Photo by Hometown Weekly Staff
There is still much construction to be finished before school starts in the fall.
By Chloe Patel
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
Needham High School is set to feature eight brand new courts ahead of the start of the 2025-2026 school year, much to the delight of the girls tennis program.
Already at NHS are four courts, completed in 2006 when NHS was most recently renovated, but those courts are being renovated as four additional courts are built. The courts will be managed by both the school and the Parks and Recreation department.
The renovations will “change the program,” Needham girls tennis coach Fiona Stickney said.
Because of the space restrictions that come with just four courts, Stickney had to separate the varsity and junior varsity levels entirely. Additionally, for tryouts, returning players and newcomers would be split up, because there was not enough space in one location for all of the athletes to play together.
“I have 40-something girls try out every year, I really only keep typically around 24. That's even too much to be honest with you. We go to these matches, and we have the most girls, but it's hard for me to turn away girls who are trying out for a sport that's lifelong, and they love. I don't want to say ‘I'm so sorry you're not going to make the program,’ because, essentially, I cut people because we don't have the space,” Stickney said.
For matches, varsity would be at either Mills Field or Newman Elementary, and junior varsity would be at the other.“As a program all together, they're just going to look more of a cohesive program. We've worked our best to get the whole program to be as one program. Especially on the girls side, it really is just a varsity sport. You're either in the varsity starting seven, or you're in the sub varsity. For us, we had to create two separate teams because we don't have the space,” Stickney said.
“Now that we have this space, it really will be like one complete program, and these younger kids that are coming up will be able to see these varsity seniors play, and understand what that level looks like,” Stickney said.
Five matches are played simultaneously at the high school level, but for both tennis programs, there were limits due to there being just four courts available at a single location across Needham.
With that limitation, a match needed to start after another ended, which can add up to two hours of playing time because there is no time constraint in tennis.
“There were times that the other team would actually have to come back to finish the match, because we would lose sunlight and we couldn’t finish the match,” Stickney said, “this is a blessing, for sure.”
Needham’s tennis teams will not be the only users of the new courts that boast a 25- to 50-year warranty: Parks and Recreation department will run summer camps and seasonal programs on weekends during the school year. Residents will also be able to get a court badge through the Parks and Recreation department.
