A San Francisco tennis lesson dispute has drawn attention after a father said park rangers stopped him while he was practicing with his two children at a public court. Sam Dogen, a father of two, said the encounter happened at Golden Gate Heights Park after the family returned from a trip to Hawaii.
Dogen said he had taken his 6-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son out for a casual afternoon of tennis to shake off jet lag and enjoy the sun. About 20 minutes into the session, he said two San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department rangers approached and asked whether he had a permit to teach tennis. Dogen said his first reaction was disbelief, since he was on the court with his own children.
He said the confusion cleared only after one of the children spoke up. No citation was issued, but Dogen said one ranger told him that teaching without a permit could have carried a $192 penalty. He described the exchange as a warning rather than a ticket, yet said he still did not understand why the interaction happened in the first place. “There was nobody waiting,” he said. “It was just a surprise to me. Why even bother trying to disrupt a perfectly nice afternoon, father with his children?”
The Recreation and Parks Department has said rangers regularly check whether people using public courts are conducting commercial instruction. According to department spokesperson Tamara Aparton, paid tennis instruction is not allowed on public courts without a permit, and rangers may ask questions to determine whether someone is running a business or simply using the space for recreation or coaching their kids. The city’s position is that the permit rule is aimed at commercial teaching, not ordinary family play.
