APTA Board Member: Tim Mangan

Tim Mangan

Residence: 112 Bayville Ave. Bayville, New York 11709
Years of Service: APTA Board of Directors – 2nd term, LIPTA VP – 6 years, Director of Racquet Sports at Nassau Country Club – 31 years
Family: Wife – Tonia, 3 children Brooke 17 years old, Jack 14 years old, Caroline 10. Wife Tonia plays with my sister, BoBo Mangan Delaney, my mother Nancy Mangan a Hall of Fame inductee, and my uncle John Mangan who is also in Hall of Fame.

How long have you been playing platform tennis? I’ve been playing for 40 years. I started playing competitive paddle at the age of 16, and I am now 56.

Have you ever won any major tournaments? No, I have not, but I’ve been nationally ranked for 25 years in the Open, Ranked top 10 in 45+,50+,55+, Husband/Wife top 4, Mixed 50+ ranked 2, and was a 5-time runner up in Husband/Wife.

What do you feel is your contribution to the APTA Board? Creating more play, especially among juniors, club players and leagues. I am the founder of the Husband/Wife Tournament.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about transitioning from tennis to platform tennis, or a beginner who is starting to play from scratch? Just keep playing and enjoy the game. Beginners or those transitioning from tennis, they sometimes need assistance in getting the right grips, stuff like that.

After 40 years in the sport, how have you seen Platform Tennis Change? Well, I’ve seen a lot of really good, talented tennis players coming into the game through the years. Some have done really well at it, some have not really liked it.

Do you feel that the proliferation of public courts is on pace with where you think it should be after 40 years? We definitely need more public facilities. But having a public facility is tough. If you have a public facility, you’re going to need a pro there. A lot of times the public will put in courts and there’s no one there to explain and play the game, so they don’t get used. In Long Island, out where I’m at, they put in two public courts and they just sit there.

We’ve dedicated a lot of coverage to the Junior Nationals in this issue of Platform Tennis Magazine. Where do you feel the Junior National’s place is in the grand scheme of Platform Tennis? Is it a good lead-in to adult competition? You would think that as the kids get older, they would filter into the Men’s and Women’s tournaments. That’s one of the things that I feel has been lacking. We don’t know what happens to these kids after the junior national championships. Maybe they go off to college and they end up somewhere where they can’t afford, or don’t have access to courts. Even after college, after those five or six years, they should be coming back and playing. We never know what happens to some of these guys.