Home sweet new home

By Dan Larson, Sauk Prairie Eagle

As expected, the 2008 Sauk Prairie High School girls' tennis season marks a new era in Eagle tennis.

When practice began at 8 a.m. Aug. 12, the team was the first to call the new tennis courts on the North side of the school its home.

The eight courts, which began being constructed in early June and were finished Aug. 11, replace the six old courts — in the same location — that were over 30-years-old and plagued by several unrepairable cracks.

Mary Weeks, the Eagles' coach and chairwoman of the Tennis Courts Improvement Committee which worked to raise money to fund the new courts, said it felt good to be a part of the successful project.

"It's a wonderful thing to be part of a community that all works together to get a project like this done" she told a crowd of nearly 40 people on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony before practice began.

Sauk Prairie School District Superintendent Craig Bender, athletics director Aaron Braund, Sauk Prairie Parks and Recreation Department Director Jed Eichhorn, as well as members of the committee, representatives from project donors Mueller Sports Medicine and the Bank of Prairie du Sac and individuals involved with Sauk Prairie tennis over the years were on hand "To celebrate the fact that "we have them available now," Weeks said.

In addition to the new courts being finished, Weeks received exciting news last week regarding lighting for the courts. A representative from the United States Tennis Association called Aug. 7 to inform her that the committee's application for a grant from the USTA's Public Facility Funding Program, which the committee applied for on June 17, was accepted.

The grant is for $42,000 and brings the total fund-raising to $214,000, enough to light four of the courts by the end of this year's construction season.

The other four courts are light-ready, meaning conduit is in place to install lights when enough money has been raised.