Quinnipiac University donated $152,000 to aid in full restoration of the tennis courts on Mix Avenue in early 2025.
The courts were closed until July for temporary repairs as cracks in the current courts caused a safety concern for the Hamden community and Hamden High School students.
The restoration, also funded by Hamden’s bonding money, includes new lighting, resurfacing, paint lines for pickleball and new fencing.
“We’re really, really fortunate to have a supporter in town like Quinnipiac that’s able to come and help out students, student athletes,” said Tom Dyer, director of athletics at Hamden High School. “Not only that, the community, because tennis courts (are) not something that just affects student athletes. It’s a lifelong sport that a lot of a lot of people play.”
Racket sports are a part of the curriculum in Hamden High School’s physical education program. Students played these sports indoors this school year during the temporary repairs and will have to do so during the upcoming restoration.
“They’ve tried to teach it in other ways,” Dyer said. “It’s just not the same as being out (on) the tennis court. For some kids, it’s their first experience doing that. (For the) community at large, I think it really affects because there’s a lot of people from younger kids just learning about the sport, to all the way to senior citizens. There’s a lot of people playing tennis, pickleball, things like that.”
On top of the physical education program, Hamden High School uses the courts for girls and boys tennis teams’ home matches. Recently, they have held their matches at Hamden Middle School’s tennis courts.
“We transport the kids to our middle school, and both teams practice on a six court situation, which is not ideal, because most tennis matches are seven matches,” Dyer said. “For a tennis team to split six courts and you have two teams, makes it a little bit more dynamic or a little bit more of an issue at times, but our kids and coaches persevered and were able to be very competitive last year.”
Quinnipiac’s Building Bobcats program, which partners with Quinnipiac Athletics, focuses on the development of youth athletes. The program was created when Hamden residents noticed a decrease of student athletes after the pandemic.
Quinnipiac also made a donation to the Hamden Middle School athletic program as part of Building Bobcats.
Bethany Zemba, vice president for strategy and community relations chief of staff, said that Quinnipiac chose to donate money because of the Building Bobcats program and their previous donation to Hamden Middle School.
“Because we showed such a strong interest in supporting athletics and the development of those, they came back to us with this opportunity to help with the tennis courts,” Zemba said. “(These) tennis courts will be used by the entire community. It was in need of (an) update in order to make them so that they were playable, so they were safe, and so we were very happy to be able to do that.”
Quinnipiac worked in partnership with Hamden Mayor Laura Garrett, Chief of Staff Sean Grace and Deputy Chief of Staff Alexa Panayotakis to facilitate the donation.
“It was a conversation with (Quinnipiac President Judy) Olian and with the town hall,” Zemba said. “And we just coordinated amongst what (Hamden) felt was helpful and useful, and we were able to secure the donation. And we just made a donation based on the amount that they needed. So it was just really seamless.”
Details such as how long the restoration will takeare still in the works, but the community is looking forward to the new courts.
“I think the town’s really fortunate for a donation,” Dyer said. “And you know, I think it’ll be great for the kids and for the community. So (I’m) very excited about it, and hopefully get the project going soon.”
