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Page 6 Volume 12 Issue 2
State News
Alabama
Greetings, Please mark your calendar as Hoover Country
Club will host the USPTA Alabama Workshop on Saturday,
August 20th. We are in the process of lining up speakers and if there are any
particular topics that interest you, please let me know at theos@sta.usta.com.
The Alabama Tennis Foundation exists to financially assist junior players. To support
the Foundation, USTA Alabama created a license plate. Please encourage
players to get their license plate by visiting a DMV, filling out a pre-commitment
form for the Alabama Tennis Foundation license plate and paying $50. Each year a
person renews his or her tennis plate, that person will pay the $50, but $41 of this is
tax-deductible and goes directly to the Foundation to fulfill its purpose.
USTA Alabama may be willing to reimburse the $50 pre-registration cost. You can
find out more by calling 205-328-3984. Even if you decide not to continue with the
plate after the first year, by pre-committing this year you will help the Foundation
reach the minimum goal required by the Alabama Revenue Department of 250 BY
MAY 1ST so the plate can get on the road!
Thank you so much for supporting Alabama Tennis!
Spring is just around the corner and those of us with-
Arkansas out indoor courts are just starting to get busy again.
With the endorsement of the USTA QuickStart is a must do at your facilities. I will be
calling for a teleconference in March to discuss the use of it in our clubs. Congratulations
to Darrel Snively for his induction into the Arkansas Tennis Hall of Fame.
Darrel taught in Arkansas for over 25 years and produced some of the best players
this state has ever seen. His dedication to tennis grows daily and no one, I mean no
one can outtalk him when it comes to the game. He travels the world looking for
answers in this remarkable game and has done all of this despite having a massive
stroke fifteen years ago. As a contribution to the USPTA he has mentored more
pros, including myself, than any pro that I know. I saw many pros at the Morgan
Keegan tennis championships but very few attended the conference. This is a very
good way to get education which is a three hour drive from anywhere in the state.
Mark it on your calendar and make it a priority to attend. Congratulations to those
who did attend because there were some fantastic speakers and some great fellowship.
The tennis wasn’t bad either.
Thank you to the USPTA pros that participated in our Sum-
Georgia mer Camp Round Table discussion at Dunwoody Country
Club. We had a record turnout and I trust that you came away with several new
ideas to augment your summer programming. I also want to thank our national
sponsor, Linda Ryan with Head Racquets, as well as Rick Davison and Mark Suiter
from USTA for providing tips to integrate 10 and under tennis into their camps.
Our next event is a USPTA Specialty Course presented by Dr. Dave Porter, March 19th
at Ansley Country Club in Atlanta. Dr. Porter is a past president of USPTA National
and he continues to play and have an active role with USPTA as the Chairperson of
our Player Development Council. Dr. Porter is currently the Head Men’s and Women’s
Coach at Brigham Young University - Hawaii. We look forward to hosting him in the
next few weeks.
What else is new for USPTA Georgia this year? The USPTA Georgia Chapter is
pleased to announce the launching of our website, wwwusptaga.com. Here you
will be able to check out our upcoming events, certification schedule, accessing
our quarterly newsletter and national USPTA job board. You can also register your
Tennis Across America and Lessons for Life events, and find player development
tips for your students.
Also for the first time, the Board will host a Summer Workshop in addition to the
annual Winter Workshop. We are tentatively scheduled for a weekend at Reynolds
Plantation August 13 – 14th. Please stay tuned for more details.
I trust that this message finds that all of you are well and anticipating the spring
season. I look forward to seeing you at our next Specialty Course.
USPTA KY President’s Report. Spring is quickly ap-
Kentucky proaching, and we’re already off to a great start to
2011! If you haven’t had a chance to get down to the USPTA Winter Southern
convention in Memphis, you’ve got to check it out. The night we arrived, we had a
nice buffet dinner, where we were seated at a table next to Melanie Oudin’s team.
Some of the other attendees’ tables were greeted by Fernando Verdasco. Then, we
had fantastic box seats to watch Roddick vs. Tipsarevic. We finished the evening
watching Roddick/Ryan Harrison vs. Nestor/Mirnyi in smaller stands, where we
were right on top of the action!
On Friday, Ken’s Specialty course was so good that Melanie Oudin showed up to
check it out for a little while. We saw great tennis, ate good food, heard instructive
and engaging presentations, networked, received great giveaways, and returned
home with many ideas to improve what we’re doing on and off the court. We only
had three pros there from Kentucky (over 60 pros attended), but we hope to see
more at the Southern convention in Baton Rouge in May. Remember to join our
facebook page (USPTA Kentucky Chapter) and register your Tennis Across America
events and Lessons for Life!
