I n a year of brilliant highlights, little in

2007 earned more notice and praise

than the Southern California Tennis

Association and San Diego District Halls

of Fame induction ceremonies. Though

Darlene Hard and Gussy Moran, along

with the late Ted Schroeder, didn’t at-

tend the gala, Charlie Pasarell, Dennis

Ralston and Pam Shriver, fellow honor-

ees, charmed the sold-out ballroom at

the Four Seasons Hotel (which was a new

location for the spectacular) with their ac-

ceptance speeches. Charlie Pasarell, Pam Shriver and Dennis RalstonPhoto: Mark Winters

Bill Stack and Pancho Segura seated; Kathy Willette, Lucy Gordon-Conway and Suella Steele.

Photo: Diane Schafer

Summarizing the occasion Pasarell said, “I’m just so

flattered and humbled to be included. This evening’s af-

fair makes one reflect on how lucky we are. I’m proud to

be part of the class.”

The District saluted the late Alex Gordon, Pancho

Segura, Bill Stack, Suella Steel and Kathy Willett during

the 79th San Diego District Championships on the

Maureen Connolly Stadium Court at Balboa Tennis

Club. As Lesley Waite, District First Vice President,

pointed out, “The five notable San Diegans contrib-

uted to the sport in many ways. Gordon’s prowess as

a coach, along with his talent as a college player, was

noteworthy. Segura followed his outstanding career

as a touring professional, working with young play-

ers, many of whom went on to become elite competi-

tors. Not only was Stack an impressive player, decades

of community service call attention to his long-standing

commitment to the sport. Steel’s accomplishments as a

senior competitor and as a teaching pro are formidable.

Willette moved from success as a junior and world

class player into innumerable community tennis

organizing activities.”

M a r k W i n t e r s

2 0 0 7i n R e v i e W

S o u t h e r n C a l i f o r n i a T e n n i s A s s o c i a t i o n

Linda and Dennis RalstonPhoto: Sandy Behrens

Pam Shriver and Will Behrens

Photo: Sandy Behrens

The Charlie Pasarell and George Fareed familiesPhoto: Mark Winters

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At the Southern California Tennis Association’s Annual Meeting, the following received awards:

Jim Hillman - Lifetime Achievement The edles Family - Family of The YearIndian Wells Tennis Garden - Member organization of The YearNicolas Meister and Cosmina Ciobanu - evelyn Houseman Junior SportsmanshipUCLA - Long ellis CollegiateJan Ryan - Umpire Achievement Fred and Susan Mullane, and Pat Parsons - MediaAlice Sims and Gideon Smith - AAF/NJTL Allen Jang - Jr. Team Tennis Commissioner of The YearAngel Lopez - Competitive Junior Tennis Anthony Horsley and Mark otten - Tennis on Campus Heidi Stryker - League Fran Wakefield - Senior organizing Committee 90th ATA Championships - Diversity Grace Avazian and J. Gordon erberts - Countrywide Classic Volunteeroakridge Athletic Club - Countrywide Classic organization

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Jim HillmanPhotos: Cynthia Lum

The Edles family

Tom Fey, Director of Tennis, accepted Member

Organization Award for the indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Fran WakefieldHeidi Stryker

Allen Jang

Pat Parsons

virginia Glass accepted the Diversity Award.

Billy Martin accepted theLong elllis Award. Jan Ryan

Cosmina Ciobanunicholas Meister

Angel LopezFred MullaneSusan Mullane

Gideon Smith and Alice Sims

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Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic defeated James Blake to capture the singles title and Bob and Mike Bryan won their fourth tournament doubles crown at the 81st Countrywide Classic, the annual men’s professional tournament that provides support for Southern California Tennis Association and UCLA programming. The 2008 event will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Straus Stadium at UCLA, and take place August 4-10.

In December, the Bryans, (Internation-al Tennis Federation World Men’s Doubles champions for a record-setting fifth con-secutive year after winning a career high 11 titles), continued their hot play in a cold and rainy Portland, helping the U.S. win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1995. The twins downed Igor Andreev/Nikolay Davydenko 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 to win the

third match of the tie. Interestingly, the last American victory in a final was 12 years before, over Russia once again, but that time in Moscow. It was brought about by Pete Sampras, and the rarely noted efforts of George Fareed, the Davis Cup team doctor. As one of the few American journalists on hand, I witnessed Fareed’s extraordinary skill, rehabilitating Sampras, (who full-body cramped after his initial singles victory), so that he could play doubles on the second day with Todd Martin (who Fareed also patched together). Sampras went on to win the Cup deciding match on day three.

