{"id":53209,"date":"2026-08-19T04:25:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T04:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/53209\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T04:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T04:25:36","slug":"bear-creek-high-school-tennis-team-hit-by-theft-in-stockton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/53209\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear Creek High School tennis team hit by theft in Stockton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thieves steal thousands in equipment from Bear Creek High School tennis team<\/p>\n

Bear Creek players spent weeks fundraising for equipment that disappeared just before their first preseason match<\/p>\n

\"Denzen<\/a>STOCKTON, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n

A Stockton high school tennis team is trying to push forward after a weekend theft left the program without thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment just as its season was getting underway.<\/p>\n

Bear Creek High School’s tennis program discovered the break-in Monday when players arrived for practice and found their equipment shed open. Head coach Gayle Litz said rackets, uniforms, shoes and a Slinger Bag ball machine were among the items stolen, many of them purchased with money the players helped raise themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach, coach, the shed is open,\u201d Litz recalled a student telling her. \u201cSo we go in and we just start looking and stuff is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Litz estimated replacing the stolen equipment could cost between $2,000 and $3,000.<\/p>\n

The loss is particularly difficult for a program that relies on fundraising. Litz said players typically spend about a month raising money, which helps pay for equipment and uniforms, including for students who otherwise may not be able to afford them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really hurt. Really, really hurt,\u201d Litz said.<\/p>\n

Litz has coached the program for 11 years and recalled starting with about $100 and no rackets or tennis balls.<\/p>\n

Despite the theft, the Bruins took the court Tuesday for their first preseason match against St. Mary’s.<\/p>\n

Stockton police said the theft happened sometime over the weekend and remains under investigation.<\/p>\n

The Bear Creek tennis program has launched a fundraiser to help replace the stolen equipment.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n

See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thieves steal thousands in equipment from Bear Creek High School tennis team Bear Creek players spent weeks fundraising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[19812,19813,190,8398,7759,19816,19817,19814,7347,54,19810,3006,15494,1620,19811,19809,2478,19808,19815,19821,28,3761,19820,19807,19818,19819,19822],"class_list":["post-53209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-bear-creek-high-school","tag-bruins","tag-california","tag-coach","tag-download","tag-equipment","tag-litz","tag-maxpreps","tag-money","tag-news","tag-norcal","tag-player","tag-program","tag-racket","tag-sacramento","tag-san-joaquin-county","tag-st-marys","tag-stockton","tag-stolen","tag-student","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-club","tag-tennis-program","tag-theft","tag-thousand","tag-uniform","tag-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}