Aaron Kogoy

Contributing Writer

The following is a reflection piece from Aaron Kogoy, a freshman Computer Science major from White Haven, PA.

As a tennis player, I never thought that outside of the courts would be my favorite spot on campus when I arrived at ESU. I still remember the joy I felt walking with my friends to Wolbers Tennis Courts for the first time, only to have that feeling stripped away when I learned that the courts were not open to the public.

Even though I wasn’t allowed inside the courts, I still found myself right outside of them almost nightly, as if I was going to change my fate with sheer persistence. Although I never ended up actually playing tennis here, I did find a “secret” spot like no other.

The first time I sat on the bleachers outside the highest court was when I was escaping my roommate while I was on the phone with my girlfriend. I generally like walking or biking around campus while on the phone, but over time I quickly found myself stopping here every time we called. I sat on these hard, uncomfortable seats for hours, but for some reason I found them comforting when I was trying to unwind at night.

There was something relaxing about watching cars pass by on the street while being just outside the reach of their high beams. I would notice the squeak of their brakes while they approached the stop sign, and the burble of their exhausts as they barreled down the road was sometimes deafening. I especially enjoyed the rare honk as someone was cut off, and I always laughed about how bad the drivers are around campus.

Many people online have described the experience of aimlessly walking around their surroundings while being on the phone, and I have found that this is the perfect spot for this niche scenario. The feeling of the friction between the soft outsoles of my shoes and the rough concrete, along with the slight bend in the chain fence when I leaned on it were like Nee Doh nice cubes for my mind.

When I walked on the bleachers, I could feel the strength of the steel through my shoes and enjoyed the strong clanking sound they made with every step. Even when these benches were freezing from the cold air, I would still slap the sides just to hear the metal resonate during the quiet nights.

Over time, I ended up coming to these tennis courts even when I wasn’t on my nightly phone call. I often found myself looking up into the night sky, with my head resting on the shallow ridges in the metal of the top row of bleachers. Even when there were some clouds, it was rare to not see an abundance of stars with the pearlescent moon accompanying them.

When I wasn’t blasting Malcolm Todd on my AirPods, I was listening to the soft drone of crickets in the fields surrounding me. In the distance, I could also hear the faint chatter of other students leaving the rec center and heading back to their dorms for the night.

Somehow, these tennis courts managed to bring me the largest sense of solitude I have felt since I arrived in the fall. The warm glow of the streetlamps and stadium lights surrounding the darkness of the unlit courts brought a feeling of loneliness, even when I was still on the phone.

This feeling wasn’t a scary or sad one though, but it was more like a feeling of safety. I knew when I was walking around the chain fences that caged in the courts that I wasn’t going to be bothered by the usual thirsty Thursday participant or ESU Batman. It was as if the rough stone walls here weren’t just protecting the tennis courts, but also anyone who would find themselves there.

Eventually, more snow than I have ever seen in my life fell and my “secret” place was stuck under 2 feet of a substance colder than the bleachers themselves. Instead of the rough concrete sidewalks I was used to walking on, I now got to feel the crunch and slipperiness the ice under me had to offer. It was even enjoyable to watch the snow on the side of the benches melt as a marker for how much longer I needed to wait to play tennis again.

Even in a time where it nearly impossible for me to enjoy the frigid outdoors, these tennis courts brought me a place to go when I couldn’t stand my boring dorm room any longer.

As spring finally arrives at ESU, with it comes the late sunsets and bright rays of sun that warm not only the dark grit of the tennis courts, but my soul along with them. With more and more boisterous students finding refuge in the grass between Sycamore and Hemlock Suites, I’m thankful to have found somewhere as the semester comes to a close where the only interruption I face is the wind blowing my papers away.

Even as finals week gets closer and stress levels rise with the temperature, I know that the chilled metal of the tennis court bleachers will be able to refresh my body and mind in a way that nowhere else on campus could even come close to.