After the Bryan’s victory, Bob said, “It’s just putting all the individual goals aside and getting it done as a team.” And they did.

Mike and Bob Bryan

Radek StepanekPhotos: cameraworksusa

Mark Madjik, Director of Tennis, accepted Countrywide Organization honor for Oakridge Athletic Club.

Anthony Horsley and Mark Otten

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Mention Mike Fedderly’s name in regard to Men’s 45 play and Val Wilder of Fort Worth, Texas is immediately paired with him. The duo not only won a World Championship, they again captured all four of the national doubles championships. Charleen Hillebrand/Suella Steel, for the second consecutive year, scored a Gold Slam in Women’s 65 doubles and defend-ed their World Doubles title. Dorothy Matthiessen was the Women’s 70 World champion, and Graydon Nichols earned the same honor in the Men’s 80 division. Both finished the year ranked No. 1 in the world.

“Fedderly also won a Gold Slam in 45 doubles in 2005 with several different partners,” said Carolyn Nichols, USTA Chair of Senior International Competition. “In 2006, he repeated the feat with Wilder.”

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Local juniors were prime-time good. The National Boys’ 18 final was an All-SoCal showdown in which Michael McClune defeated Ryan Thacher 6-1, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. McClune, who earned a US open wild card with the victory, was also a doubles final-ist with Tyler Hochwalt of Scottsdale, Arizona. Daniel Nguyen/JT Sundling were National Boys’ 16 champions. Spencer Simon was the National Boys’ 14 winner. Nikko Madregallejo/Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont, were the National Boys’ 12 doubles champions.

Darren Potkey, Manager of Junior Competition, said, “It was a very good summer in Intersectional play. The Boys’ 18 team, coached by Barry Horowitz, captured the top prize for a record set-ting fourth year in a row. The Boys’ and Girls’ 16 team, coached by Daryl Ahrens, was a finalist, and the Girls’ 18 squad, coached by Paul Steele, finished third.”

For the fourth year of the four year old tour-nament, SoCal won the Pacific Junior Cup. oscar Fabian Matthews and Michelle Sulahian were the section’s 18 com-petitors. Clay Thompson and Lacey Smyth played the16s. Marcos Giron and Lorraine

Guillermo were in the 14s, and Gregory Garcia and Gabrielle Andrews competed in the 12s. Annie Kellogg, Valencia High School tennis coach, was captain again.

Potkey continued, “In the Zonals, the Boys’ and Girls’ 16 and 12, along with the Girls’ 14 teams, were win-ners. The Boys’ 14 team was a final-ist. Southern California defeated Northern California 12-8 in the Maze Cup. Logan Hansen, Bradley Klahn, Jo-Jo Sanford and Ryan Thacher played the 18’s. The 16’s included Kaitlyn Christian, Ryan Cheung, Gabrielle Desimone, Lawrence Formentera, John Huang and Brit-ney Sanders. Jim Buck, captain, was assisted by Hank Pfister and Paul Settles.”

Joseph Di Giulio’s Boys’ 12 Nike Junior Tennis

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Boys’ 18 intersectional

Boys’ 14

Boys’ 12

Ryan ThatcherPhoto: cameraworksusa

Girls’ 18 intersectional

Pacific Junior Cup

Michael McClunePhoto: tennisrecruiting.net

Sam Querrey, who turned pro in June 2006, was one of the four players named Bill Talbert Junior Sportsmanship Award winners by the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Along with renewing its support of Nation-al Junior League Tennis for the 23rd consecutive year, the Amateur Athletic Foundation changed its name to LA84 Foundation. According to Arlene Barco, “over 7,000 youngsters went through the program in 2007, and 34 locations were Year-Round sites. More than 800 attended the Special Activity Tennis Carnivals held at the end of the summer sessions. one of the year’s most memo-rable events was youngsters from the Poinsettia Park NJTL program hitting with James Blake in a Between Match Activity during the Countrywide Classic. Another was the new NJTL site at Carver elementary School in Compton where a tennis court was built especially for the program.”

Tiffany Geller, who made a lasting impression working tirelessly with Daren Potkey in Junior Competition, became the School Tennis Coordinator late in the year.

