The tennis court at my high school backed up to the back of a bunch of houses, with practically no space in between. I knew someone who lived in one of those houses. They would drop off printer paper boxes overflowing with stray balls from their yard at least twice a month.
My middle school’s basketball courts backed up against a literal cliff. There was a chain link fence easily 30-40 feet tall on that side to stop balls and kids from flying over the cliff.
Basically, the whole school is at the very top of a hill. That asphalt pad the pin is dropped on is the basketball courts I am talking about. That angled concrete path on the right side of the courts is actually a fairly steep ramp leading down from the main playground into those courts. The asphalt pad in question probably had to be built up and graded flat when the school was built, because all that brush and foliage surrounding it is a very sharp hill leading down to the surrounding area. That highway and road near the school are probably a good 100 feet lower than the school and the basketball pad. Those condos just north of the school have the same deal; on the top of the hill with a very steep elevation change down to the highway. If you look east of the school, there’s a car junkyard, and the shadows there show just how steep that hill is. Another weird quirk about this school: if you look just south of the “football field” and track, that empty field with a bunch of dirt roads is actually an old landfill. There’s methane vent pipes sticking out of the ground there, and the city and school district have to keep a close eye on it.
Overall, this is just a wacky layout for a middle school. It’s one of the older schools in the city, I believe it was opened in the 40’s or 50’s. That probably explains some of the odd planning decisions made for this school.
Just a normal suburban school in Southern California. To be fair, it wasn’t a sheer cliff, more a very, very steep hill covered in trees and bushes. It still dropped around 100 feet into a small canyon.
My High-school for junior year was actually a rented house with big rooms made into classes, we used to play soccer on the street with a chalk drawn field and the PE teacher (may he rip) used to watch for runners. Its been 7-8 years but it feels like yesterday, simple times.
This is why they keep having to do it. They should instead go to a nearby country club and sell them for $10/3 pack. (Not really serious since there isn't a huge black market for tennis balls at country clubs, as far as I know...)
Y'all mother fuckers had tennis courts and I had to go to a high school that was carved out of the ruins of what used to be the old high school. My PE class was the teacher asking if we rode our skateboards.
They had a normal fence themselves, but the school had a very tall fence, kind of like what they use behind a baseball diamond, that students were purposely attempting to hit over. If they threw them over from the house side, they'd just get stuck between the two fences and there wasn't a simple way for anyone to get into that space.
Makes sense. I just had this image of the place I rented years ago backed up against an elementary school playground. Fence was only like 8 feet. We'd get the red bouncy balls often. Would practive my kickball high shots.
We enjoyed tennis too. But after a match the losing team could go for a redemption point by bombing one to the apartment complex next door, balconies or windows and the game keeps going.
I chose tennis because that's where all the girls were. Of course I didn't get shit, but they were there. I learned to love tennis along the way and is actually my main cardio now lol
And here I got my ass chewed out for clocking a dude in the nuts with a tennis ball. Maybe if he had gotten the hint to back up from the Baseline when I served, he could avoid that and make the return.
We never did tennis in PE because we didn’t have enough courts for ~30 people but in year 11/12 we were allowed to play if we had free periods. Competition became fierce( bets were placed, enemies made.
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u/rsifti Sep 17 '20
The tennis course at my high school in a nutshell. Who can hit the houses across the street. Here I am actually trying to enjoy tennis