Heard Around Atlanta

USTA Southern Announces 2021 Annual Tennis Awards

USTA Southern has announced the recipients of its 2021 awards, given for outstanding achievements in tennis both on and off the court. Twenty-one winners have been recognized this year.

Five municipalities had two winners: Atlanta; Cary, and Charlotte, North Carolina; and Florence, and Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. North Carolina had eight recipients. Due to COVID-19 causing a reduction in tennis in schools and Tennis On Campus club teams, three related awards will not be presented this year.

Candidates were nominated by USTA staff and volunteers in the section’s nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The winners were then selected from among the nominees by volunteer members of the USTA Southern Awards Committee and other committees that have expertise in the award category.

Recipients are scheduled to receive their awards at the USTA Southern Annual Meeting on Jan. 15, 2022, in Atlanta.

Presented below are the 2021 USTA Southern award winners:

• Adult Tournament of the Year: OPRC Banana Open, Charlotte, N.C. • Community Tennis Association of the Year: Florence Tennis Association,

Florence, S.C. • DeWitt Redgrave III Junior Achievement Awards: Emma Charney, Mt. Pleasant, S.C.; Nichols Heng, Madison, Ala. • Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award: The Louisville Area 10U Tennis Association, Louisville, Ky. • Educational Merit Award: Keisha Price, Raleigh, N.C. • Gerrie Rothwell Award: Jim Warren, Jackson, Miss. • Jim Russell Junior Tournament of the Year: Georgia Junior Clay Court Open,

Columbus, Ga. • Junior Team Tennis Coordinator of the Year: Tony Cherone, Memphis, Tenn. • Local League Coordinator of the Year: Dusty Braddock, Florence, S.C. • Mac MacDougal Tennis Official of the Year: Meg Farrelly, Isle of Palms, S.C. • Marc Kaplan Media Excellence Award: Second Serve Podcast, Wake Forest,

N.C. • Marilyn Sherman Spirit Award: Avery Caruso, Concord, N.C. • Member Organization of the Year: Shreveport Association of Ladies Tennis,

Shreveport, La. • Mickey McNulty Family of the Year: The Burke/Mulkey Family, Cary, N.C. • NJTL Chapter of the Year: South Atlanta CTA/NJTL, Atlanta • Ozaki-Hastings Junior Sportsmanship Award: Mai Nguyen, Atlanta • Slew Hester Players of the Year: Cynthia (Cindy) Babb, Mount Pleasant, S.C.;

Chris Bussert, Big Canoe, Ga. • Southern Tennis Professional of the Year: Courtney Dugas, Lafayette, La. • Special Tennis Event of the Year: Atlantic Tire Championships, Cary, N.C. • Team Tennis Event of the Year: USTA League Tennis 18 & Over State Championships, Lake Norman, N.C. • Wheelchair Excellence Award: Kelly Flouhouse, Charlotte, N.C.

AYTEF Golf Tourney Raises Funds for Fair Oaks Tennis Center

The third annual AYTEF Regions Bank Golf Tournament was held at Dunwoody Country Club on Oct. 25, 2021. Blessed by beautiful fall weather, the event was AYTEF’s largest fundraising event of the year and the most successful golf event to date. Thanks to the generous support of sponsors such as Regions Bank, Cobb County Toyota, Universal Tennis Academy, UBS, and Porsche, the Atlanta Youth Tennis & Education Foundation secured critical funds that will directly benefit the tennis and education programs for under-resourced youth at Fair Oaks Tennis Center. The Foundation extends its appreciation to the 18 tournament sponsors, 124 golfers, and 15 volunteers that, through their participation and generosity, are helping youth achieve on the court, in the classroom, and in life. For more information, visit aytef.org/golf.

TELL US!

Send your stories, compliments, complaints and questions to altaeditor@altatennis.org.

Mizuno/Net News Contest Renewed for 2022

The popular Mizuno and Net News contest from this year, in which one ALTA team was chosen and outfitted with new shoes, will return for 2022 — but this time Mizuno will outfit two teams.

One lucky Spring Sunday Women team and one summer Mixed Doubles team will be selected by the shoe manufacturer and then provided with new shoes for their entire team. More details and the official rules will be announced in the next issue of Net News.