Masters Championships made it the eighth straight year (a record) that Southern California had a youngster representing the US at the Internation-al Masters team event. Di Giulio and Alyssa Smith, a Girls’ 12 competi-tor, added their names to the record book, joining an all-star list of indi-viduals who have captured the Junior

Sectional Championships singles, doubles and mixed in the same year. other three-time winners include: Nicholas Weiss - Boys’ 14 and Kristen Grady - Girls’ 12 - 1996; Tiffany Brymer - Girls’ 16 - 1997; Steven Forman - Boys’ 10 and Logan Hansen - Girls’ 10 -1999; Cosmina Ciobanu - Girls’ 12 singles and mixed, along with Girls’ 14 doubles - 2000; Steve Johnson - Boys’ 12 - 2001 and Boys’ 16 - 2005; and Catherine Isip - Girls’ 16 - 2006.

oscar Fabian Matthews and Anna Chkhikvishvili were the Jim Hillman Sportsmanship Award winners at the Junior Sectional Champion-

ships. Jordan Brew-er amassed 1,360 points in the Girls’ 16, earning a spot in the exclusive K-Swiss Summer Grand Prix 1000 Point Club. So-Cal had special status at the Davis Cup final as the USTA invited nine of the coun-try’s best 14-year-olds, including Sean Berman, Mika De-Coster, Marcos Giron and Spencer Simon, to attend a High Performance Camp at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Club and watch the Davis Cup matches.

national coaches Roger Smith and David Roditi with Sean Berman, Spencer Simon, Mika DeCoster and Marcos Giron

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Oscar Fabian Matthews and...Photo: Pat Parsons

...Anna Chkhikvishvili (pictured with Hillman) were the Jim Hillman Sportsmanship

Award winners.

Poinsettia Park youngsters with James Blake Photo: Cynthia Lum

Alyssa SmithPhoto: tennisrecruting.net

Joseph Di GiulioPhoto: tennisrecruting.net

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Jr. Team Tennis, Gina Pelazini’s program, had a “noteworthy, newsworthy” year. The Section Champi-onships were the biggest in its history. The Spartans, the 18 Advanced team from Riverside, and Canyon Crest, the 18 Intermediate team also from Riverside, were National Championship par-ticipants. The Alta Vista 14 Advanced team from South Bay and the PVCC elite14 Intermediate team from the San Fernando Valley made national appearances too. even more importantly, Deborah Thompson, a member of the PVCC elite squad, earned the Sportsmanship Award. Though SoCal came up short against NorCal in the 27th California State Championship (Gar Glenney Cup), the sec-tion still leads the series 14-13.

Deborah Thompson

Gar Glenney action

Gar Glenney Cup participants

18 Advanced Spartans

14 intermediate - PvCC

14 Advanced - Alta vista

Given today’s cost of a higher education, it isn’t surprising that attendance at the spring and fall College & University Schol-arship Seminars increased dramatically. Those look-ing for assistance, along with their parents and coaches, turned out to pick up insights about the intri-cacies of earning a scholarship. As has been the case in recent years, prospects are becoming involved in the process at a much younger age. In 2007, in what was likely a program first, grandparents attended sessions in order to make sure they could help provide direction when their grandsons and granddaughters embark on the search for a tennis scholarship.

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MountainGate

San Diego

Upland

Intercollegiately, UCLA women’s team came Cinderella close to winning the NCAA title, surprising No. 5 Northwestern, No. 4 Florida and No. 1 Stanford before losing in the final to Georgia Tech. Individually, Lindsey Nelson - USC (who again was the NCAA singles finalist); Anne Yelsey - Stanford and Riza Zalameda - UCLA were All-Ameri-cans for the third consecutive year. Sarah Fansler - USC, Celia Durkin - Stanford, Tracy Lin - UCLA and Jessica Nguyen - Stanford were also Women’s Division I All-Amer-icans. Nelson, the Pac-10 Player of the Year, was a member of the Summer Collegiate Team.

National women’s honors went to Stella Sampras - UCLA-Coach of the Year and Fansler - Rookie of the Year. The follow-ing earned West Region Awards: Mike edles - UC Irvine - Coach of the Year and Rance Brown - UCLA - Assistant Coach of the Year.

Those receiving Men’s Region West acclaim included: Peter Smith - USC - ITA and Pac-10 Coach of the Year; Brett Masi - USC - Assistant Coach of the Year, Kaes Van’t Hof - USC - Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership & Sportsmanship.

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Lindsey nelson Photo: USC Sports information

Riza Zalameda Photo: UCLA Sports information

Seal Beach

La Canada/Flintridge

Oxnard

MountainGate

Bakersfield

Lake elsinore

Lake elsinore

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on the Men’s Division II level, in the West Re-gion, eric Rubens - UCSD was an Al l -American and the Player to Watch, Justine Fonte - UCSD - Women’s Division II Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership & Sportsmanship, and eric Steidlmayer - UCSD - Coach of the Year.

