What’s your Racket? The Courts are in Session, and It’s Not Just Tennis Anymore
Kerriann Herdelin returns a shot on Avalon’s tennis courts.
Tennis, anyone?
For decades, that was pretty much your best option when it came to racket sports. Oh, sure, there were a select few who played racquetball, paddle ball, even squash.
But for the vast majority, if you wanted to get some exercise hitting a ball with a racket, tennis was your game.
My, how things have changed – especially around Avalon and Stone Harbor, where men and women now have a proliferation of choices. While tennis is hardly going away, especially among a group of women who have turned it into their own social circle, pickleball has taken the community by storm.
And don’t forget platform tennis, described by some as “like playing a steel cage match with a net.”
Put them all together and you pretty much have something for everybody, assuming you don’t mind having to wait a while to get on the court.
“Our facilities are beautiful and we’re at the beach,” says realtor Sue Heenan, who has been living in Avalon for 30 years. “We’ve created this social atmosphere around it.
“Avalon’s been so forward thinking with their facilities. They have nine Har-Tru tennis courts which are beautiful. Har-Tru’s a lot like clay, but one of the reasons people like it a lot is because it’s easier on your limbs.”
There’s another basic advantage playing down this way: It’s also easier on your wallet.
“What’s so amazing is down here you don’t have to pay steep fees like you would at a country club or on the Main Line,” says Kerriann Herdelin, who considers herself the island’s Julie McCoy, a reference to the fictional “Love Boat” social director because she’s always arranging things. “Avalon’s less expensive.
“I’ve paid thousands to be part of a racquet club. Here, you have people coming from Long Beach Island and the Main Line because the facilities are beautiful.
“You can pay by the hour or for the season. In Avalon, it’s $180 for tennis and $10 for pickleball. If you just want to play pickle, it’s $60.”
That’s due to Avalon’s tax dollars at work, which not only have driven down the costs but led to a major expansion of facilities.
“We’ve converted three of the six tennis courts to 10 pickleball courts,” notes Avalon recreation director Chuck McDonnell. “We have 15 tennis courts in Avalon, nine Har-Tru courts, three soft courts, and three hard courts.
“As for pickleball, that’s steadily on the rise.”
Others have noticed, like Ken Herrmann, CEO of the Association of Pickleball Professionals Tour, which scheduled one of this year’s 16 tour stops in Avalon for Sept. 5-9.
“Because I’m the local ambassador, Ken Herrmann reached out to me,” says Tracie Holmes, a USA pickleball ambassador who has done such a great job promoting the sport that Avalon now has 1,160 pickleball players between men, women, and kids.
“We invited him here. He toured the facility and met with the mayor and the rec department and last September we came to an agreement they would host the event here. The economic impact is expected to exceed $1 million between hotels, restaurants, and shopping,”
The borough was just what the APP was looking for and it will follow the May 20 seniors pickleball tournament, where some 300 were expected to play. “It’s a great location,” says Daniel Sugarman, APP public relations/media director. “New Jersey pickleball is really growing and we’re excited to have our event there.
“We were in Hamilton Township last year, but we’ve outgrown that and were looking for a venue that’s larger. Typically, we have 800 to 1,000 competing of all ages, from 19 to 75. We have amateur competition, pro and senior.”
That’s still a few months away. In the interim the tennis and pickle all courts figure to be oh, so busy.
“We start at 8 o’clock in the morning and go until sundown,” says Holmes, who raised her family in suburban Philadelphia, then lived in North Jersey before moving here. “We have open play, where anybody can show up.
“Many days we have 40 people playing, with 60 to 80 waiting.”
And what about this platform tennis, or paddle tennis as it’s more commonly known? Hall of Famer Bobo Delaney is the main one spreading its gospel and teaching it at three Stone Harbor courts that were constructed two years ago.
“I’ve played it my whole life and taught it at clubs,” says Delaney, a 2016 inductee into the APTA Hall of Fame after winning a number of platform tennis national championships at various levels decades apart. “It’s a small court, similar to pickle, but you have a net and lines like tennis. It’s enclosed in chicken wire with beams on the outside to support the cage.
“The upper ceiling is exposed and you’re on a steel court with wood-like planks that have a sandpaper grit on them so it’s very rough. You can play it over the net like tennis, but you can also hit it off the back wire when it comes back before it bounces a second time. They call it platform tennis because the surface is raised.”
So, between Stone Harbor and Avalon, racket sports abound for everyone.
“It really is a lifestyle,” says Herdelin, daughter-in-law of the late La Salle basketball standout Bob “Herky” Herdelin. “I couldn’t be happier.”
She’s not alone. “It’s a great environment for racket sports,” agrees Delaney, who recently moved here from her longtime home in Chatham, N.J. “They’re all public facilities and there’s a lot of play.
“Pickle is more common and tennis as well, but they’re all being used. And there are multiple people – both men and women – who play all three.
“People don’t realize how much we have here on the Island.”
If they don’t already, they should soon.
To learn more about court play on the Seven Mile Beach, visit this new Facebook page: What’s All the Racquet? Pickle, Paddle and Tennis on the 7 Mile Island.