Acrytech Promotes Carroll to President

Acrytech Sports Surfaces has promoted Brad Carroll to president. In his new role, Carroll will handle the daily operations and focus on streamlining operations with the goal of becoming a more productive and efficient organization, while maintaining the quality and selection of products for which Acrytech is known.

Carroll joined Acrytech in 2018 as national sales manager and was promoted to vice president in December 2019. Prior to joining Acrytech, he owned and operated a water filtration and coffee company.

“The change is about putting the right people in the right positions, making use of everyone’s best skills,” said Acrytech CFO Caldwell Robinson. “We want to maximize our potential market penetration, improve oversight and management of our business, and create an environment that promotes long-term, consistent financial performance.”

Since 2018, Robinson and Carroll have more than tripled the business, moved production to a larger and more advanced manufacturing facility, and expanded product offerings. Acrytech customers now have access to the most technologically advanced sports surfacing products and systems in the industry, a variety of repair products, accessories, rubberized track systems, and artificial turf products.

St Ives Country Club Pro-Am Raises More Than $10K for Charity

St Ives Country Club in Johns Creek celebrated its 27th year of their Pro/Member Tennis Invitational. What a great weekend it was with all the festivities, memories and of course, great tennis! ATP World ranked #8 legend Dick Stockton was a part of the event this year, making it even more special. The St Ives members and the most elite tennis professionals were able to raise $11,000 to support two charities, Special Olympics Georgia and STAR House. Learn more at stivescountryclub.org.

Captain’s Corner: Catherine Howard

ALTA prides itself on its impressive and sportsmanlike members, and captains hold a special place within the ALTA organization.

One such captain is Catherine Howard. She has captained several teams out of Wynbrooke in Stone Mountain. “In 2008, I was approached by the president of the Wynbrooke HOA to join a tennis team. I was athletic, but as an adult I had never played tennis,” says Howard. She added that she hired a coach and began her tennis journey, quickly falling in love with the sport.

Howard made a flyer and handed it out in the subdivision, asking for players to join a beginner C-level team. Many ladies responded, so she started a team. During that time, she attended a City Finals in which her friend was playing. “The atmosphere was very exciting, and I decided that my goal was to win at least one city championship,” Howard said. She did just that. In 2010, her Sunday Women’s League C2 team won its first City Championship after winning the division several times previously.

Howard then went on a recruiting rampage and started captaining Mixed Doubles teams, Senior League teams, and Sunday Women’s League teams. As a captain, she has had great success winning division titles in addition to making it to City Finals and winning City Championships. “It is like a rags to riches story,” she says. “I am very thrilled with my hobby, especially since I started as an adult.” She also gives credit to the sport as it gave her strength when she had to battle breast cancer, which she says she defeated and came out on top. “I really enjoy being a part of ALTA and look forward to many more years. Maybe I’ll just be a player and let someone else step up to captain,” Howard said.

Captain Catherine Howard, pictured on top row, 1st on the far left and her A3 Mixed Doubles Wynbrooke team.

Congratulations

Congratulations to the Atlanta Tennis community for helping make Atlanta’s only ATP event such a success!

Signature Tennis Courts

Proud builder of the courts … since its inception! mike@signaturetennis.com

TECH TALK

Publishing Your Lineup

Captains and Team Managers can work on lineups by going to Member Portal > My Active Teams > Schedule & Lineup > Lineup for the desired week. While the lineup is in process, you can save it to continue working until you are ready to have the team see it in the checker and/or publish it out to the team. Publishing saves the lineup checker information and fills it into the team scorecard. The system can only check for movement and “sandbagging” errors when the matches ahead of the one you are working on have scorecards approved by the coordinator. The ALTA system logs record use of the lineup checker, including Warnings and Errors.

Team players cannot see the captains/managers work until the lineup is published. Once a lineup is published, if changes are desired, clicking “Publish” will republish the lineup with the changes. Coordinators get copies of published lineups for the playoffs and City Finals only. They do not get them for in-season matches.

Schedule & Lineup > Schedule contains information from the lineup checker to know if it was used. The Dashboard also contains this information in the Upcoming Matches listed at the top of this page.

The lineup checker for a particular week can no longer be used after that week’s scorecard has been entered. At that point, it doesn’t matter about keeping it current if lineup changes were made. While using the lineup checker is not an ALTA requirement, it does help teams avoid costly lineup mistakes and the loss of hard-earned points!

—Joan Appelbaum, ALTA IT Manager