Jennifer Avila, Princess Manassah, Ronalyn Miller and elena Pak of California

State University Los Angeles, who were named Scholar-Athletes (meaning they had at least 3.50 GPAs during the year), helped the California State University Los Angeles women earn Intercollegiate Tennis Associa-tion All-Academic team status.

Lawrence Wang - CMS was a Division III Men’s All-American. The women who were similarly recog-nize included: Yasmin entekhabi - CMS, Rebecca Lange - Pomona-Pitzer, Tshema Nash - emory, Sonya Reynolds - Swarthmore and Paige Sumida Redlands. Jennifer Dao - Azusa Pacific/Ashley Strimple - Point Loma Nazarene were NAIA All-Americans last season.

The men’s team from College of the Desert, under the direction of Carl Schroeder, won an unprecedented 12th California State Community College Team Championship. Clint Walder-Riverside Community College was the ITA/Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership & Sportsmanship.

Women’s Community College honors included: erina Hung - Saddleback College - Rookie & Player of the Year and Katy Nethery - San Diego City College - Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship and Jay Amos - Saddleback College - Women’s Coach of the Year.

During the fall, Susie Babos - California won her second straight Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships, presented by Fila, title. Blake Meister/

eric Rubens - University of Cali-fornia San Diego were the NCAA Division II Men’s winners, and Siobhan Finicane/oliva Muesse - Pomona-Pitzer, the NCAA Divi-sion III Women’s titlists, at the ITA National Small College Ten-nis Championships, presented by outback Steakhouse. James Lemke - Pepperdine won the 51st Southern California Intercolle-giate Championships singles and with teammate omar Altmann was the doubles champion.

Sarah FanslerPhoto: iTA Media

Lawrence WangPhoto: Paul Settles

Tracy Lin Photo: UCLA Sports information

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Omar Altmann and James Lemke Photo: Annette Buck

According to Linda Milan, Tennis on Campus conducted monthly tournaments that cul-minated in the Campus Cham-pionship - Southern California. UCLA, USC and University of California San Diego, the top teams locally, participated in the National Campus Championship in Cary, North Carolina.

UCLA

University of California San Diego

USC

With the level of competition found locally, it isn’t surpris-ing that Southern California Adult League Tennis teams won a number of national championships. The Beach Cities Men’s 5.0 and orange County Women’s 4.5 claimed trophies. Waite added, “For the first time in 23 years, two District teams - the Men’s 3.5 National City Tennis Club and Women’s 2.5 Stoneridge Country Club - won League National Championships.”

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Men’s 5.0 - Beach Citiies

Women’s 2.5 - Stoneridge Country Club

Men’s 3.5 - national City Tennis Club

Women’s 4.5 - Orange County

“Advocacy In Your Community” was the theme of the richly praised Recreational Coach Workshop and Community Development Workshop staged by Melanie Bischoff at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Tom Fey, Indian Wells Tennis Garden Director of Tennis, led the Coach Workshop with a flourish. At the Community Development activity, Kerry Blum, executive Director of Youth Tennis San Diego, Becky edles-Rye, executive Director of the orange Country Community Tennis Association, and Kathy Willette, Community Tennis Development Committee Chair, were fabulous. So were Kent Seton, owner of the law firm Seton & Associ-ates, Kathy Carpenter of the City of Santa Barbara and Gideon Smith, Presi-dent of Morongo Ten-nis Association, and Dr. George Fareed, the former US Davis Cup team doc- tor who now practices sports and family medicine in the Imperial Valley. They provided insights, earning kudos, as did keynote speaker, Dr. Ann Lebedeff, Professor of Physical education & Athletics and the women’s tennis coach at Pomona-Pitzer.

Cathy Carpenter and Gideon SmithAnn LebedeffPhotos: Mark Winters

Kathy Willette, Becky edles-Rye and Kerry Blum

George FareedKent Seton

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SoCal seniors were the reason the U.S. was successful in two of last spring’s International Tennis Federation cup events at Antalya, Turkey. Robin Harris and Carolyn Nichols led the Women’s 50 Bueno Cup team to a victory over Australia. Kathy Bennett Doss and Tina Karwasky were respon-sible for the Women’s 55 Connolly Cup win against the Netherlands.

