The Cameron Indoor Tennis Center, formerly the Minot Indoor Tennis Club, sits high atop North Hill past the airport and gives tennis players a year-round chance to attempt to make their appearances at Wimbledon or channel their inner Anna Kournikova or Andre Agassi.
According to tennis director Jeff Coggins with the Cameron Indoor Tennis Center, the center is doing great and has seen an increase in membership due to all of the new people moving in. "So we have the new and the old (members)," he added. Coggins, who has been with the center for five years, is also the resident tennis pro for the Cameron Indoor Tennis Center.
There are four tennis courts at the center and on Friday, there were people on all four courts, Coggins said. "And that's a good feeling."
Article Photos
Jill Hambek/MDN
Megan Sherven, left, tennis director and pro Jeff Coggins, center, and Jenna Coggins, right, take a break in their tennis playing to pose for a photo at the Cameron Indoor Tennis Center. Sherven, a senior, and Coggins, a seventh-grader, both put in about 30 hours each week practicing tennis.
The Cameron Indoor Tennis Center typically opens during the second week in September and closes near the end of May, Coggins noted, giving players a good nine months of indoor playing time. The center offers lessons for kids for six weeks in the fall and another six-week session that will start Jan. 12, he said. The classes are for kids age 4 to 13, Coggins said, but he also gives private lessons as well as works with the high school players.
You don't have to be a member of the tennis center in order to use the facility, Coggins noted. Membership is $35 per month. Group lessons are split up between the people in the group and lessons for kids cost $40, he added. The Cameron Indoor Tennis Center is run by membership, Coggins said, but people can pay by the month or year and the club is owned by the Minot Recreation Commission.
There is a wide variety of ages of people playing tennis and taking lessons at the tennis center. "We have everyone of all ages," Coggins remarked," from (age) 4 to 64 or 74." Most all of the high school kids take lessons at the indoor center, he pointed out.
The busiest time of the day for the Cameron Indoor Tennis Center is from about 2 in the afternoon until close, Coggins said. The center gets busy as soon as the weather turns cold, and will be busy from now continuing through the next two months, he added.
The Cameron Indoor Tennis Center has been in operation since the mid-1970s and was privately owned until the Minot Recreation Commission took over about seven years ago, Coggins explained.
Coggins said he has seen a definite increase in attendance at the tennis center. "Every year we get a little bit more."
Tennis is the number one best sport to learn as a kid, Coggins noted, because more motor skills are used in tennis than any other sport. "Tennis is a lifetime sport."