Joanne Macksoud, guiding Pawtucket youths in tennis drills in 2002, is a veteran of the Community Tennis Associations movement that is nurturing the game among children in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts.
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / BILL MURPHY BILL MURPHY, August 12, 2007 --
About 480 middle school kids played tennis in Providence last spring, thanks to a partnership between the U.S. Tennis Association and the Providence After School Alliance.
Youngsters from Cumberland to Newport played Junior Team Tennis this summer, and on Thursday 100 of them gathered at Slater Park in Pawtucket for the USTA Rhode Island Junior Team Tennis Championships.
Tennis is flourishing in the Ocean State, and Southeastern Massachusetts, and Community Tennis Associations deserve much of the credit. These groups are nurturing the game at the grass-roots level, putting rackets into the hands of kids, in some communities operating tennis programs for understaffed parks and recreation departments or in lieu of departments that have been phased out for lack of money. Joanne and Ed Macksoud of the Blackstone Valley CTA and Sandy Sweet of the South County CTA are veterans of the movement and have had a huge impact on tennis in their cities and towns. They are responsible for adult and junior leagues, tournaments and clinics.
In the last two to three years, CTAs have sprouted in Providence under Larry Sack and Marisa Salvadore, East Bay under Betty Sousa, Aquidneck Island under popular local pro Mario Llano and, most recently, Northwest Rhode Island under Terry Charles of North Providence.
“The only area now that doesn’t have a CTA is in the very middle of the state: Warwick, West Warwick and East Greenwich. If someone in that area is interested, they should contact me,” said Doug Chapman, USTA New England’s community coordinator for Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands.
Chapman’s work in developing CTAs helped propel New England from 13th of the 17 USTA sections to first in terms of tennis growth.
“And the area most of that growth came in was Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts,” he said. The New England section also comprises Eastern and Western Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut.
Chapman has helped launch five CTAs in nearby Massachusetts: Fall River, Taunton-Raynham-Middleboro, Martha’s Vineyard, Falmouth and Westport. He said the new Westport CTA will run tennis programs for the town at the renovated and renamed Dianne B. Snyder Tennis Complex at Westport Middle School. Dianne Snyder, a tennis enthusiast and frequent player on the old courts at the WMS, was killed in the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11, 2001. She was a flight attendant.
Like Westport, Dighton, Rehoboth and Seekonk do not have recreation departments, and Chapman is hopeful that a CTA “can come in and pick up what the recreation department used to do.”
Chapman is also involved in promoting afterschool tennis programs for middle schools. He recently spent three days in Mesa, Ariz., attending a conference addressing the issue and is optimistic that several hundred people will attend a National Junior Tennis League rally Sept. 15 at Hope High School in Providence to kick off the fall afterschool program. Jane Brown Grimes, president of the USTA, has made tennis in schools a focus of her two-year term.
To learn more about community tennis, contact Chapman at chapman@newengland.usta.com or visit ustanewengland.com or ustarhodeisland.com.
Champions at the Casino
If you ever dreamed of hitting with a Hall of Famer, here’s your chance. John McEnroe, Mats Wilander and Jim Courier, plus five other former stars on the ATP tour, will play in a pro-am on Aug. 23 in conjunction with the Gibson Guitar Champions Cup Aug. 22-26 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Wayne Ferreira, Pat Cash, Richard Krajicek, Todd Martin and Mal Washington will join the three Hall of Famers for a session on the famous Newport Casino grass. The cost is $500 and includes a ticket to that day’s matches and admission to the VIP Champions Club. The schedule for Aug. 23 includes Ferreira vs. Wilander, McEnroe vs. Cash and Martin vs. Washington.
The pros will also participate in clinics on Friday and Saturday. There will be four at each 10 a.m. session, but there is no word yet as to which four will play which day. The cost for a clinic is $150 and includes the clinic and a ticket to the day’s matches. Courier and Krajicek, Cash and Wilander and McEnroe and Ferreira are scheduled for Friday and Krajicek and Washington, Courier and Martin and McEnroe and Wilander for Saturday.
If you want to schmooze with the stars in a social setting, you can attend the Champions Dinner Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. on the Horseshoe Piazza at the Newport Casino. The eight players will be there, and proceeds will go to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. A seat at the dinner table is $250.
Contact the Hall of Fame tournament office at 866-914-FAME for the latest information. Tickets are available for each day. Call the tournament office or visit tennisfame.com.
Drop shots
Mark Stenning, chief executive of the Hall of Fame, made a nice gesture by giving every player in the Rhode Island Junior Team Tennis Championships a ticket to the Gibson Guitar Champions Cup. . . . Fore
Court in Men’s 3.0, Rally Point Ballbusters in Women’s 3.5, Fore Court in Men’s 3.5, Fore Court in Women’s 4.0 and Rally Point in Men’s 4.0 have advanced to the New
England Sectional Championships of USTA League Tennis Aug. 24-26 at South Hadley, Mass. . . . Sandy Wood, women’s tennis coach at URI and a leader of an effort to
build an indoor facility in Kingston, has adjusted membership criteria and talked with contractors, although he still does not have a site.
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