Louisiana
Contact info for all officers at www.usptasouthern.com/contact.php
Louisiana is warming up and league play is in full
swing! Players are hitting the lesson courts getting
ready for league matches and tournament play. Juniors are taking to the new
QuickStart format and having a blast! Did anyone see the QuickStart lines on the
court during the Sampras/Agassi and McEnroe/Lendl exhibition at Madison Square
Garden in New York? We are showcasing the 36 foot courts and equipment at our
USTA National Level II $15,000 Bocage Senior Invitational Tournament April 13-17 in
a fun event on Friday night during the tournament with prizes! Click the link to the
tournament to see the event: http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=96099
This is a great way to get the kids and parents, parents and pros together with some
hands on fun with the Quickstart format. Try doing this with a mixer or other fun
event at your club!
Louisiana, Baton Rouge, and The Bocage Racquet Club are honored to host this
year’s USPTA Southern Division Convention May 12-15! This is going to be a great
time for all Pros, spouses and guests! As they say …… Come Pass a Good Time and
Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez! We look forward to seeing you here!
Mississippi
The 2011 USPTA Southern Winter Convention in
Memphis was a tremendous success. I would like
to thank these southern board for putting on a terrific convention. One of the ways
to increase your job security, make more money, and improve your teaching is to
attend USPTA conventions and workshops. I cannot express how important it is to
set yourself apart and separate from the “herd”. The next convention is the USPTA
Southern convention at Bocage in Baton Rouge in May.
We will be offering some new exciting events for our Mississippi professionals to
participate in. USTA has offered to combine forces with us this year and have our
state workshop in conjunction with their annual meeting. This exciting partnership
will allow us to have a stronger workshop with even more educational opportunities.
I would like to encourage everyone to attend the Southern convention.
One other item we need assistance with is using your free professional webpage
that USPTA provides. Please take a moment and visit the website and update your
profile. The state with the highest percentage of personal webpages will get bonus
points in our state competitions. Last but not least, our newsletter will be sent out
electronically in 2011. This will allow us to make the newsletter much more robust
and send out more newsletters than last year. You will find our newsletter on the
USTA MS website and the USPTA southern website.
N. Carolina
We had a great 2011 NC workshop in Pinehurst
with almost 70 pros taking advantage of pre-
sentations, vendors, networking opportunities and Round Table discussions. If you
weren’t able to attend, we hope that you will put it on your calendar for next year
and get involved in our great state workshop. With almost 400 pros in our state we
hope to get more of you involved next year!
We encourage everyone to join our facebook page (“USPTA North Carolina”) to stay
connected and get the most out of your membership. If you have any ideas you
would like to share, or things that have worked well for you, let us know! We want
to include it in our eblast, newsletters or facebook pages.
I hope that you are ready for a busy spring and I look forward to seeing you in
Louisiana May 12-15.
S. Carolina
Tennessee
I’ve been quite busy with a new born. Please look
for SC updates via eblast over the next few weeks.
Spring is in full swing and everyone is busy on the
courts in Tennessee with spring programming,
events and activities. Tennessee hosted three local qualifying High Performance
10 & under Junior Tennis Camps. Neal Stapp hosted the East Tennessee Camp at
Cherokee Country Club with camp coordinator Joey Hall, Steve Brooks, Jim Fredrick
and Tyler Pullen serving as coaches. The Middle Tennessee Camp in Nashville was
hosted by Blain Smith at Centennial Sportsplex and staffed by Devin Crotzer, Keith
Herrietha and state camp coordinator Bill Riddle. The West Tennessee camp in
Memphis was hosted and directed by MJ Garnett at Windyke Country Club with
Tony Cherone and Radu Dina serving as staff coaches. Players were selected from
each of the three local camps to represent the state at the State Camp held on
March 13 at Hadley Park.
Mark your calendars for these upcoming events in Tennessee.
• April 29, USPTA Pros will offer a free tennis carnival for kids and adults at the Vanderbilt
University Tennis Center in conjunction with the 38th annual Music City Tennis
Invitational. The event will feature a HEAD demo day and is open to the public.
• The Tennessee Summer Workshop will be hosted by Bluegrass Yacht & Country
Club on July 15-16 in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Extra activities include a golf
tournament, tennis pro-am, pool party and skeet shooting trip for attendees. For
more information contact Bill Riddle at TENNISUN@aol.com