 24 years, and some worry about what will happen to Berkeley High’s tennis programs if the alternative courts they’ve been playing on go away. BUSD community members said it’s been frustrating not knowing where the tennis teams will play as early as next fall, or if they will have a place at all.

Students told board members Wednesday night that playing on the high school tennis team improved their skills in the sport but also allowed them to forge strong connections with teammates and coaches. They called on the board to fulfill a previous promise to build dedicated tennis courts for Berkeley High so that “our team doesn’t have this kind of instability and uncertainty each year.”

“Not only do I look forward to practice, but I need practice, and this team needs a home,” said Ezra Abarbanel, a junior at BHS who has played on the girls tennis team for three years.

BHS has girls and boys tennis teams that engage about 50 students each year, according to players who attended Wednesday’s meeting. Berkeley High currently pays to play on UC Berkeley tennis courts located on Hearst Avenue, but those courts could soon be torn down to make space for a parking structure.

BUSD Director Jennifer Shanoski said the facilities subcommittee met in late December to review bond projects and designate priorities and that an “absolute construction and completion date for Berkeley High’s very own tennis courts” would come in February. 

Girls tennis head coach Tiffany Liew has been with the team for four years, during which time she said it’s been normal for players and coaches to scramble to find a place to practice. During Liew’s first season, she said players would walk or take a bus to San Pablo Park, more than a mile away from their school. Once there, she said more than 20 players would have to “squeeze” into only three courts, with several more student athletes waiting against the fence for their turn to practice.

“Berkeley High has not had a proper competitive girls program because experienced players would often not join our team for its reputation as a messy, unproductive, and uncompetitive program,” Liew told the board Wednesday. 

Liew said not having a home court has also impacted the program’s ability to retain coaches. She said she is the last girls coach remaining after four recently left the program. 

Jeffrey Jue, born and raised in Berkeley, is in his 11th year coaching the BHS boys tennis team, and his roots in the program run even deeper. He said his first tennis lesson as a youth was at the high school’s old courts on Milvia Street. 

“We have great student athletes,” Jue said. “They’re coachable, great people. I’m very proud to be the coach, but I’ve been battling through this for at least 15 years.”

In 2017, a plan to construct tennis courts for Berkeley High was scrapped after an analysis of the project determined that it would cost $11 million — more than double the amount expected. 

At the time, the district had set aside $5 million to convert a staff parking lot on Milvia Street, located across the street from Berkeley High, into a two-story parking structure with five tennis courts on the roof. The top area was to be used by BHS teams and for other physical education activities, and be open to public use when not being used by students. The location had been home to the school’s previous tennis courts for decades before the parking lot was built in 2001. 

But the district held off on the construction in order to wait for a potential bond measure to pass in 2020 to free up more money for the project. The measure was approved by voters, but the project again stalled last year due to community pushback, including from transit advocates. 

A different proposal to build tennis courts at Moellering Field on Carleton Street was also met with disagreement from some community members, including parents and coaches of student athletes in other sports who noted that the project would pit BHS teams against each other in pursuit of a space to practice.

Student athletes have at times played on the five tennis courts at King Middle School about a mile away, but coaches are unsure if that will be an option again this year. 

This is not the first time Berkeley High’s tennis teams have dealt with facilities issues.

Director Shanoski said she was looking through BUSD yearbooks and found the earliest reference to girls sports in 1903. It was about tennis: “Although as yet they have no court of their own, nevertheless they have played together.”

“So it’s been since 1903 that our girls tennis team has been looking for a home,” Shanoski said, prompting some laughter in the meeting room. 

Berkeley High’s tennis teams have enjoyed some success, despite not having permanent courts of their own. Last fall, the girls tennis team made it to the North Coast Section Championship for the first time since 2019, with a season record of 13-5. And the boys team was co-champion of the West Alameda County Conference back in 2017, ending the season with a 14-3 record. 

“I want future generations of Berkeley kids to be able to experience this,” Abarbanel said. “Not only is our team full of amazing tennis players, but also warm, inclusive, compassionate people.”