Caledon Tennis Club up and running early

April 14, 2021 · 0 Comments

By Robert Belardi

Time to jump up out of your seats and into the sunshine, Caledon.

Not only is golf back, but the Caledon Tennis Club wants you to know they are up and running much earlier than anticipated.

“It was nice that the Town came to us and said we want you to open early,” said Terry Lawrence, President of Caledon Tennis Club.

“We normally would be opening May 1. They were hoping we could get open early and they gave us the inspection last Tuesday and we officially opened last Wednesday (April 6).”

The Town of Caledon also provided a grant to the club to offset lost revenues from last season which Lawrence is very grateful for.

“That was amazing. Unexpected. Never had that before. It was a great thing that the Town did for us.”

As of now, members have taken to the court. Lawrence says both doubles and singles games can be played under the provisions set by the Ontario Tennis Association. Members cannot shake hands or share rackets as well.

For those new members who wish to join, the original registration date on April 17 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. remains as scheduled.

Patrons can attend on this day one at a time, masked and distanced to register for this summer. This will be set up outdoors.

Moving forward into this summer Lawrence hopes he sees a repeat of what he saw last year.

“Last year we had way more juniors than we’ve ever had. A lot of them played hockey and other sports and they wanted to get out. I think we’re lucky that way,” Lawrence said.

“I think right now because nothing else is going on. They’re not sure when they can play lacrosse and soccer and those kinds of sports. They’ll probably want to come out.”

For this season, Lawrence says the club has cancelled inter-tournaments and inter-county tournaments once again.

He did not knock out the opportunity for the OTA to host tournaments at the club this year, given it is safe to do so.

“We held a couple last year. Three at the end of the summer. It will be based on what the OTA guidelines are,” Lawrence said.

“If we do have a tournament, they send somebody out to inspect and walk through the person that is running the tournament and have them sign a document [noting] here’s all the things you have to do. Then they will actually do spot checks when the tournaments are ready.”

As of now, nothing is set in stone but Lawrence says that will be determined as the season goes along.

Caledon Tennis Club is strictly a membership organization. It’s not a bad investment to get out and make sure you’re exercising and why not soak in some Vitamin D on top of that.

“I have a good feeling for this year. I think we’re going to have a lot of people that joined from last year because of COVID. I think we’re going to have a lot of people that weren’t sure about coming back.”

For more, visit caledontennisclub.com.