APTA Board Member Profile – John Noble

John Y. Noble
Residence: Lake Forest, Illinois. John Noble was born in Berkeley, California, grew up in Lake Forest, and graduated from Lake Forest High School and Ball State University.
Occupation: Noble works, as an Owner and Vice President of Sales, with his brother in a unique healthcare company—PathFinder Health LLC—that focuses on connecting people with doctors, so that more people can engage and follow through to improve their health.
Family: He has three beautiful daughters, Susanna, Sarah and Catherine, and a wonderful wife, Susan, who has been and continues to be of great support. Tennis and service have been major influences in his life; his grandfather presided over the Westerns for many years and his father served as president of the Chicago District Tennis Association.

Getting into the game: Being friends with a good number of the Chicago-area tennis pros, who taught paddle, allowed for ample opportunity to learn the sport. Noble began playing platform tennis in 1999 and quickly became addicted and participated whenever and wherever he could.

Contribution to the APTA Board: Noble is on his second term on the board. He heads the Technology Committee, where he creates opportunities to bring the sport and the association into the 21st century. He introduced the Live Scoring system with Isabel Cabanne several years ago and has been working to bring a new player/league rating system to the APTA. Recently, a new Streaming concept has been introduced, and Noble was the mastermind behind the new “Paddle Night In America,” with the hope of having a dedicated Platform Tennis Channel online. The Technology Committee is also near completion on the APTA Dashboard. Additionally, Noble serves on the APTA Men’s Ranking & Tournament Committee (since 2004) as the Region V representative.

Contribution to the platform tennis community: While living in Evanston, he was introduced to the Chicago League and Alan Graham. It did not take him long to volunteer one too many times, and so, in 2002, began his time running the Chicago Charities and as Director of Tournaments for the Chicago Platform Tennis Charities League (CPTC). With the Chicago league support and a strong volunteer network, Noble has continued chairing the Charities along with many other Chicago paddle tournaments since then. He helped chair the 2011 Men’s and Woman’s APTA Nationals and 2012 Mixed APTA Nationals in Chicago and will be chairing the upcoming 2014 APTA Men’s 45+/55+/65+ Nationals as well as the 2015 and 2020 APTA Men’s and Women’s Nationals.

On-the-court accomplishments: Noble has played on the Region V President’s Cup team over ten times, including three championships, and was the winner of the 2012 Illinois State Platform Tennis Championships with Peter Berka, and runner-up in 2013. With strong support from Rod Workman, the pair won both the 2011 and 2012 Chicago Charities 90+ tournament. Noble’s highest APTA ranking has been 16 during the 2012-13 season with Mike Rahaley. Currently, they are ranked in the top 20 this season.

Off-the-court accomplishments: Noble was inducted into the Ball State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009 for tennis. He played tennis professionally for two years, and coached at his high school for five years. In a completely different arena, Noble is a two-time Tony Award winner; for Best Revival of a Play (2001) for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Gary Sinese, and for Best New Musical (2002) for Thoroughly Modern Mille.

Source: Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 15, Issue 3 Jan/Feb 2014