Knolls’ closing leaves void in tennis community

Denny Hershberger got started in tennis like scores of other fellow southwest Lincoln residents through the years.

Hershberger went on to play at Lincoln Southeast and then coached at Lincoln High before moving over to Lincoln Southwest when the school opened in 2002.

This is Hershberger’s 14th summer heading up the club’s tennis program, the past eight years with Southeast coach Chris Salem assisting him, and it appears to be his last.

“I don’t think I would be as involved in tennis as I am today without the Knolls,” said Hershberger, whose two children have also gone through the Knolls tennis programs.

Thousands of kids have been exposed to the sport through the years, and a good percentage of them went on to play high school tennis and continue with it as adults.” Hershberger said about 100 juniors went through the Knolls programs each summer, which includes lessons, drill clinics and team tennis against the other clubs in town.

Hershberger is holding out hope that whoever buys and develops the club’s property might keep the tennis courts.

If the courts are gone, Hershberger and Salem are looking to continue working with the Knolls kids at Southwest and Southeast in 2016.

“There aren’t a lot of courts in southwest Lincoln, and losing the three at Knolls will make it worse,” Hershberger said.