MARBLEHEAD — There haven’t been too many bright spots for Marblehead High athletics over the past few months during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Monday afternoon there was a parting of the clouds of sorts.
Under beautiful sunny skies Monday, the Magicians held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for their brand-new tennis courts on the campus of the high school that was attended by members of the boys and girls tennis teams, school administration and local tennis enthusiasts.
“It’s such an exciting time,” said Marblehead girls tennis coach Tracy Ackerman, who was on hand for the ceremony. “Last season, we actually didn’t hold any matches on our old courts here because there were so many issues with cracks and uneven spots and things like that. We ended up playing all of our matches down at Seaside Park.
“The Marblehead boosters were the ones who put things in motion once we were next on the list of renovations, and from there everything went really smoothly,” Ackerman continued. “I think from start to finish, the process only took two to three weeks.”
Ackerman, who was also a part of the 10-person committee that was formed to plan out the building of the courts, says that private donations funded most of the project. The Marblehead boys and girls tennis teams also chipped in with fundraisers to come up with a large number of donations.
“The teams did a great job with their fundraisers, I think they raised somewhere around $12,000 for the courts,” said Ackerman. “You could tell that they were all really invested in the project, even the seniors who unfortunately missed their season this spring.”
Those seniors — Hannah Portath, Cahill Whittier and Rei Newman — along with their Magicians teammates were looking forward to a strong season, with a lot of competition for starting spots on the court coming into the spring.
“We have a lot of girls who were playing year-round, so there was a lot of competition between players for spots in the rotation this year,” said Ackerman. “Last year we were really built around Michelle Shub (now at Tufts University), but this year we were really looking to have a deep team.”
Looking ahead to 2021, Ackerman thinks that the team will be experienced and a force to be reckoned with.
“With only three seniors leaving the team this year and six returning varsity players next year, we’re starting things off in a good place,” Ackerman said. “We also have good numbers at the lower levels and we’ve seen an uptick in interest, so I think we’re going to have a lot of continuity going into 2021.”
For the time being, though, the new courts at the high school will be used by tennis lovers around the town. Ackerman has noticed an uptick in people picking up the sport over the past few months, so she’s hoping the courts get some good use.
“It’s been really great to see so many people playing tennis, and I think a lot more people started to pick it up because it was one of the only activities that you could do during the quarantine period,” Ackerman said. “The new courts are in great shape and waiting for people to play on them, so I hope they take the opportunity.”