USPTA SoCal Line Calls - July 2021

LINE CA LLS

President's Message Jeff Miller

My Fellow USPTA Southern California Members, I want to thank all of the USPTA So Cal Board Members, speakers, and participants who attended our So Cal USPTA Conference on May 1st and 2nd. While most of us wanted to be there in person, we were still able to provide our members with engaging speakers who generated tremendous value. For those of you who paid for the conference and couldn’t attend all of the sessions, the videos should be available on tennis resources.

We are also looking forward to our 2021 USPTA World Conference on September 19-23rd in Las Vegas. It will be great to be there in person and connect once again with all of the amazing tennis pros from all over the country. We are planning a divisional party that week (Sept. 19-23rd), so if you do plan on attending, watch for an email from Sara Morse regarding the details.

If any of you would like support in promoting your events, please reach out to the district pro for your area. We are seeing more and more tennis events being created. We are also happy to see summer camps being created and all of us getting back to the “new normal”. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me or anyone else on the board. Looking forward to seeing you all at the conference and on the court.

District 1 Happenings District 1: Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties

So happy to have been involved with my first USPTA SoCal virtual convention over the May 1st & 2nd weekend - was a great success!

It was truly a pleasure to be a part of it, invite two great speakers and industry leaders Allistair McCaw and Ryan Redondo to present, and

District President: Martin Parkes 813-618-0466 martin.parkes@pepperdine.edu

hear all the talented line up, who I truly enjoyed learning from!

If you registered and paid for the conference, but didn’t get chance to hear all the speakers due to schedule conflicts - you can still gain some credits through the tennis resources website, so I highly recommended you check it out when time permits!

Can’t wait for the in-person National conference in Las Vegas this fall for more opportunities to learn through USPTA educational opportunities!

District 1 Happenings As summer approaches, I’m confident with further restrictions lifting you will have a busy time running programs and camps in order to entertain the growing tennis community which saw great growth over the last year even with certain limitations and challenges!

Let us keep the momentum going and the healthy growth of our great sport, by continuing to work together and creating the best opportunities for our coaches and tennis communities throughout this district and within SoCal. I am personally excited about the recent news of further collaboration between the USPTA and UTR to help continue to grow tennis competitively throughout the nation! In addition to the reestablished local USTA league and tournament play, the UTR flex leagues and events in our area now serve to create more opportunities, which I truly believe: 1. Helps build the game 2. Creates more diversity for our tennis programs 3. Requires coaches skillsets to be developed and challenged 4. Establishes a financial demand for lessons and clinics!

Good luck to all our summer camps and teaching pro’s planned over the summer within our district!

Summer camps offer a great experience to many of our newer and up and coming coaches to do great work and engagement with players of all levels! I will be helping with running camps at Pepperdine university myself!

Final shout out- I wanted to share was a congratulations to Mike Gennette who received his 30 year USPTA pin award in May!

District 2 District 2: San Fernando Valley & Kern County

School is done and junior competition is back. Clubs are opening up and it’s time for the juniors to get back into “training mode”. Summer camps are open and ready for the juniors to return. It’s been a challenging year for parents, juniors and clubs to get juniors back on the courts. If your clients and or friends want more info regarding camps, please contact:

District President: Dina McBride 661-904-6237 dinamcbride3@gmail.com

The Calabasas Tennis and Swim Center, contact Brady Hiete at (818) 222-2782; La Canada Flintridge, contact Stan Carter at StanCarterTennis@gmail.com or (213) 321-8699; Braemar Country Club, contact Susan Pendo at Susan.pendo@clubcorp.com or (818)345-6520; The Paseo Club, contact Greg Demoustas at Moose@thepaseoclub.com or (661)257-0044 These are just some of the clubs ready to accommodate kids of all levels to enjoy a fun summer of training. Please feel free to email me at Dinamcbride3@gmail.com to help me promote your summer program. I am thrilled to see we are getting back to some normalcy

Call for USPTA Southern California Board Nominations: The USPTA Southern California Division is re-opening the application process to become a member of the Division’s Board of Officers and/or District Presidents. Due to unexpected circumstances, and in the interest of fairness to all potential candidates, a new Nomination Task Force has been established by the USPTA National Board of Directors to complete the USPTA Southern California Division Board election process. If you are interested in applying, ALL candidates, including current Board Members, need to submit a document that contains the following and a resume by midnight August 1st.: 1. Name and current USPTA rating.

2. Current job position.

3. Are you currently on the Board and if so what position? If on the Board please share how this board has worked?

4. Your top 3 goals for the Division.

5. 1-3 paragraphs containing information on yourself, why you want to serve and/or continue to serve and what you believe are the keys to being a successful board member.

