Gary Wagher Quotations

We're playing pretty well right now. We have a quality team, and when we play a tournament like we did today with reduced numbers - two singles matches and three doubles matches - we're pretty competitive.

Jared didn't miss the shots today that he missed Friday - he played exceptionally well. The kid from Quincy didn't play as well - he was trying to hit it too hard. But Jared did a good job of staying patient and under control.

We're trying to practice on them, but you couldn't play a challenge match. When the ball hits, you don't know where it's going to go. You can't have a competitive match like that.

Both of those guys played extremely well. Those two are going to play a challenge match this week for the No. 2 singles spot in our upcoming tournaments. It will be an interesting week of practice.

At this point, there's nothing that can be done to these courts - nothing. Some places have tried to put six inches of blacktop down over the whole surface. You can do that, but every single crack will eventually come back.

Even back in 1983 there were dead spots on the court. I told them back then they would need to replace these courts. So this has been going on awhile.

They came in and cut openings in the court to put in tile as an afterthought, but all that did was make more cracks. Eventually the rock underneath disintegrated. That left a lot of ups and downs on the court.

In the '80s, the water would seep up through the cracks when it warmed up and the courts would be slick. Plus, they sloped the courts from the east to the west instead of putting a slight grade on each side so that it would slop either direction. That didn't help with the drainage.

The guys that are on this team have put a lot of time and money into this sport, and they didn't want to give it up. These are boys who just like to go out there and play tennis. I hope their attitude rubs off on the younger players in town.