When it rains, it pours — at least it does on the LSU tennis programs.
In the 12-team Southeastern Conference, LSU is the only school without an indoor tennis facility, and the ripple effect covers everything from practicing to scheduling to recruiting.
“Facilities are an issue,” said LSU men’s tennis coach Jeff Brown. “A lot of places have state-of-the-art outdoor facilities and an indoor facility, as well. I’m sure when other schools recruit against us they ask the kids, ‘What does LSU do when it rains?'”
That question draws a number of startling answers.
Brown and women’s tennis coach Tony Minnis routinely check the weather a week in advance to arrange practices in the event of inclement weather.
The teams are forced to practice in an airport hangar at Independence Park or the courts at Country Club of Louisiana after the members have completed play.
This semester, both teams have held late practices from 9 p.m. to midnight.
“It’s so frustrating. Sometimes we don’t even get to practice,” said Lady Tiger sophomore Keri Frankenberger. “Sometimes places aren’t open, or we have to go all the way across town.”
This fall, Minnis charted the days that practice was affected by inclement weather. Of the 144 practice days, more than one-third (53) were weather-affected.
Canceling practice is a small inconvenience.
Minnis’ Lady Tigers were scheduled to host the 2011 SEC Tournament, but the lack of an indoor facility prevented that from happening. LSU, along with the 10 other schools, will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., instead.
The Tigers do not play a home match in the fall because the three-day tournament format of fall collegiate tennis increases the likelihood of weather delays and cancellations.
“It puts us in a very precarious situation,” Minnis said. “This past year we were scheduled to play Texas Tech at home, and it ended up raining. Texas Tech spent all their money to come down here, so I agreed to drive down to New Orleans and play indoors there. Texas Tech had spent two weeks playing indoors, and we hadn’t played indoors at all. It was a home match for us, but we were all of a sudden at a disadvantage.”
Sometimes, matches are canceled or started and never completed.
“We were playing Vanderbilt a few years ago. It was No. 21 versus No. 22, a big match for both sides,” Minnis said. “After about an hour of play, it started raining, and they just went home.”
LSU schedules many of its spring matches in the afternoon to allow for rain delays, but even that precaution presents problems.
“It’s difficult to build a fan base when you play 3 p.m. matches because most people have to work,” Brown said.
In the past four years, LSU has shelled out money for new facilities for the baseball, softball, basketball, golf and track programs.
LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva told The Advocate on Sunday that private fundraising is underway for such a facility, which would cost $10 million to $11 million.
The new facility, complete with indoor and outdoor courts, will be built south of LSU’s campus on Nicholson Drive.
The complex would be similar to University Club, the home of LSU’s golf teams. University Club functions as a country club year-round, but the golf teams have access at all times.
Plans are awaiting approval from the LSU Board of Supervisors.
“We feel there are a lot of things right about this project, and timing is one of them,” Brown said.
As the Tigers have traveled across the country playing matches, they’ve seen their share of indoor facilities.
“One of the benefits of being last [in the conference] to build is seeing how others have laid out their facilities,” Brown said. “Our layout is one of the best in the nation.”
Minnis seems less concerned with the layout.
“We just need something,” he said.
 
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Contact Hunt Palmer at [email protected]