Martin Barba and Rick Leach were members of the Men’s 40 Trabert Cup team. Gretchen Magers was on the Women’s 40 Young Cup team, and Fedderly was on the Men’s 45

Dubler Cup squad. Local players were the

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names in Super Senior cup competitions in New Zealand in the fall. Judy Louie was on the Women’s 60 Marble Cup team. The Wom-en’s 65 Godfree Cup team included Cathie Anderson, Hillebrand and Steel. In anoth-er trifecta, Gordon Davis, Bob Duesler and Jim Nelson were

on the Men’s 70 Crawford Cup team. Roz King and Dorothy Matthiessen were part of the Women’s 70 Gibson Cup team. Graydon Nichols, who spends time in both Nor and SoCal, was named to Men’s 80 Mulloy Cup team. As Caro-lyn Nichols pointed out, “of the 36 players going to New Zealand, 11 or (almost a third),

Tina KarwaskyPhotos: Pat Parsons

Judy LouieRick Leach

Photo: Cynthia Lum Gretchen Magers

Kathy Bennett Doss

were from California. This was very impressive.”

Nichols went on to note, “The U.S. didn’t lose a match in winning the Godfree, Gibson and Mulloy Cups. Matthiessen was the Wom-en’s 70, and Nichols, the Men’s 80, World Championship singles winners at Christchurch. Hillebrand/Steel de-feated Anderson/Bill for the Women’s 65 World Championship, and Davis teamed with Aussie Peter Froehlich to defeat Herm Ahlers/Duesler for the Men’s 70 World doubles title. King and Carol Wood were Women’s 70 final-ists. Nichols wrapped up the year undefeated in Men’s 80 action winning the World Championship.”

Looking at national competition Nichols said, “Art Hernandez was a finalist at the Men’s 30 Grass doubles. Barba was a singles finalist at Mission Hills, the Clay Courts. He was also a Men’s 40 fi-nalist to Peter Smith at the Hard Courts. Hernandez/Ken Zanio defeated Paul Settles/Smith for the Hard Court title. Glenn erickson had a

great year, his first, in the 45s. He won the Grass and was a finalist at the Hard and Clay Courts. He also won Mission Hills. Steve Dawson was a Grass Court finalist, handing Polo Cowan his only loss in 2007. With James

Meyer, he won the bronze at the Indoor Champion-ships. Along with his dou-bles success, Fedderly was an Indoor singles finalist. In the 50s, Lon Shapiro/Andrew Stanley were In-door finalists and won the Hard Court bronze. Daud Ahmed/Dean Corley did the same at the 60 Grass Court. George Sarantos, who splits time between Nor and SoCal, won three of the national 65 dou-bles, including the Clay Courts with Lenny Lind-borg. The section domi-nated the 70s as Duesler won three of the four na-tional singles, and with Nelson, three of the four doubles championships. Nichols won the three 80s singles and doubles he played.”

While the men were outstanding, the women were a match. “AnneMarie Brigandi was the Wom-en’s 40 Clay Court silver winner, and eleanor Ham-margren was the Hard Court finalist,” Nichols

said. “Gretchen Magers/Kathy May Fritz were the Women’s 40 Hard Court winners, and May Fritz was the Mixed final-ist with Manolo ortiz. Tracey Thompson won the Women’s 45 Grass Court doubles with Mariana Hollman of Winston Salem, North Carolina. Fritz was the Women’s 50 Grass Court singles and doubles winner, and also won the Hard Court Doubles both with Susan Mehmedbasich Wright (who won all four titles). Wright’s last, which gave her a Gold Slam, was the Clay Courts with Marianne Robertson, who had never won a gold ball and had no idea what a Gold Slam was.”

Nichols, who won the

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Suella Steel

Cathie Anderson

Charleen Hillebrand

Jim nelson

Bob Duesler

Gordon Davis

Graydon nichols

Glenn erickson

Mike Fedderly

the 70s, by winning the Indoor bronze singles and the Clay Court doubles (where she was fourth in the singles). She won the Grass Court Doubles and was a Hard Court doubles finalist while placing third in the singles. She ended a

spectacular year ranked No. 2 in doubles, na-tionally.”

Cathie Hall and Dodo Cheney were “the names” in 80, 85 and 90 competi-tion. “Hall won the Wom-en’s 80 Indoor doubles and the bronze in sin-gles,” Nichols said. “She finished second at the Grass Court doubles and will be ranked No. 1 with Pat Niehaus of Pompton Pins, New Jersey. Cheney won the Women’s 85 Grass and Checket Cup Category II event, the only singles tournaments she played. She also won the Grass and Hard Court doubles, again her only competitions, and will finish the year ranked No. 1 in doubles. In the 90s, she was the Hard Court singles and In-door singles and doubles champion. Jean Harris/

Pat Yeomans were the Hard Court doubles winners.”The section put up solid numbers in national

family competition. Nichols said, “Tom Rettenmaier/ Travis Rettenmaier were Father-Son Hard Court finalists. Charlie Hoeveler, who is from NorCal, won the Senior Father-Son Hard Court championship with Charlie Jr., who lives in La Jolla. Bret Mathews/Doug Mathews were the Grandfather-Grandson Hard Court champions. Herm Ahlers, a long-time Dana Point resident, who now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, teamed with Krista o’Connor to win the Super Senior Father-Daughter Hard Court title, and they were finalists at the Grass Courts falling to Larry Huebner of NorCal and Karin Huebner, who is from SoCal. Bud and Robin Harris won the inaugural Ultra Senior Father-Daughter Hard Court tournament.

