St. Catharines Standard e-edition

Love has everything to do with it

Couple who met on the court are sharing passion for the sport by opening pay-for-play facility

BERND FRANKE Bernd Franke is a St. Catharines-based journalist and the regional sports editor for the Standard, Tribune and Review. Reach him via email: bernd.franke@niagaradailies.com

Can a couple ever have enough tennis in their lives?

Surely, belonging to one club and presiding over another in the summer and being active in an indoor club the rest of the year would be more than enough to keep the competitive juices flowing.

Add a son who is preparing to play Division 1 tennis on an athletic scholarship into the equation and you have a calendar that is filled to overflowing with court times.

And on top of all that for Peter and Jane Bedard are their careers: He’s a business consultant with his own company, People First, and she’s a teacher currently on the District School Board of Niagara supply list.

Yet, Bedard, president of the Pelham Tennis Club and a member of Welland Club, and his wife, also a member of the Welland club and a teaching pro with more than 30 years of experience, are carving out time this summer to lead what they hope will be a revival of tennis at the community level in St. Catharines.

They are renting the three remaining courts at the Ball Hockey Athletic Centre (BAC) at 16 Melbourne Ave. and operating them on a pay-for-play basis.

Bedard will serve as general manager of BAC Tennis, his wife as tennis director and one of four teaching pros and their son Tanner as a teaching pro.

Jane Bedard, who earned an English degree while attending the University of South Carolina on a tennis scholarship, said the couple wants to give others an opportunity to love the sport as much as they do.

“You’re not investing a hefty membership fee if you’re just trying it out, but come out and try it out. If you played before, let’s get going again,” she said.

“If you haven’t, you have an opportunity to start without a big investment in a membership.”

Besides being, like golf, a sport especially well-suited for physical distancing, tennis can literally be “the sport for a lifetime.”

“People can play tennis into their 80s and not a lot of sports have that longevity in it,” she said. “The social aspect is also there. Peter and I met on the tennis court. It’s in our blood so we want to share that passion with the rest of the community.”

Court times can be booked at BAC Tennis as can lessons.

Jane Bedard has been a teaching pro certified by Tennis Canada “on and off” for 35 years. She was the head pro at Don Mills Tennis Club in Toronto and, along with her husband of 29 years, served as pros at Muskoka Lakes Golf and Country Club.

Lessons, she said, can be catered to people age “five to unlimited.”

BAC Tennis is intended to complement existing facilities in the region. Peter Bedard said Ontario Tennis Association (OTA) community clubs provide “enough coverage” in the region with two notable exceptions.

“In the summer, Niagara-on-the-lake is amazing, Fort Erie is vibrant, Welland has eight courts and is excellent and Grimsby is full. But, as you can see, that’s a large square missing a major middle incorporating St. Catharines and Niagara Falls,” he said. “There are 250,000 people who aren’t being directly served by a community club.

“Niagara Falls and St. Catharines, in reverse order, are the two largest cities in Ontario without Ontario Tennis Association community tennis clubs.”

The Bedards, who during the winter months belong to White Oaks Resort and Spa in Niagara-on-the-lake, aren’t modelling BAC Tennis after the clubs they belong to or others in the region.

“We don’t want a club. This is a pay-asyou-play facility,” he said. “There are good clubs. We’re not here to compete with them.”

BAC Tennis joined the OTA though it is not a club.

“We’re trying to align with the structure that exists,” Peter Bedard said.

Last year, he witnessed “droves of people playing at Pelham who’ve never played because it was accessible,” but he was only interested in turning Har-tru courts into a pay-for-play facility.

“We would not have done this if these were more hard courts. There are three hard courts at Realty Park, you have hard courts at all the public clubs,” he said. “It’s amazing, you pay $20,000 or $30,000 to join a club that has Har-tru in Toronto.

“We’re offering it for 20 bucks an hour because it was just sitting there in plain sight unseen.”

Har-tru, which is made from volcanic ash, is “more forgiving” as a shock absorber than red clay, which is made from crushed brick.

“Many people stop playing at a certain time because of their knees and their back, and it affects me, too,” he said. “It’s the prominent type of clay in all the Toronto clubs.”

In its heyday, the facility off Melbourne Avenue had 12 courts — “It was Niagara tennis for decades,” Bedard said — before more room was needed for ball hockey.

“Now there are only three courts remaining,” he said. “These three are just a forgotten component of a larger ball hockey centre.

“Last year they weren’t in use.” More information about BAC Tennis, including how to book court times, is available for those interested online at bacniagara.com/tennis.

“People can play tennis into their 80s and not a lot of sports have that longevity in it.”

JANE BEDARD

BAC TENNIS TENNIS DIRECTOR

Sports

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2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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