“Love-all” is heard on the courts just down the hill from City High’s new addition as players from the Boys Junior Varsity team begin practicing on courts with smudged paint and hard to see lines. The new City High Tennis courts were finished in the Winter season of 2022 and the courts were to be released to the public when the paint applied to the courts were ruined due to rainy weather. Hoover Elementary was destroyed and then transformed into additional parking and the tennis courts. 

“The courts were supposed to start being used in spring for the full season. But we discovered in late February that the paint had not stuck. So, we had to postpone it,” Chip Hardesty said.

For the courts, a special kind of paint is used and has to be applied and dried for 48 hours with temperatures no less than 50 degrees. Varsity practices at the University of Iowa courts, the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation center.

“Once it gets warm enough, they will have to grind off the excess paint and then repaint it. I hope by early summer, early June, the courts would be available for the public and for us.”