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Women’s 50 World Championship with Robin Harris, said, “Robin and Chris Ramsower-Pearlstein were Women’s 50 Hard and Clay Court finalists. They ended the year ranked No. 1. Tina Karwasky won the Women’s 55 Indoor singles and doubles, and was a singles final-ist and doubles winner at the Grass Court Champion-ships. Kathy Bennett Doss, who scored a Women’s 55 doubles Gold Slam in 2006, won the Clay Court title and was a Hard, Grass and Indoor doubles finalist. Judy Louie was the Women’s 60 bronze winner at the Grass and Clay Courts. In addition, she was the Indoor doubles champion, and Liane Bryson was a doubles finalist.”

Hillebrand and Steel are in a league of their own. “Not only did they win each of the national 65 doubles titles, Steel captured three of the singles, defeating Hillebrand in all three, (reversing the 2006 results). She was also a Women’s 60 Hard Court singles and dou-bles finalist. Cathie Anderson finished third in Women’s 65 singles at the Indoor and Hard Courts, and was a doubles finalist at both events. She was also a bronze doubles winner at the Clay Court Championships. In addition, Steel was a member of the winning So-Cal Intersectional team (which tri-umphed for the sixth straight year).”

As long as she has been in the 70s competition, Dorothy Matthiessen has set the benchmark for excel-lence. “She had a stellar year, by any standard, but not as extraordinary as the past three,” Nichols said. “She suffered her first age division loss since 2004, drop-ping a three set contest to long-time rival Doris De Vries at the Hard Courts. She rebounded, winning the Clay, Grass and Indoor singles, along with the Clay and Hard Court doubles. At Mission Hills, she evidenced her talent by capturing the 65 doubles and 70 singles. Roz King took full advantage of playing her first year in

Roz King

Dorothy Matthiessen

Robin Harris and Chris Ramsower-Perlstein Carolyn nichols

Cathie Hall

Dodo Chenney

Annette Buck, Director of Adult & Senior Tennis, said of women’s intersectional competition, “Twen-ty-five women represented the section at the Naples Tennis Club and Resort in Naples, Florida, and did it very well.

“In the 35s, SoCal, the defending champion, handled the competition, walking away with the trophy for the second year in a row. Melinda Murray captained the team that included Darice Carnaje, Mimi Loucks, Cammy MacGregor, Dina McBride and Debbie Nassim.

“The 65s were not only the defending champi-ons, but had won the division the past five years. Clearly, they were the team to beat, but no one could pull it off. Roz King, the captain for the past six years, kept her record perfect, with help from Lurline Fujii, Uta Hegberg, Suella Steel and Norma Veal, who is a five-year veteran of the competition.

“The other teams were definitely ‘in the hunt’, though they were denied victory. Members of the 45s team, captained by Mary Alice Hiller, were Joan Barnes, Masako Beppu, Colleen Clery Ferrell and Nancy Abler-Sanchez. Playing on the 55s team, (Virginia Blanchard was the captain), were Yuriko Knoblich, Taffy Lewis, Crys Ren and Catherine Vogel. In the 75s, Fran Wakefield was the captain supported by Janet Hubbard, Nancy Kibbey and Lois Simmons. Wakefield, in her last year of involvement, deserves special praise for her years of organizing teams and making the arrangements for SoCal competitors.”

Women’s 35 - Melinda Murray, Cammy MacGregor, Darice Carnaje, Dina McBride, Mimi Loucks and Debbie nassim

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Women’s 65 - Lurline Fujii, Suella Steel, Uta Hegberg, norma veal and Roz King

Moving to area activities, San Diego was at the top of its game dur-ing the year. “Tennis Fest, the free tennis extravaganza at Balboa Ten-nis Club which began seven years ago, has become a signature event

for the San Diego District Tennis Association,” Waite said. “More than 800 people participated in the action packed afternoon that featured 35 teaching pros working on 23 courts, each designed for a particular stroke and skill level, including some for youngsters.”

