Sports Editor

The Tomah High School boys tennis team has a new designation in 2008: road warriors.

A long crack on Tomah’s hard plastic tennis courts forced Tomah’s Tuesday Mississippi Valley Conference opener to be moved from Tomah to Onalaska.

It’s possible that Tomah’s four other home dates against Viroqua, Holmen, Mauston and Sparta will also become road matches. Tomah School District Activities Director Tom Curran said today’s (Thursday’s) Viroqua match will definitely be on the road, but no decision has been made about the Holmen, Mauston and Sparta matches.

“We’ll take it day by day,” Curran said. “If we get some warm weather, and if the crack can be repaired, we’ll try to keep the games in Tomah. I don’t want to call another activities director and switch the game from Tomah and then switch it back.”

Tomah coach Brent Nicol said a season of all road matches wouldn’t have a significant impact.

“It won’t affect the team that much,” Tomah coach Brent Nicol said. “There are some guys who are disappointed that they won’t be able to play in front of the home crowd, but we will get to play on a much better playing surface.”

The tennis courts have been a source of contention among MVC tennis coaches for at least a year. The plastic surface has several dead spots, but the crack that formed over the winter made the far west court unplayable and reduced the number of playable surfaces from six to five. That makes it difficult to get all the junior varsity matches completed in a reasonable time.

“It would make for an awfully long night,” Curran said.

Curran hopes the situation will be solved with new tennis courts. The Tomah School Board’s Facilities Committee has reviewed plans for seven new courts to be built at LaGrange Elementary School for $242,000.