Serving it up
Tennis center picks up big tournaments
while benefiting locals Jonathan Blaylock
While the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College has
proven to be a financial boon for the area, the facility
also serves as a premier destination for locals who want
to hit the courts.
According to interim executive director Collin Cadwell,
the center will continue to strive to offer the best it can
to the local tennis community.
“It’s all in one location, it’s not spread out and
everybody is all at one place,” Cadwell said. “Those
are the things obviously dollars it brings in but just
building and supporting community play and bringing
them all together on a regular basis. We’re constantly
working on ways to improve that and build on it.”
The facility, which was funded by the 2013 special
purpose, local option sales tax, draws premier
tournaments on a regular basis and brings in large
crowds of local players to its courts.
A big event in the future of the tennis center is the
Atlantic Coast Conference Mens and Womens Tennis
Championships, which will be held this year and in 2021.
This year, the event will take place April 15-19, and the
following year on April 21-25, 2021.
The venue first hosted the event back in 2017 before
returning to Cary, North Carolina, for the 2018 and
2019 seasons.
“Having the ACC tournament back in Rome is
fantastic,” Cadwell said. “We’re excited and thrilled.
The experience the first time was super positive, and I
couldn’t be happier to have it back for a two-year span.
We’re looking forward to it.”
Work is progressing on getting ready for the
tournament, which has been a large undertaking for the
staff at the center. He said preparing nets, windscreens,
awnings and bleachers are a big part of getting the
facility ready, along with preparing for the amount of
spectators and media who will be in attendance.
Cadwell relies on volunteers to help with a large
portion of the work.
“We’ve been having discussions about ACC since when
we first learned about it and all the way leading up to
it. A big part is volunteers: recruiting volunteers and
organizing volunteers, and making sure we have the
manpower we need to make sure we put on a world
class event,” Cadwell said. “We have folks in for TV and
the media and we want to make sure they’re in place,
so we can highlight all the tremendous play that will take
place here.”
34 OUTLOOK | APRIL 2020