The timeline for this process is as follows: 1. Application information submitted to usptasocalelections2021@gmail.com (by August 1st, midnight).

2. Nomination Task Force reviews applications received prior to the August1st submission deadline.

3. Nomination Task Force conducts interviews of potential candidates.

4. New slate announced on or before September 1st.

Once again, ALL people need to submit the required information by midnight August 1st. This includes all current board members who wish to be considered.

Follow us for the latest news and happenings.

District 4 Happenings “The First USPTA Elevate National Event was a Hit”

District 4: South Bay to North Orange County (Including Fullerton & Huntington Beach District President: Rhonda Rabanal 424-282-3675 hi@rhondar.com

On May 23, 2021, over 40 attendees invested their time on a Sunday evening to participate in the first USPTA Elevate National event. Elevate, formerly known as U30, is an initiative to engage members within the first five years of their membership.

The topic we discussed for nearly 90 minutes was adult programming for beginners. It was an interactive session that allowed for networking with different members across the nation, including a new member who resides in France!

The discussion started in the main room, then oscillated between three breakout rooms consisting of 4-6 people who shared their perspectives on (1) the lower barriers to entry that pickleball provides when an adult is choosing a racket sport for the first time, (2) how transition tennis balls can address those same barriers, and (3) what hesitations coaches may have in leveraging transition tennis balls as effective teaching tools.

So far, the feedback on the format has been overwhelmingly positive. Members enjoyed being able to meet and chat with each other. They also mentioned that being able to exchange ideas with fellow pros while being guided on what to discuss in each breakout room is something they would like more of.

With anything that’s new, there’s always room for improvement. In the future, we’ll likely broaden the discussion topics instead of having a narrowed focus. If you would like to participate as a moderator for the next Elevate National event, we’re in need of seasoned pros who will be able to guide discussions for newer pros in the breakout rooms.

Huge thanks to Amanda Fink Moore, who is committed to the Elevate initiative and did everything possible to make the first National Elevate event a success. Also thanks to the moderators who attended and shared their industry knowledge: Mike Baugh, Nick Bennett, Michele Krause, Ryan Johnson, Cooper Anderson, Mark Faber, and anyone else I may have accidentally omitted.

See you at the next one! Date is TBD.

District 5 Happenings District 4: East LA County & North Orange County, San Bernadino & Riverside Counties District President: Evan Parry 951-694-2408 evanmparry@gmail.com

Greetings to all the amazing teaching professionals from District 5!

High School Tennis, Junior Team Tennis Sectionals, and more!

The last few months have been very busy for District 5 teaching pros, as they not only promoted tennis at their local clubs, but also coached at the high school and junior team tennis.

Elite Professionals, Scott Harris and Kathryn Curtis, teamed up to coach both the girls and boys teams at JW North High School in Riverside. The girls made it to the semi finals in division 4, while the boys made it to the championship match in division 5. Both teams won their league.

USPTA PROFESSIONAL AND DIRECTOR OF TENNIS AT CANYON LAKE TENNIS CLUB, BOBBY KIELTY, ALSO HELPED COACH THE GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL TEAM AT TEMESCAL CANYON HIGH SCHOOL. TEMESCAL CANYON MADE IT TO THE QUARTERFINALS OF CIF IN DIVISION 2, AND ALSO WON THEIR LEAGUE.

JUNIOR TEAM TENNIS ALSO RETURNED THIS YEAR AFTER A LONG HIATUS DUE TO COVID, AND THE USTA JTT SOCAL SECTIONALS IN IRVINE DID NOT DISAPPOINT! I WAS ABLE TO COACH MY 18S BOYS ADVANCED TEAM TO OUR FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP EVER! IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE FOR THESE BOYS, WHO HAVE BEEN PLAYING WITH EACH OTHER SINCE THEY WERE IN THE 12S.

District 6 Happenings Hi District 6 pros, I hope you, your families, and friends are doing well.

District 6: South Orange County (from Anaheim & Newport Beach) District President: Tim Ludeke 714-553-1473 Timludeke@gmail.com

It seems like there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Life might get back to normal-ish in the next few months.

There will be an educational event, the Tenth Annual Tennis Seminar held on Sunday August 15th 8:00am5:00pm at the Marguerite Tennis Center in Mission Viejo.

This event also provides an opportunity to earn continuing education points.

The fee for this event is $75.00 which includes lunch and a raffle ticket to win a $1400 Gamma stringing machine, teaching carts, cases of balls, and many other items.

Please contact Steve Riggs at 949-232-9200 or riggstwins@outlook.com.

I’m looking forward to seeing those of you I haven’t seen in a while and I’m looking forward to meeting those of you whom I haven’t met yet.