Earlier this summer, Heber City’s Red Ledges Private Community and its Cliff Drysdale Tennis School were notified it had won the United States Tennis Association’s Outstanding Facilities Award. The USTA, which factors in the brick-and-mortar facility and its programming during selection, doles out the award to just around 25 public, private and educational facilities annually.

Red Ledges Director of Tennis Michael Topp will be heading out to Flushing Meadows for the U.S. Open’s opening day a week from Monday, where he will represent the school and celebrate its success at an awards ceremony. Topp has been directly responsible in crafting the tennis programming, which in conjunction with the addition of six new, excellently-maintained tennis courts, helped bring home the award. 

Topp grinned from ear to ear breaking open Red Ledges’ newly-arrived plaque Thursday afternoon, brainstorming places to showcase it. It’s hardly the school’s first award of this kind; it’s won multiple USTA Utah and Cliff Drysdale Tennis accolades previously, all under the passionate stewardship of Topp. “He’s our go-to guy,” said Red Ledges’ GM John Johnson of Topp. “It starts with his leadership, and that drives programs, and programs drive facility.”

The community, which also boasts a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course and an equestrian center, has no plans to slow development following this award. It’s hosted a grand opening event for its new, state-of-the-art fitness center, and plans to put four additional tennis courts under a bubble in coming years to meet the ever-expanding demand for further indoor tennis and pickleball spaces in the winter. 

“It’s not a limited demand, it’s a heavy demand,” exclaimed Johnson of the need for winter expansion. “We need more space, we have that much demand.”