The Bellingham Training & Tennis Club lobby filled with voices and laughter on a sunny afternoon in mid-May as sweaty club members socialized post-match. Two young boys played a chess game, with tennis rackets at their side, waiting for their lesson.
“This is what makes me happy,” said club owner Doug Robertson, who prides himself on running a tennis club that offers a sense of community to its members.
Doug and his wife, Robin Robertson, have owned the club for 23 years, having bought it in 2000. The club, which first opened in 1973, has been a fixture in the city’s tennis community even longer than that. This year marks its 50th anniversary.
Owner Doug Robertson returns a tennis ball May 18 at the indoor courts of the Bellingham Training & Tennis Club in Fairhaven. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
Doug, a lifelong tennis player, was a club member for years before he ended up as its owner. It was in the late 1990s when he heard talk of the original owners’ plan to sell to the highest bidder. He realized it was his chance to preserve the city’s only indoor tennis courts and keep the community alive.
In the decades since, the pair have turned what was once a tennis club on the brink of collapse into what it is today: a bustling hub for players and fitness enthusiasts alike, with around 750 members.
Employee Megan Norris works out in the training center. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
The club’s path to success success wasn’t always an easy one.
Robin has acted as both general manager and owner since the club’s inception, and said it took around five years to even start turning a profit.
The aging building has also required multiple renovations throughout the years to bring it to its current glory — the first of which being the installation of two additional courts shortly after the Robertsons took over ownership.
Now, it’s a full-fledged fitness and training facility. With five indoor courts, two weight rooms, exercise classes and even saunas in the locker rooms, the club has something for everyone.
Certified tennis professionals teach clinics to players of all ages, whether they’re picking up a racket for the first time or a longtime player looking to perfect their technique.
Head tennis pro Cooper Anderson, left, instructs Robert Crider during a lesson. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
The club is more than just a spot to play tennis, Robin said — it’s a community hub, and it’s why the club has lasted so long.
“We’re all about developing relationships and community,” Robin said. “If people don’t show up, we will actually call and say ‘I haven’t seen you in a while, are you OK?’”
Justin Melland, a club member for just under a year, first joined because of the “fabulous facilities,” he said — but was pleasantly surprised by the connections he made as a result.
“It’s a pretty welcoming, positive environment; every time you go in, there’s always somebody smiling and saying ‘hi’ to you,” Melland said. “It’s just a mood lift.”
The club is home to many longtime members — more than 45 have been part of the club even longer than the Robertsons have been owners, Doug said.
Multigenerational members aren’t uncommon, either. Club member Sarah Kaiser fondly remembers a childhood spent at the club, accompanying her parents as they played tennis in the early days of the club’s existence. Kaiser’s parents, Bob and Wendy Warner, first joined the club in 1974, a year after it first opened.
To this day, the Warners are still regular tennis players and play a match every weekend against Kaiser and her husband.
“My mom [is] much better than me,” Kaiser said. “[My parents] have really maintained and been very healthy their whole lives.”
Kaiser’s teenage children are members, too, and play varsity tennis at Sehome High School.
“I can’t think of any other sport where you can have a kid, a parent and a grandparent all playing the sport together,” Robin said. “Seeing generations out on the court is one of the happiest things for me.”
Owner and manager Robin Robertson sits in the lobby of the Bellingham Training & Tennis Club. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)
