Tennis and pickleball courts coming soon to MHS
In recent years, the Messalonskee girls’ tennis players have been a traveling crew – even for practice.
Rather than play on substandard courts at Messalonskee High School, the team commuted to the New England Golf and Tennis Academy in Belgrade to hone their skills.
But the days of needing to take a bus to practice volleys and ground strokes are about to end with the completion of a new set of tennis courts at the high school.
That’s good news in the eyes of girls’ tennis coach Caroline Mathes.
“Transportation was starting to be an issue,” she said. “I had a young team [last year], so we had to rely on the buses to get to practice.”
RSU Superintendent Carl Gartley is hoping that any students with a tennis racquet will be able to hone their game as soon as next month on the four courts being built.
“The courts should be done in early October,” he stated. “I hope to see them get some use this fall. The lights may be a couple of weeks after that, depending on when we get the crane in to install them. But the courts will be ready before the lights are put in.”
Along with tennis courts, construction workers are in the final stages of creating a six-court pickleball venue.
Both the tennis court and pickleball courts are part of a $918,000 contract that includes drainage work below the structures as well as repairs to the parking lot behind the Performing Arts Center and construction of a basketball court at Messalonskee Middle School, according to Gartley.