VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) The following is a news release from the Valley City Tennis Association (VCTA.)

“The Valley City Park Board recently voted 4-1 on a plan to remove tennis courts from City Park and install pickleball only courts. These tennis courts have a long history in this community and are also heavily used for junior tennis, VCHS, and VCTA and by community members. They are also the only lighted courts in Valley City right now. Erik Kringlie, president of the VC tennis association,stated it perfectly when he said “I am 100% in favor of Pickle Ball facilities in this community. However, not at the loss of tennis courts. Pickleball at least have indoor facilities, while tennis has only lost courts over the years while our program numbers grow.”

PLEASE considering attending the VCTA meeting at 5:30pm on Wednesday, April 12th in the Hi Liner Activity Center to discuss how we can work with VCTA, VCHS, and Pickle Ball players and make the City Park a multi-sport facility with tennis and pickleball lines. We are hoping to bring in interested parties and have a reasonable conversation. We lost four college courts to the Wellness Center, and if we lose City Park, that will affect high school and VCTA programming, especially for junior programming. This will be especially detrimental to the JV and Junior High programs and limit any opportunities for VCTA to host tournaments.

VC park board states in their meeting minutes that pickleball helps provide play opportunities for our older community, and it does, but so does tennis. Tennis is a proven lifetime sport <https://www.usta.com/en/home/improve/tennis-health—fitness/national/benefits-of-playing-tennis.html>, and in Valley City, we have players from ages 5 to 80 actively playing tennis. As a matter of fact, we have a group of older doubles players that are forced to drive to Jamestown in the winter and use the TRAC indoor tennis courts. We also send our juniors and adults to Jamestown to play in TRAC indoor tennis leagues and high school and college teams to drive all winter to practice at the indoor TRAC courts. Money leaving this community.

Let’s do what is right for BOTH programs and our community members, old and young.

Stacy Ingstad