Goddard Tennis Club Facility last edited on 10 January 2009

GOOGLE MAP OF THE FACILITY

GODDARD TENNIS COURTS

The Goddard Tennis Club's members pay dues and donate their time and effort to build and maintain the facilities.
GEWA facilities are NOT government supplied, but come out of membership dues, vending machine fees, and volunteer construction.

Since 1966, the club members have constructed:

Eight Har-Tru courts

Two lighted hard courts, with practice wall

A courtside socialization area

A brief 25-year history of the founding of the Goddard Tennis Club was presented in 1991 by it's court architect, Bob Davis. (His typed notes scanned into a PDF file.)

Playing season on the Har-Tru clay courts is limited to April-October by the frost-freeze cycle. The hard courts are open all year.

Six of the courts (#1-4, 8 and 9) can be reserved in advance on a sign-up sheet on a clipboard at court side. One sign-up sheet per day is posted for the next few weeks, marked off in 1.5 hour slots, with starting times staggered every 15 minutes. The right to sign up a slot is an option in the annual membership fee. Members can buy one or two sign-up privileges. Each sign-up slot must show two members names, both with sign-up privileges. The sign-up sheet is policed occasionally by the club officials, who cross off illegal sign-ups and talk to the offenders.

The other four courts (#5-7 and 10) are used on a first-come basis, but with a 1.0 hour limit if people are waiting. Walk-ons must write down their time on a lucite board with a grease pencil at the gate, and post their membership cards. If they don't write down a start time or post their cards, they can be booted at any time by other members who do play be the rules.

Hard court #10 also has a practice wall, which may be used for solo practice whenever two members are not waiting to play. In 1995, Craig Powers put up a large, sturdy backboard behind court 10 to practice hitting. In 1996, Craig added side-boards on hinges to bounce back those mis-hits. In 2002, the big old plywood practice wall filled with gravel was coming apart at the seams, and so it was replaced by a smaller tough new fiberglass wall filled with sand, donated by the GEWA council. The new "sportwall" is tipped to bounce the ball back farther, and curved to return the ball back closer to the centerline. The "sportwall" is also coated with a tough paint expected to last for a decade.

In the summer of 2006, GEWA created overflow parking for the Rec Center by expanding the GTC back parking lot, doubling the width of the back road and the number of parking spaces. That also meant enclosing the GTC courts within the Rec Center fence. During big Rec Center events, member's access will be through the Good Luck Road gate, instead of the main campus.

In October 2006, GSFC re-routed Soil Conservation Road around the north side of the Rec Center, so we can get to the courts from the main campus without passing through security gates.

In August 2006, the hard courts were resurfaced by All Pro Courts Inc. for $7000.

In 2007, the Rec Center paved the back road and parking lot, creating a swamp with no drainage, which drowned dozens of oak trees. In July 2008, the Rec Center re-installed the drain pipe that had been under the road to the south of the swamp, solving the problem.

BALL MACHINE

The Club bought a small ball machine in 2005, replacing one purchased in 1990. It can be used for practice on court 9, a hard court where there are electrical outlets. Court 9 can be reserved for practice (if you have purchased a reservation privilege). The machine throws balls at the speed of a ground stroke, and can be adjusted for speed, height and side-to-side oscillating motion. It holds about 60 balls. We bought a bucket of pressureless balls. You can buy your own bucket of long-lived pressureless practice balls from mail-order suppliers like Holabird Sports in Baltimore. The Club's ball machine is stored in a locked shed just outside court 9. Access to the machine (a key to the lock) can be purchased from the Club as a annual membership option, approximately the same cost as a reservation privilege. It is a good idea to have somebody show you how to use it, the first time.

WALKING THE LINES

In the winter, the daily freeze-melt cycle causes the nails that hold the plastic lines down on a clay court to work up out of the ground. The line corners on the clay courts are kept in place during the frost-feeze cylce by Bob Davis' line pegs. By the end of winter, the nails would be completely out of the ground, and the lines flopped over, useless. To deal with this, the lines can be walked down every month or two. But, heel-to-toe walking is slow and tiresome.

In 2000, Dennis Chesters made the job easier by laying a board over the line and walking on that. An 8-foot long 1"x8" plank is used to flatten the line to the ground, and push the nail heads level. To move the board, attach an 8-foot rod (1"x1" square channel, normally used for electrical wiring) with an S-hook and eyelets.
tennisline walkboard tennisline walkboard hinge
Walk the board, step off, push the board forward 8 feet with the rod, and walk it again. That is about 3 times faster and a lot neater than heel-to-toe walking.

CLAY COURT DISASTER 2002

Click here for the complete set of disaster pictures.

The GTC HarTru courts were badly trenched by the sprinklers over the weekend of August 3-4, 2002. Saturday's afternoon thunderstorm apparently turned them on, since the valves are electrically operated by a small computer. The sprinklers ran all night, cutting deep into the already rain-soaked courts.

Thanks to hard work by our grounds keeper, Larry Waters (plus his son-in-law and grandson), all the clay courts were open by August 8. Courts 1-5 were resurfaced. Soaking rains at the end of August converted the dust into clay, but the drought of 2002 continued, leaving them soft and lumpy.

This same problem had happened to court #1 in the late 1990's, when a thunderstorm turned on those sprinklers. It took months and lots of hand-leveling before the bad spots went away then.

map of soft spots

After the winter of 2002-2003, many of the sprinkler-dug tenches remained soft. In the spring of 2003, they were dug up and replaced with fresh HarTru.

Finally, in 2004, the HarTru courts returned to normal, aided by a rainy year beginning in late summer 2003.

GTC MAINTENANCE NOTES

Emergency cut-offs (click for miniposter)
- Electricity - behind the auto club.
- Sprinklers - at the fireplug by the road-gate.
- Water Fountains - on the Rec Center, along the wooden path to the far storage shed.

OTHER NOTES

Directions to NASA-GSFC
How to lay lines on a clay court
Reference: "Clay Tennis Court Maintenance" by Michael R. Humphrey, 1982, 74 pages, softcover by Bacon Street Press, Sherborn, MA.

Return to the GTC Home Page

The Goddard Tennis Club (GTC) is a member of the Goddard Employees Welfare Association (GEWA), a collection of mutual-interest clubs and services run by the workers at NASA-GSFC.