| Racquetball
and handball are fastly becoming two of the most popular sports
for adults to participate in the country today and the same can
be said for young adults. Steve Schlegel, proprietor of the
Colonial Sports and Courts Club on Fairy Falls Drive can attest
to that because of the reception his new business has been given
and in turn the popularity among a lot of men and women in the
community, who have used the facility. It was the original dream
of the late Edward Schlegel to build a facility that would be
more oriented to the youth of the community. But it soon became
quite evident that you have to have funds to operate, and the
youth do not have access to the financial capabilities to make
it self-supporting. So the club was built centered towards both
youth and adults. Steve says the group has more plans for the
area across the street, but will hold off on those plans for at
least the present time. Those who like to take part in some kind
of sports activity, but have just not found the proper one,
should take a look and see if racquetball or handball might not
be it. And then there are several other activities including
aerobics, Wallyball, Karate and a whirlpool offered to club
members. The cost certainly is not prohibitive. There is a $45
initiation fee and then its $17 per month for anyone up to 18.
$28 for an individual, or $33 for a married couple or a
father-son or mother-daughter couple, or $38 for and entire
family. Anyone that pays for a year receives a 10 percent
discount. If you check on Columbus, Newark or Zanesville
facilities or the same caliber, the price here is very
reasonable. And there’s no obligation for going out and trying
it once. That’s free.
If you are concerned about
playing someone who really excels at one of the sports
mentioned, that will not happen, because those who are newcomers
are given instructions and a book that tells how to play the
games. Surprisingly so, Schlegel found out that this community
does have some exceptional players. "Some of them have had
no place to play and it just took them a little bit of time to
sharpen their skills again," he said. Plans right now are
to have several leagues and a few tournaments in both handball
and racquetball to increase interest in the sports. "One of
the things that we have to educate the people on is that these
sports can be played the year around in the comfort of indoors,
whether it be in the cold of winter of the heat of summer,
because we do have air conditioning. "We are really trying
to make things appealing to the housewife who has nothing to do,
especially in the early afternoons," Steve says. "We
even offer a baby sitter right here on the spot and it only
costs $1.00 to rent a racquet. "We also found that some
people who come out to watch go away saying, ‘Gee, I just can’t
do that. It’s too fast.’ But once they try it they quickly
change their minds. "We are set up for about 490
memberships and have a little bit over half of that total right
now. It’s much better than what we really expected at this
early date, " he said. "Undoubtedly, the best player
we’ve had here is Bob Pulley, who is also known around here as
being quite a tennis player. He played racquetball in
Pennsylvania and is an excellent player. From noon to 3 p.m.
appears to be the slowest part of our day through the week, but
on weekends and holidays, we have all that we can usually
handle," he said.
"We are not trying to make
money at this venture, we just want it to be self-supporting. So
far, everything has gone very well. We are well pleased,"
Schlegel said. "We’ve been really pleased by the way the
youngsters have turned out. They really want to learn and that’s
encouraging. I think that there is room for all the sports and
this one included, in our community," Schlegel added.
Racquetball teaches endurance, stamina, eye and body control,
and while one is developing those things, he or she can be
enjoying it and learning competitiveness. |
