"Both of my girls were tennis players in middle school and high school and I played," said Chris Whitehead, whose husband Mark is the president of U-Stop parent company Whitehead Oil.Â
Now the Whiteheads are passing on their passion for the sport.
U-Stop and a private donor are combining to fund the roughly $1 million needed to build a planned tennis complex at Standing Bear High School officials hope will grow access to the sport.
"At U-Stop one of our core values is being really in tune with the community that we serve," Chris Whitehead said. "This was one way to say thank you to the city of Lincoln."
As part of the deal, the center will be called the U-Stop Tennis Complex. Standing Bear, at 70th Street and Saltillo Road, is set to open in August.
Cheever Construction of Lincoln, the contractor in charge of the athletic complexes at Standing Bear and Lincoln Northwest, will manage the tennis complex project.
The center will feature six courts, lighting and bleachers, with the hope of having it ready by the fall, said LPS Director of Operations Scott Wieskamp. The courts will be used for competitions involving all of the district's high school teams.
A portion of the $15 million set aside for the athletic complexes in the 2020 bond issue already covered construction of three courts, Wieskamp said.
The rest of the complex was included in the Foundation for LPS' $17 million capital campaign the Whiteheads are co-chairing to fully complete the athletic complexes, which will be shared by city public schools.Â
For years, LPS has had an agreement with Woods Tennis Center to host competitions at its indoor and outdoor courts. That deal will stay in place, but the Standing Bear courts will allow LPS to host more tournaments and other competitions.Â
"It will be the only facility like it in the district," said Foundation Director Wendy Van.
The U-Stop deal is similar to a $1.5 million naming rights agreement Union Bank & Trust secured for the district's new football and track stadium at Northwest.
LPS revised its policy governing advertising on school grounds to accommodate that agreement, allowing corporate sponsor names to adorn athletic facilities.Â
Van said other top funding priorities now include a soccer stadium and softball complex tabbed for Standing Bear and locker rooms and medical training facilities at Northwest similar to Seacrest Field's Copple Center.
Chris Whitehead said the athletic complexes will drive economic development, making Lincoln a destination for tournaments and other events.
"We've been sort of missing the boat because we haven't had enough facilities," she said.
Van said there are more deals in the works but added that additional naming recognitions are available for businesses and individual donors. The plan is to wrap up the campaign in the next 12 months.