Sam Colangelo Tennis Courts

The Sam Colangelo Tennis Courts are the town's eight public tennis courts at the Peggy Hannon-Rizza Recreation Complex, on the west side of the complex at the corner of Campbell Road and Ed Hayes Way. All eight are lighted, and two of them, courts 7 and 8, can be reserved for tennis or pickleball through the Recreation Department. They stand on the land of the old Mitchell Boys' School that three townsmen gave the town in 1950 as the Memorial Athletic Field.

The first courts on the grounds were built in 1975, when the Park Department cleared woods at the "Chuck Lampson Memorial Football Field" on Campbell Road for a girls' softball field and "the addition of eight tennis courts". The Recreation Commission reported at the end of that year "the completion of the eight tennis courts at the Lampson Memorial Field. Fences have been installed and the lines painted. Four of these courts have lights installed", and thanked "especially George Gracie who put in a lot of time and work, on the fencing and construction of the tennis courts and the new softball field". Lights for the remaining four courts were being finished in the spring of 1987.

By 2009 the old courts were "in bad condition". The annual town meeting of that year voted, under Article 21, to borrow $258,000 "for the purpose of constructing tennis courts as described in Phase Two of the Lampson Recreation Complex Master Plan", and eight new courts were built in 2009 and 2010; by 2013 the site of the old courts had become a multipurpose practice field, which was lighted in 2014. In 2011 the town meeting spent $30,000 to paint and seal the new courts, which Recreation Director Peggy Hannon-Rizza said would protect them and prolong their life by about seven years, and they were resealed again in 2016. A pickleball program began on two of the courts in 2014. A state PARC grant of 2017 paid for lights on the courts, installed in 2018, and in 2022 the town voted $75,000 of Community Preservation funds for the "PHR Tennis / Pickle Ball Courts".

The courts were named in 2011 for Samuel J. Colangelo, known as Sam (1946-2006). Born in Winthrop, he graduated from Billerica Memorial High School in 1964, served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, and taught social studies and health at the high school for 33 years until he retired in 2004. He coached the boys' tennis, lacrosse and girls' basketball teams, taught tennis for the Recreation Department and was a New England-ranked masters tennis player and a state volleyball official for more than thirty years. He served on the Recreation Commission in the 1980s, as its vice chairman in 1986 and 1987. He died on September 29, 2006.

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.

References

1. Annual Report 1975: Park Department and Recreation Commission, eight tennis courts at the Lampson Memorial Field, four lighted; thanks to George Gracie
2. Annual Report 1986: lighting of the remaining four tennis courts at Lampson Field
3. Annual Report 2009: Article 21, $258,000 for tennis courts, Phase Two of the Lampson Recreation Complex Master Plan; eight new courts
4. Annual Report 2011: Article 26, $30,000 to paint and seal the tennis courts at the Lampson Recreation Complex
5. Annual Report 2017: PARC grant of $400,000 for the Peggy Hannon-Rizza complex, including lights for the tennis courts
6. Town of Billerica: Sam Colangelo Tennis Courts, Peggy Hannon-Rizza Recreation Complex, tennis and pickleball court reservations
7. Tennis Northeast: Billerica, Sam Colangelo Courts, 8 lighted courts; renamed May 2011, formerly the Chuck Lampson courts
8. Lowell Sun obituary of Samuel J. "Sam" Colangelo (1946-2006), Billerica Memorial High School teacher and tennis coach