Hempstead High's new tennis courts serve up space for pickleball

New outdoor courts at Hempstead High School are giving students a place to practice and compete for the tennis team on campus while serving as a venue for the sport's rapidly growing younger cousin, pickleball.

On Wednesday, school officials showed off the six courts, which can be divided into 12 for pickleball. The old courts had fallen into disrepair over the past 15 years, forcing the boys and girls tennis teams to practice in nearby parks and play other schools elsewhere.

The renovated courts are a "game changer," Stephen Perez, the Hempstead school district’s physical education, health and athletics director, said Wednesday as he gave a tour of the new playing surfaces.

There is hope long-term that pickleball will rise to the level of tennis and other scholastic sports in competition with other Long Island high schools, Perez said.

"Pickleball is technically not a Section VIII sport yet," he added. "You never know what may happen in the future."

Nicole Drake, coach of the Hempstead High girls tennis team, has "been pushing for" raising the level of pickleball to competitive status.

"We have 12 courts, so we are ready to go here, it’s just a matter of putting it together," Drake said. "I think we could probably get more schools and pull a conference together."

Each of the six tennis courts have been painted with regulation markings to create a dozen pickleball courts with portable smaller nets. The school hopes to add the sport to its athletic slate at a time when many Long Island high schools are struggling to fill the rosters for competitive seasons.

Newsday reported Wednesday that Jericho High School has forfeited the remaining games of the varsity football season due to a lack of healthy players. The Port Jefferson, Amityville and Holy Trinity high school teams also canceled their varsity football programs this season.

Participation in football across the Island has dropped 30% at the high school level and 43% across middle schools over the past decade, a decline nine times more aggressive that the national average, Newsday recently reported.

Participation in the sport at Hempstead High belies that trend, Perez said. And the new courts, he predicted, will lead to more students taking part in tennis and pickleball on campus as well.

"Our tennis program is only going to continue to grow," he said. "Kids didn’t want to get on a bus and go to Eisenhower Park for practice ... It was a deterrent a little bit, so now that it’s right outside our doors, it’s big for them, it’s going to increase participation."

When Galilea Garcia joined the Hempstead High School’s varsity girls tennis team as a sophomore, she had to practice her serve on the school’s handball wall, which offered little indication as to whether she was whacking the ball in or out of bounds.

Last year, she and her teammates would travel by bus to courts at community parks. They would often worry about their bus failing to arrive on time, cutting their sessions short or getting them home late.

Now, Garcia and the girls she leads as team captain practice on the brand new tennis courts. The senior called her team’s new home — which they battle-tested for the first time on Sept. 9, when they defeated Lawrence High School 5-2 — "very convenient." 

"I love having a fresh new court that I can just walk onto after school," Garcia, 17, of Hempstead, said. "It’s totally helping me improve because I can see where the ball is in, where the ball is out. Overall, I just feel more confident in my serves and my ability as a tennis player."