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HAVERHILL — School officials along with city leaders and students held a groundbreaking on Wednesday for a $4.2 million indoor tennis and pickleball facility being built on the Haverhill High School campus.
The project received a $1 million donation from longtime Hillie philanthropist and Haverhill athletics booster Ernie DiBurro and $3.2 million in borrowing by the city.
The indoor facility is being built in front of the Charles C. White Pool building and across from the Anthony B. Sapienza Memorial running track. Construction has begun and the facility is expected to be completed by next April.
“This will be a huge step in the right direction for the tennis team and we’re very grateful for Ernie DiBurro and the city,” said varsity tennis player Michael Kmenta, who participated in the groundbreaking. “To have an indoor tennis court will be huge for us and will improve our games by leaps and bounds. Tennis is a weather dependent sport and it’s beyond my wildest dreams to have indoor courts.”
“As conference champions for 2022 and 2023, we’re hoping to continue that for a third year,” Kmenta added.
School officials said the Haverhill High campus will now boast an indoor swimming pool, indoor hockey and ice-skating rink, and indoor tennis/pickleball courts, along with a new, multi-sport artificial grass playing field and modern running track.
“Once again we want to thank Ernie DiBurro for his generous donations to the city of Haverhill and Haverhill Public Schools,” said Mayor James Fiorentini, who worked closely with DiBurro and School Superintendent Margaret Marotta to make the groundbreaking possible. “The addition of an indoor racket sports center at our flagship high school campus will be a wonderful resource for our students as well as city residents for decades to come.”
DiBurro, a member of Haverhill High’s Class of 1952, has previously donated money to renovate and outfit a fitness room at the high school pool and also paid for the construction of a large iron gate entrance to the school’s athletic track, fencing to secure the athletic fields, lighting around the track, and thousands of dollars in scholarship money over the years. He also paid for construction of a sports clubhouse at the city’s stadium on Lincoln Avenue.
“We’ve done many things over the years,” DiBurro said about his donations to the high school. “It’s been my honor to be able to do this and as long as I’m able I’ll keep on going.”
The new tennis building will be a shared city and school resource, available to high school students and student-athletes during the school day and the public after school and on weekends. The facility will include two tennis courts that can quickly convert into four pickleball courts.
Athletic Director Tom O’Brien said the new facility will allow students to play tennis year round, will help avoid the cancellation of matches due to inclement weather, and that every student will benefit as PE classes can be held in the facility as well.
“We can do a variety of activities in here and not just tennis and pickleball,” O’Brien said. “It’s also going to benefit the community as it will be open to the public.”
While the exact time-sharing details are still being worked out, the facility is to be co-managed by the school’s Athletic Department and the city’s Recreation Department. Fiorentini and the School Committee previously entered into an agreement to share the building between the schools and the Haverhill public.
Stephen Dorrance, the city’s facilities director in charge of the project, said construction of the steel building begins next Monday and should be completed by April.
“Mr. DiBurro is paying for the building and the city will be paying for the infrastructure, including a foundation, plumbing, and electrical,” Dorrance said. “Despite being a steel building, it also has to have a fire suppression system.”
The tennis building will displace a number of parking spaces on the high school campus. However, those parking spaces plus an additional 10 spaces are being re-created in a new parking area nearby. Construction on that new parking lot began earlier this month, Dorrance said.
Dorrance also stressed that, according to state law, any outside contractors or workers on the high school campus during construction who would “likely have unsupervised contact with students” must pass a criminal background check, commonly known as a CORI check.
Dorrance noted that construction of the tennis building is to take place inside “a fenced-in and restricted area.”
The original plan was to build the tennis building at the city’s Riverside Park, but space limitations and special requirements for new construction near the Merrimack River meant the project had to find another home. Other locations, including Winnekenni Park, were considered before the decision was made to build it at the high school.
DiBurro and O’Brien were among those who favored the high school campus as the location for the new facility.
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