Osakis School District celebrates new tennis courts, bus garage

OSAKIS — The Osakis School District had an official unveiling of its new tennis courts earlier this month.

On Thursday, Nov. 3, members of the girls' tennis team, their coach, along with school board and district officials, commemorated the occasion with a small gathering.

"I think we've always had a great tennis program with mediocre facilities, and now we continue to have a great program with pretty great facilities to go with it," said school board clerk Amy Weisser.

Superintendent Randy Bergquist agreed, saying, "We've got some good space here. I'd like to maybe doll it up a little bit, if that's the correct term to use. For example, I know in the summertime it gets pretty hot out here. I looked into a grant for some kind of canopy … so people can stay in the shade without having to get too hot watching the (games)."

Girls' tennis coach Ryan Maddock said the new courts have enabled more players to play at the same time.

"With our matches, we can throw out 15 girls to play at the start, where years past sometimes you would be limited, which isn't the end of the world, but that was very nice," Maddock said. "They can play normal-length matches, where sometimes it was a matter of, 'We've got to wait for courts to open up,' and it was starting to get late. All of a sudden it starts getting dark, and you've just got to play to this score rather than play a full (match)."

Maddock added, "I think long-term it's going to allow us to host more (matches)."

Tennis player Ellie George said the team members have already noticed a difference.

"I think we were able to get better practices in, because there were less people hitting on more courts," George said.

Tennis player Larissa Hoffarth said the Osakis school's tennis program has helped to start what she thinks will be a lifelong love of the sport.

"I think most of us will hopefully continue to get out and play (after high school)," Hoffarth said. "It's such a lifelong sport, so we're fortunate to have the program we did to introduce us to it."

Bid packages for the tennis court expansion project were approved by the Osakis School Board back in February and entailed the following:

• $142,518.99 to add a west tennis court and sidewalk to the north side of the proposed tennis court.
• $142,518.99 to add an east tennis court and sidewalk to the north side of the proposed tennis court.
• $23,103 to install a concrete sidewalk and retaining wall to the west side of the existing tennis courts.

Travis Gulbrandson / Alexandria Echo Press

School officials also stopped by the district's new bus garage, which will be able to accommodate 15 buses and three vans, along with wash and maintenance bays and support space.

The total cost of the garage project is approximately $2 million, with drive-through doors and gravel work.