Senior player profile – Helen Garrett

Paddle is her balance. Just back from a weekend on Long Beach Island, and having spent two weeks skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho, it was pure luck to find Helen Garrett with some time to talk. No moss grows on Garrett, the perennial senior tournament winner, with 16 APTA Senior Championships and eight “silvers,” as she puts it. She plays both women’s and mixed tournaments, enjoying the differences of each game. And she very much enjoyed the team concept of the President’s Cup. Garrett played in the very first one in 1986, and was on the Region III team for several years.

Garrett and long-time partner Sandy Simmers won the Women’s 70+ Nationals in Scarsdale, New York, this past December. Both players are from the Washington, DC area, and Garrett really enjoys the time they spend together, whether in the car traveling to tournaments or on the court. “Neither of us has a big forehand or big backhand, but we just bore people to death with our game. Of course we have some skills, mostly strategy, and we can place soft screen shots.”

When playing mixed, Garrett seems to land some of the bigger fish in paddle, notably Bob Brown, Bill Childs, and Scott Estes, Sr. “I’ve had great partners. And I’ve learned so much strategy from all of them. I think in order to get better at any game, you have to be a student” One of her few disappointments is that “I didn’t get to play in the recent Mixed 60+ or Women’s 60+ Nationals,” Garrett laments. This was her first time missing each tournament in ten years, but she couldn’t fit traveling to Florida or Chicago into her demanding schedule. [enlarge image to read more]