DULUTH — For Dane Patten, his Monday morning started like it has for the past couple of weeks at Longview Tennis Club. The former Duluth East standout and current St. Scholastica player began by doing a bear walk around one of the courts as a group of small children mimicked his movement.
“Ok, now let’s do the alligator,” Patten calls out. They all lay down on the ground and lifted their hands and feet to help stretch out their arms, legs and backs. Such is the life of a tennis teacher with a class of preschool-age kids.
ADVERTISEMENT Patten has worked and taught at Longview for the past five seasons, but 2024 is a little bit different at the courts at the corner of 25th Ave. East and Fourth St. Always a busy place in the summer, Longview wasn’t exactly quiet, but it wasn’t the “organized chaos” it typically becomes after school ends, according to Willie Paul, a Duluth Friends of Tennis (DFOT) board member.
The public courts serve as the home of Duluth East tennis. After the boys season ended this spring, the courts were closed for a major resurfacing project. The Longview courts are a public park, property of the city of Duluth, but they are operated and maintained by the DFOT.
After a number of harsh Duluth winters and constant play in the summers, the courts were cracked and scarred. Even some of the concrete around the net poles was beginning to buckle, Willie Paul said. “It had gotten into the end of its useful life,” Willie Paul said.
DFOT raised the.
