Former Redmond Coach to Open Huge New Public Tennis Facility

A 35-year dream of local tennis pro will bounce into reality on Feb. 1 with the opening of a 56,000-square-foot, 12-court public facility in Kirkland.

“I’ve always had a passion for youth and kids who can’t afford tennis because I was one,” said Whitney, who in 2003 founded Tennis Outreach Programs (TOPs) and served as 's tennis coach for 16 years. “I wanted to help kids do what I didn’t get the chance to do. This has been a 35-year-old dream, opening a public facility on the Eastside.”

The Outreach and Performance Tennis Center in the Totem Lake area (10822 117th Pl NE) is the massive manifestation of TOPs’ mission “to enhance the lives of at-risk and low income youth in King County through affordable tennis, education and fitness.” But it will be open to all. It will be only the third public tennis facility in the under-served greater Seattle area. 

“Although our mission is to provide low-cost tennis programs for youth, we are dedicated to providing tennis for everyone,” said Travis Roach, TOPs executive director and manager of the center. “The center is designed to be a safe, positive place for kids.”

Tucked away in a corner of the Par-Mac business district on the west side of Interstate 405, the cavernous warehouse sat empty for months before TOPs signed a 15-year lease, thanks to some $1.2 million in donations and personal loans. Now it hosts six regulation-size indoor courts and six smaller youth courts and when it is finished it will feature a small pro shop with racket-stringing, study and breaks rooms, locker-rooms and showers, board and pro rooms and a players' lounge.

The center will offer a full range of tennis programs for all ages beginning at 3 and all abilities, and ultimately will even be able to accommodate wheelchair players. It will offer individual instruction and play, team play and will host tournaments. Courts will be available for public rental.

Some staff has already been hired, but TOPs is taking resumes and inquiries for additional positions (email info@tennisoutreach.org). It will also offer rental space for meetings and small events. Roach said TOPs is expecting people from Bainbridge Island to Bellingham to use the center.

Between 60 and 70 percent of the youths served by TOPs are supported through scholarships, and Whitney said its programs are well-rounded and designed to be fun. The image of balls being fired by a machine at a harried player who is also being barked at by a stern coach is not what TOPs is about at all.

“Tennis really teaches integrity,” said Whitney, who lives in Bothell. “Those are things we want to instill in kids, and we want it to be fun.” ( for an earlier story about Whitney's contributions to the tennis program at Redmond High.)

Added Roach, who before being named manager of the center spent five years managing the Mercer Island Beach Club: “Our big thing is really to provide opportunities, and tennis is our vehicle. Our emphasis is on developing a love for tennis, through engagement drills, teaching stroke technique and proper fundamentals, matches, tournaments, things like pizza nights.”

Whitney said she stepped down from her coaching position at the high school in December to have enough time to focus on TOPs.

“It was a hard decision. I was trying to figure out how I could do both, but unfortunately I can’t,” she said.

TOPs is currently based in Redmond, but will move into the center when it is completed—and Whitney’s dream is realized.

“I saw Billie Jean King on TV,” she recalled of her childhood in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. “But I grew up in a small country town (Molalla) with two courts, at the high school, and only adults and high school kids could use them.”

So Whitney, who also taught for 16 years at Kirkland’s private Central Park Tennis Club—where she coached —spent hours whacking balls against the wall of her house.

“I played with broken strings and two balls I found that wouldn’t bounce, until I got into high school,” she said “I didn’t know the rules, didn’t know scoring. That’s where the dream came from. Tennis became such a part of me, and I became determined to give the kids what I didn’t get.”

Outreach & Performance Tennis Center is scheduled to open Feb. 1, with grand opening ceremonies Feb. 11.

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Redmond Patch editor Caitlin Moran contributed to this story.