Waite continued, “Racquel Giscafré and Jane Stratton, the reason women’s professional tennis had a home in San Diego the past 24 years, were presented with the Ben Press Award for their outstand-ing commitment to the game. An exhibition match featured former

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TTennis Fest - Racquel Giscafré, Ben Press and Jane Stratton

Photo: Brian McMorrow

Tennis Fest Pros

...drew a crowd.Family Tennis Day...

Photo: Jeff Anderson

pro talents Gretchen Magers and Todd Nelson, along with Tony Lara, a wheel-chair player and Steve Backovsky, a competitor with a prosthetic leg. A slew of District volunteers made the activity a big success.”

Family Tennis Day, a free program that introduced people to tennis in their own neighborhood, often with a follow-up free Drop-In clinic for adults and After School Tennis for youngsters, was held at Westview High School, San Diego City College, Helix High School-east County Community Tennis Associa-tion and Bonita Middle School/South Bay YMCA. Steve Kappes ran weekly Drop-In classes at the Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command Complex from March until october.

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Tennis Fest Action

According to executive Director Kerry Blum, “In 2007, Youth Tennis San Diego (YTSD) cel-ebrated 54 years of service to the community at the George e. Barnes Family Junior Tennis Center. The location was the central site for Af-ter School Tennis, an outreach program, serv-ing over 10,000 youngsters. This year, over 100 schools participated and the number is expect-ed to grow to120 schools by the end of 2008.

“The Urban Village Tennis Center (UVTC), a model program serving hun-dreds of stu-dents who re-ceive assistance with homework and tutoring

from volunteers, expanded its ‘Pride’ efforts in 2007. Pride…in yourself and your ability, your classmates and your community. UVTC gives youngsters a place to learn life’s important lessons through tennis. It also offers an opportunity to devel-op self-esteem, camaraderie and a spirit of sportsmanship. In 2007, twelve Novice and Satellite tournaments were held, a traveling tournament team was established and over 160 participated in the camps and programs at the UV.”

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Barnes Rising Stars

it’s all about the kids.

And there was more. “For little tykes, ordinar-ily fifteen, thirty, forty would be considered creative counting,” Blum said. “However, at YTSD, it was a way of calling attention to a unique program for three to five-year-olds that was started in 2007. It was the only local opportunity that offered tennis, along with education for toddlers. Children were exposed to health, nutrition, and fitness, as well as the age appropriate academics and arts. Listening, following instructions and the concentration that is necessary on court, cross over to classroom learning.

“Youth Tennis San Diego hosted multiple inter-national, national and local events at the Barnes Ten-nis Center including: US open National Wheelchair Cham-pionships, Father & Daughter National Championship, Girls’ 16 National Championship, Boys’ 14 National Championship, along with Billie Jean King World Team Tennis and Little Mo tournaments. There were also NAIA and ITA intercollegiate

matches, CIF team and individual finals as well as First Serve for high school players, Novice, Sat-ellite and open tournaments. over 800 juniors participated in Summer Camps, five new Jr. Ten-nis teams were established. A new High Perfor-mance workout program was introduced and over 1,000 juniors participated in tennis classes throughout 2007.”Summer camp

After School Tennis

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Becky edles-Rye, orange County Community Ten-nis Association executive Director admitted, “Losing the Lindborg Racquet Club and Sunny Hills Tennis Club quite recently were hard pills to swallow,” said. “The situation has been made worse by the close of Ridge-line Country Club at the end of the year. Fortunately, Irvine Valley College, which was slated to lose its men's and women's tennis teams, was able to rally a group of local tennis supporters and the teams were saved.”

oCCTA would not be able to offer the services it does without the commitment of the following:

•PrinceRacquet Sports - official ball/racquets/ footwear for League play and Rule the Court;

•Balle de Match - official apparel supplier and Yip Courtwear everywhere;

•ComericA - Title sponsor for three years of Top Gun, the annual fundraising tournament, and all those involved who make the event a success;

•Seal Beach Tennis Center and eric Stephens for providing office space for the second straight year;

•Brad Albert and Nancy Furhman for continuing to organize leagues; •Joanne Thorman and her family for purchas-

ing US open tickets to be used for fundraising. •Newport Beach Breakers;•The SCTA who has been consissitent with its

support and guidance.edles-Rye added, “Commendations go to

Scott Gwartz from the Newport Beach Break-ers and Brian Mills, who is an attorney at Snell & Wilmer L.L.P., for their support. Also, to Denis Moss, who after more than 30 years at Los Ca-balleros Sport Complex, retired, and Arnold Vil-lajuan, the long-time Tennis After School Direc-tor, who has moved into the healthcare field.”

