The tennis courts at Hamden High School are set to be restored following a $152,000 donation from Quinnipiac University.
This is not the first time Quinnipiac has made a contribution to local Connecticut schools. Over the summer, Quinnipiac donated $48,000 in support of Hamden Middle School. The donation followed town budget cuts that would have disbanded its athletic programs. In 2022, the university provided North Haven Middle School approximately $276,000 to renovate its track and field facilities, as well as an all-access playground.
With its donation to Hamden High School, Quinnipiac will once again step in to assist the local community of students, providing them with refurbished athletic facilities.
“The opportunity to help out with these new tennis courts came to us, and we gladly accepted,”
said Bethany Zemba, Quinnipiac’s vice president for strategy and community relations.”
“We maintain strong relationships with both towns and value the partnership and the opportunity to work with them.”
In April, Hamden mayor Lauren Garrett proposed a $500,000 budget in bonding for the reconstruction of the courts. However, the state declined the proposal, leaving the town to find the money elsewhere in grants and donations.
Last season, Hamden High School’s tennis teams practiced and played its home matches at the nearby middle school courts. This was due to cracks and inconsistencies formed on the high school courts, causing potential safety concerns.
Hamden Public Schools’ athletic director Tom Dyer said the current conditions of the courts have been a consistent problem during his time in the position.
“It kind of got to a point where we couldn’t repair the cracks anymore and it is time to get them fixed,” Dyer said. “It’s time for something a lot more major to get done there in order to provide tennis opportunities, not just to our student-athletes, but for our community.”
Dyer further explained that despite minor resurfacing over the years, it was still not enough to fix the courts.
“There’s been cracks in the courts since I’ve been here,” Dyer said. “The courts are definitely in need of some work, they’ve done some resurfacing over the years, filling in the cracks to be able to get the courts playable. But we’ve gotten to the point where we can’t repair it anymore and it’s time to get them fixed.”
Before the closure, the location stood as the town’s only tennis courts free to the public. Hamden High made renovations over the summer, allowing the courts to temporarily re-open.
Not only will the Quinnipiac donation fund a complete resurface job across all the courts, but new fencing, netting and pickleball lines will be added.
There is hope that the project could be done in time for Hamden High School’s season this coming spring, but nothing has been confirmed.
“It hasn’t went out on an RFP(request for proposal) yet,” Dyer said. “But speaking to the mayor recently, it’s something that should be happening in the coming weeks.”
Adam Raffone and Peter Finch, the tennis coaches at Hamden High said there are challenges with moving the team to the nearby middle school on Dixwell Ave.. The school had to bus its athletes to the middle school, while the coaches would fill their cars with necessary equipment.
“The biggest downside to being there was that less courts created a situation where if that was our long-term solution, we would have to adjust how many kids were able to keep,” Raffone said.
Raffone is a lifelong Hamden resident. After graduating from Hamden High in 2000, he began coaching for both the high school and college, Albertus Magnus, down the road.
Finch, who has been the girls tennis coach since 2004, said coordinating practices with a large number of players became difficult when the team was moved to the middle school courts.
“We couldn’t stagger our practices because there was only one bus, so we all had to be there at the same time,” Finch said. “Whereas when we’re at the building here, we can just start at different times. Just walk to the court.”
Finch, who also teaches at Hamden High, said some players were ecstatic when they heard about Quinnipiac’s donation.
“We heard like a year ago that this could possibly happen,” Finch said. “But we didn’t want to get the kids’ hopes up. So when they found out, they were really excited.”
Both coaches talked about the importance of sharing the town with Quinnipiac and what it means to have an ongoing positive relationship with the university.
“Any time you can have a symbiotic relationship with a school that’s in your town, I think that’s great,” Raffone said.
Quinnipiac men’s tennis coach Bryan Adinolf, attended high school with Raffone. He has lended a helping hand to the high school tennis programs.