A San Francisco father says he was warned he could face a $192 fine after park rangers questioned him while playing tennis with his two children at Golden Gate Heights Park. Sam Dogen said he was practicing with his six-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son when the rangers asked if he had a permit to teach tennis. He was not cited, and the exchange ended after one child confirmed Dogen was their father. The incident has raised a simple question for the family: where does coaching your own children cross into instruction that needs a permit?
Sam Dogen questioned while coaching his children at Golden Gate Heights Park
Dogen told Fox News that he had taken his children out for an afternoon of tennis and was feeding them balls as they practiced. The courts were empty when the rangers came over, about 20 minutes after the family started playing.“It’s just a situational awareness thing,” he said. “I’m not making a racket; there’s not a lot of noise, there’s nobody waiting, and it was just a surprise to me,” he said.According to Dogen, one ranger told him he could face a $192 fine for teaching tennis without a permit. San Francisco rules require permits for tennis instruction, while the Recreation and Parks Department says the rule is meant to stop people from offering lessons without approval.Dogen said the rangers were not accusing him of running a paid lesson. Still, he questioned why the family’s afternoon had to be interrupted when the court was not being used by anyone else.
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San Francisco Recreation and Parks spokesperson Tamara Aparton told the San Francisco Standard that the encounter was “a routine interaction.” She said rangers sometimes ask questions to work out whether someone is giving commercial instruction or simply “coaching their kids.”The department’s current tennis rules say lessons on its courts must be given by licensed instructors. Its court reservation rules also say reservations are for individual play and cannot be used for lessons, team practices, clinics or league matches. The department currently offers a system for booking lessons with licensed instructors at selected parks. The department says licensed instructors have exclusive access to dedicated instructional hours on select courts, while regular court bookings are for individual play.Dogen said he does not plan to apply for a permit to teach his children. Instead, he joked that he may carry their birth certificates when they play, so he can show that he is their father.“I don’t think I’m gonna be applying for a permit to teach my children. I think the property taxes I pay and being a good citizen should be good enough to use the public parks,” he said.Dogen was not cited during the encounter, and there is no indication in the account that he was fined. The issue, as described by the department, is whether someone is providing commercial instruction rather than simply helping their own children learn the game.