University courts to get bandage
| • | World-class tennis complex nearly a reality |
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
In Manoa, where the University of Hawai'i's 12-court tennis complex has been sinking — literally — into shameful condition for several years, money is now available for repairs.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
The question is, will it be enough? The enduring question is, when will anything substantial get done?
"Something has to be done and it has to be done now," says UH assistant athletic director Teri Wilhelm Chang. "We have no choice because this is health and safety."
"Something has to be done and it has to be done now," says UH assistant athletic director Teri Wilhelm Chang, who is in charge of facilities. "We have no choice because this is health and safety."
Last year, UH men's coach Jim Schwitters played all his home matches at Pearl Harbor. A $20,000 "bandage" was applied to make half of the courts playable and both UH teams played at home this season, the men at noon and women at 3 p.m.
UH coaches took the nets down on the makai side months ago to stop people from using the courts because of cracks and uneven surface. The proximity of the softball field also poses a danger on that side, with home runs flying over the fence without warning — a problem that worsened when the field was raised to correct its initial deficiencies.
Schwitters says as many as a dozen balls — he calls them "projectiles" — have been launched into the courts in an afternoon.
It has not stopped people from playing. "Tennis people would play even if javelins were flying through," Wilhelm Chang says.
According to Wilhelm Chang, the initial estimate for the tennis project was $4.5 million: "That was total replacement. It included everything we could ever possibly want," including an administration building and security.
It also costs too much, so UH has come back with a "bare essentials" re-design it hopes will clear the cost hurdles and solve the perpetual problem of water under the sub-surface.
"There's one big problem — the courts are in an old lake bed," says Schwitters, who has been coaching at UH 37 years. "The water is just seeking out its level all the time. One court had a sinkhole we had to fill in because all the fill originally in there washed away. We have good drainage in that area, but it's through and toward the tennis courts. That's not where you want it."
Wilhelm Chang inherited this quagmire in the quarry and said engineers don't know what they'll find beneath the surface.
"The scary part is we don't know what's down there," Wilhelm Chang said. "When we did the (football and soccer) grass fields there were huge boulders. The cost depends on how much work the engineers have to do."
For now, the new first phase plans are for four three-court blocks with space between for bleachers. They will be angled differently to help fight the sun, which means softball lights will have to be changed. Affected courts will have driving range-like netting to stop the softballs.
Most importantly, the project must go far underground to stop water from breaking up the courts, creating a safety hazard and gallingly bad bounces.
"There's a natural spring in the back and it flows right under the courts," Wilhelm Chang says. "The consultant knows he has to add a sub-level and design it so the water doesn't come up. They have to build it up."
Timetable for the project is "ASAP" because of the unsafe condition of the courts and the money availability from Repair and Maintenance. The definition of ASAP, however, is fluid.
The plan has to be cleared by the many involved. Though UH teams have priority on the courts, they are also used by classes, students, faculty, intramural programs and the community. After that, UH gets a cost estimate, which must be OK'd.
The architect is looking at starting the project in January, with an August completion date. UH would have to play its "home" matches somewhere else.
Schwitters, who might have his best and brightest (this season's team GPA was 3.57) team in years, didn't have any home matches planned. His only matches in Hawai'i for the 2002-03 season are at Turtle Bay, Royal Lahaina and Kailua Racquet Club.
"This year was bad because we were going to play at Pearl Harbor and 9/11 closed the base," he says. "We had to apologize to every team that came in.
"I don't think I've ever played in a worse facility than what we had this year. Certainly not Division I. ... The last couple years when we bring a recruit in, we're not going to show them the facility. We show them the beach."
