By Edward Kensik
Step inside a modest home on a quiet Kearny side street, and you’re immediately surrounded by photos and décor that reflect more than a century of the town’s history—home to a club that remains one of its best-kept secrets.
The Arlington Players Club has called Kearny home since 1909, playing the sport of tennis.
Over the years, thousands of tournaments and clinics have been held for all ages, from children just learning tennis to those over 65, who have been playing for decades, and from experts to amateurs who have just picked up the sport.
The Club is located at 12 Washington Place, off of Washington Street and situated behind the Kearny Health Department and the headquarters of Girl Scouts of Hudson County in the 600 block of Kearny Avenue.
While the Club was founded in 1909, it was originally located at Belgrove Drive in Kearny, next to the current Armitage Funeral Home.
But about a decade later, club officials moved the location to its current spot on Washington Place.
Arlington Players Club President Lynn Oelz said that the club is the “hidden gem of New Jersey.”
“I couldn’t believe it was hidden in a residential section of Kearny,” Oelz, who joined the club in 2002 and has been president since 2014, said. “When I came to Arlington to look at it, I thought it was a beautiful place with a porch and several clay courts.”
But like Oelz, Evelyn Alfaro, the club’s vice-president, and other club members are working to get the word out to bring more tennis fans to the Arlington Players Club. “It is a nice hidden secret,” Alfaro said. “And we don’t want it to be hidden any longer.”
The Arlington Players Club built five red clay tennis courts in 1919 and then added two more in 1921. The club’s name came about because, at the time, it was half tennis and half theater as the Club’s clubhouse was used to perform plays. Unfortunately, the theater days were over right after the end of World War II.
“It was half tennis players and half thespians,” Oelz said, pointing to the clubhouse, which was built and still stands since 1921. “They used to have plays here, and that’s why it is called Arlington Players Club; it was pretty creative to combine the two.”
Along with holding tennis tournaments, the Arlington Players Club holds special events and clinics throughout the year. In May, the club also holds a Wine and Cheese event.
While the history of tennis is one of the Club’s assets, it’s the red clay courts themselves that make the facility so special. The Club is one of the oldest red-clay tennis court clubs not only in New Jersey, but in the United States.
And it was the red clay that attracted many of the members of the club, including Alfaro, who joined the Club in 1982 when she was in college.
“I fell in love with the red clay courts,” Alfaro said. “The club is definitely a gem.”
One of the big pluses for playing tennis on red clay is how the court is easy on the legs. “It is easy on your joints, easy to play,” Oelz said, adding that it is still a challenging surface. “You can slide. It’s a different game. It’s slow. You have to hit the ball so many times, and the ball goes higher, but it is easier on your body.”
Oelz added that it is rare to find a tennis facility with seven red clay courts like the Arlington Players Club.
From the middle of March to the middle of April, the Club prepares the courts to get ready for the opening of the season that lasts until November. The red clay courts have a top dressing of crushed brick that requires sweeping and regular rolling for a smooth surface. The red clay is underneath the crushed brick, Oelz said. The red clay is similar to pitching mound clay that is used on baseball diamonds.
Michael Fuhrman is the groundskeeper at Arlington Players Club and is getting the club ready for the April opening. During the offseason, rocks come up to the surface on the tennis courts, and those have to be raked off the court, Olez said. “It’s a long, involved process,” Oelz said about getting the courts ready.
And during the season, the courts need to be constantly watered so the surface doesn’t become brittle and to maintain the structural stability and traction. Oelz said that the sprinkler system wets the courts four times a day.
One of the biggest tournaments of the year, which is held at the Arlington Players Club, is the USTA NJ National Red Clay Championship Tournament. The tournament has been held at the Kearny club since the 1950s. The event attracts more than 130 tennis players of various ages and features various adult divisions, including Men’s/Women’s Open, Mixed Open, and senior divisions for ages 35, 45, 55, 60, 65, and 70+. It also includes top college players. “It’s our version of the French Open,” Oelz said about one of the major international tennis tournaments played in May and June on red courts at Roland Garros in Paris.
“There are all ages, and they come from all over the tri-state area,” Oelz said about the USTA NJ National Red Clay Championship Tournament.
While there is competition, for many of the members of the club, it is friendship and camaraderie at the Arlington Players Club. “I always compare the club to Cheers, where it is a place to go where everybody knows your name,” Alfaro said.
One of the longest members in terms of years at the club is Bernie Lebofsky, also of Kearny.
Lebofsky has been a member of the Club since 1960, when he was 11 years old, and his family lived in North Arlington.
“It’s a beautiful oasis in Kearny,” Lebofsky said. “It was the first time I ever played on red clay, and it was beautiful red clay.”
In his 70s, Lebofsky is still playing tennis. He said that a friend of his father, Alfred, invited the family to try the courts at Arlington Players Club, and the family of tennis players was hooked. Lebofsky said that his father played tennis until he was in his 90s.
The club will hold a community open house on Saturday, May 2, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Rain or shine.
For more information about the Arlington Players Club, check out the website at welcome.Apctennis.com.
