{"id":68419,"date":"2017-05-02T14:16:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T20:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-parks-and-recreation-unveils-youth-tennis-program\/"},"modified":"2017-05-02T20:16:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T20:16:41","slug":"cortez-parks-and-recreation-unveils-youth-tennis-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-parks-and-recreation-unveils-youth-tennis-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez Parks and Recreation unveils youth tennis program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Carla
Carla Odell, Jason Green and Lavon Harkendorff stand next to the tennis courts as the Harkendorff fund will help start up the new children\u2019s tennis program.<\/span>Sam Green\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Seven years after the death of longtime Cortez tennis coach Jim Harkendorff, a fund set up in his name will help start a program designed to get children into the sport.<\/p>\n

The Parks and Recreation Department opened registration for a new youth tennis program in March, and recreation supervisor Jason Green said about 30 children ages 5 to 12 have signed up. On Tuesday, Carla Odell and Lavon Harkendorff, who created the \u201cHarkendorff Court Bleacher Fund\u201d several years ago in honor of the late coach, officially donated $600 to pay for the tennis program\u2019s equipment. The Cortez Recreation Center will hold youth tennis classes every Saturday in May.<\/p>\n

The fund, which was made up of donations from tennis enthusiasts throughout Montezuma County, previously paid for the renaming of the Harkendorff Tennis Courts at the rec center, complete with a sign and a plaque, as well as the installation of new bleachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad someone is going to start a tennis program for the kids,\u201d Harkendorff said. \u201cThat would have been just what Jim would have wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city hasn\u2019t had many options for young tennis players since the coach\u2019s death, and Green said he hopes this program will fill that gap.<\/p>\n

Green, along with parks and recreation director Dean Palmquist, will supervise the program, but Paul Morey will be the primary coach, with assistance from the parks and recreation department\u2019s activity leaders. Green also said he expects at least two volunteers from the Montezuma-Cortez High School tennis team. Kids will be split up into three age categories to practice tennis skills.<\/p>\n

Tennis is a tough sport to get into for Cortez students, Green said, and the few high school students who play it often have to drive to Durango in order to practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no feeder program for those type(s) of kids,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have one for baseball, with all the Little League we have, we have it for soccer\u2026. Tennis kind of fell by the wayside after (Harkendorff) passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that because the new program is part of the rec center\u2019s permanent activity schedule, it\u2019s no longer dependent on a particular person, and it can continue even if the current coaches leave. Parents are also encouraged to participate alongside their kids, whether they have tennis experience or not.<\/p>\n

Given the positive response so far, Green said he hopes to expand the program in the fall, with classes lasting for six to eight weeks and possibly including a wider age range. Right now there\u2019s a $10 registration fee \u2013 $30 if parents want to add a child-size tennis racket \u2013 but Green said he and Palmquist are discussing the possibility of using part of the Harkendorff Fund to offer scholarships for low-income families.<\/p>\n

Odell and Harkendorff\u2019s donation used up the last of the money in the bleacher fund, which has paid for many more tennis court improvements than they expected over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to close it and give it to the rec center,\u201d Odell said.<\/p>\n

Green said he is still accepting registrations for the spring tennis program, but there is a 48-person limit in order to avoid crowding the tennis courts.<\/p>\n

Parents can sign up their children by picking up a registration form at the front desk in the rec center. Dates for the fall program have not yet been announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harkendorff Fund pays for new youth tennis program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,28,29,976,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-68419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68419"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=68419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}