APTA Board approves new regional alignment

After a year’s study and the presentation of several different options, the APTA Board of Directors, at its October 7th meeting, agreed upon a plan presented by Walt Peckinpaugh and Rick Williams, presidents of Regions IV and VI, respectively, to realign the group’s geographic regions. The plan combined their two jurisdictions and created two revamped regions. The change became effective at the start of the APTA fiscal year, May 1, 1990.

The new Region IV extended from Syracuse, New York, on the East, into telephone area codes 814 and 412 in western Pennsylvania. It included the states of Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia, the eastern half of Michigan with telephone area codes 517 and 313, and the Province of Ontario, Canada.

The Midwest Region, which was given the new designation number V, was anchored by Chicago and the state of Illinois, and the western half of Michigan, with Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. The growing areas in the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri completed the region.

The Far West area, presently designated Region V, remained intact but was given the number VI as its Region title.

One purpose of the new grouping was to reduce the travel mileage for players competing in Regional tournaments, who are required to play in tournaments outside of their own region to establish an APTA ranking. Equally important, the change enabled the administration of the regions to be more equally distributed.

The competition for the President’s Cup was also affected by the change. With a larger area to draw from, the new Region V should be able to present a stronger squad than the present Region VI that it replaced. The new Region IV, while losing some strength from Chicago and western Michigan would gain it back from the Rochester and Toronto additions.

Source: Platform Tennis News Mid Winter 1989