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mitments providing neighborhood tennis facilities and programming,” Roell said. “The City of Riverside ap-proved two additional courts at Fairmount Park, there will be new opportunities at Shamel, Reid and Arling-ton Parks in 2008.”

“New” was the story, as Roell noted at “The Val-ley-Wide Recreation facility in French Valley and Lake elsinore introduced activities at Creekside Park. Red-lands Recreation worked with local tennis enthusiasts to renovate the six courts at Clement Middle School, and Fontana Parks & Recreation began serving the fast-growing community surrounding San Sevaine Park.”

And there was more – “Jr. Team Tennis continued to grow in Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, Redlands, Rubidoux, Riverside, eastvale, Corona, Canyon Lake, Lake elsinore, Menifee, Murrieta and Temecula,” Roell

said. “The Little Gions from Redlands were the Spring Sectional 12 Intermediate champions, and two Inland empire teams, the Spartans and Canyon Crest repre-sented Southern California at the Advanced and Intermedi-ate Jr. Team Tennis National Championships. The program is making an impact locally as more and more Jr. Team Tennis competitors are mov-ing on to enjoy high school and CIF tennis success.”

Roell was quick to point out, “In each of the 2007 endeav-ors, the support provided by those in local communities, whether it was working at the Block Parties, organizing Jr. Team Tennis and Adult and Senior Leagues participation, hosting events and tournaments, arranging inter-club activities, or the like, the collaborative effort can’t be overlooked.”

Alison Roell, the Tennis Service Representative in the Inland empire, noted, “The Tennis Block Party at Cal-ifornia Baptist University, Recreation Coach Workshop and Welcome Back To Tennis at Riverside Community College, Recreational Coach Workshop at Beaumont-Cherry Valley Recreation & Park District, oscar Wegner clinics and open House at Norton Tennis Center and the Mini-Block Party/Reunion at Blair Park were just a few of the community outreach events held during the year that introduced the game to newcomers, pro-vided exposure for current programs and leagues, and highlighted new coaching/playing strategies for recre-ational coaches and players. Unfortunately, Mother Na-ture intervened in october and the Southwest County Tennis Block Party was rained out.”

Roell continued, “Area school districts continued to play a supportive role in bringing tennis opportunities to local communities. Three districts introduced tennis as either Physical education classes or After School units in Beaumont, etiwanda and San Jacinto, with Adelanto and Hemet scheduled to do the same soon. Beaumont Unified and Redlands for-malized joint-use agree-ments with their respec-tive Parks & Recreation departments for school courts, while Temecula, Murrieta, e ls inore , Corona- Norco, Riverside, Jurupa, San Ber-nardino and Redlands Unifieds made high school courts available for Jr. Team Tennis and/or summer camps, and, in some cases, Year-Round junior programming.”

Inland empire activity didn’t stop there. “Parks & Recreation De-partments also made tangible com-

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Welcome back to tennis at Riverside Community College.

After School activities were big in etiwanda.

San Jacinto in-Service

Lisa Kempton, the Tennis Service Representative in the Coachella Valley, said, “2007 marked a major milestone for tennis in the area. The outreach to the community grew with the Pa-cific Life open setting records for tournament (303,398) and single day (20,741) attendance. There was also the fact that USTA National League Championships in the 5.0, 2.5, as well as Senior 4.5 and 3.0 divisions, Na-tional Men’s 55 Hard Court Champi-onships were played locally. So were a number of junior and college events.”

National Junior Ten-nis League had another memorable year. “The Coachella Valley chapter expanded After School programs throughout the area, and continued to offer free clinics and distributed racquets to Physical education clas-sics such as La Quinta High School,” Kempton said. “Monthly NJTL sin-gles and doubles tour-naments helped bring more Novice players into the sport.”

Tom Fey, Director of Tennis at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, hosted a Tri-Level Championship in-volving 121 individuals, from 8 sections competing in 3.5, 4.0 and 4.5 level doubles contests, during the March professional event at the facility. Kempton add-ed, “Another success was Indian Wells Tennis Garden hosting all the P.e. classes for Gerald Ford elemen-tary (which is nearby) for a week. It was great for the kids, 1,000 annually, to experience tennis in the curriculum. Some of the greatest growth came from the Tennis Welcome Centers, which catered to new and returning players, and organized countless Adult League teams. The Recreational Coaches Workshop, with 62 coaches in attendance, was another of the year’s milestones.”

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The wealth of tennis opportunities found in Southern California

make it difficult to have anything but a stunning year. The most recent

was even better, leaving everyone looking forward to the promising

prospects for 2008.

Adults of all skill levels...

...as well as a collection of juniors...

...were part of the game’s growth in the area.