Uihlein and Marino Team Up to Take Men's Title.....Delmonico and Main Win Women's Charities.........
It was a beautiful platform tennis day and the play was outstanding when the women took to the courts at the Chicago Charities.
The 2009 women's draw was missing many of the big-name players such as Lauren Zink, Cindy Prendergast, Laura Parsons and Susie Keane; however, the talent level was still exceptional compared to most other ranking tournaments.
Kerri Delmonico and Aila Main worked their way through the draw defeating Sally Cottingham and Liz Hayward in the quarter-finals and then Bobo Delaney and Tonia Mangan in the semi-finals on their way to the final.
http://youtu.be/HiPJbZWsHUA
Quarter Final Prop-Schneebeck & Doten-Schwartz.3rd set tie break - Prop-Schneebeck are up in the breaker 6-1. Ad-hoc commentary provided by energized viewers in the hut
Heather Prop and L[...]
John Horine
Age: 48
Family: Wife: Paige; Daughters: Devon, Amelia
Residence: Baltimore, MD
APTA President: 1998-2004
John Horine was the President of the American Platform Tennis Association from 1998 through 2004. His presidency will always be associated with improving communications between the APTA Board and its Members
During his tenure, John was responsible for contracting with Dollard Publishing to bring the APTA members Platform Tennis Magazine in 1999. He also was instrumental in getting the Board of Directors to create an official website The site, www.platformtennis.org has gone through a few revisions over the past few years, and has evolved to be a great source for current and archived news and information.
We sat down with John Horine to catch up on his thoughts on the new directions taken by the APTA.
Can you tell our readers what you have been doing on an[...]
John Embree has had a long and storied history in the world of racquet sports. Growing up in Chicago, he moved back to his home town in the Windy City to take a position with Wilson Sporting Goods. He remained there for 17 years, rising to the title of Vice President and General Manager of Wilson's global racquet sports. He subsequently left Wilson to become part owner of tennis apparel manufacturer Balle de Match.
"I went to Balle de Match because the owner needed marketing and sales help," Embree said. "I thought I could use my tennis connections to grow the business. Wended up tripling sales in three years." That firestorm of sales helped Embree get his next position, as he was tapped by Prince CEO George Napier in March of 2009.
"When I started with Prince, the economy was in a trend heading south and consumers stopped their spending," Embree said "Consumers are now changing th[...]
Juan Araya is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been playing platform tennis for four years and tennis since he was five years old. He was in the top five in Buenos Aires, and in the top 10 of Argentina, playing with people like Gaston Gaudio (#5 in the World), Guillermo Canas (#12), Mariano Puerta (Finalist of the French Open) and others.
In December 1991, he competed at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, reaching the quarter-finals and losing to Norman Magnus, former #2 of the ATP Tour. He also played every tournament in the COSAT circuit, reaching the semifinals of the Pascuas Bowl in Asuncion, Paraguay. At the age of 18, he played the South American professional tour, reaching several semifinals and quarterfinals.
Later, at the Universidad de Belgrano, he got his degree in Management Information Systems. While at UB, he worked for different companies as a software developer whi[...]
Although the platform tennis season is winding down, the full flame is still burning at the Platform Tennis Hall of Fame Museum. Another year has passed, and while progress has been slow, there continues to be good progress toward the realization of the dream of a "bricks and mortar" home for display of the memorabilia of the sport and a place to honor those elected to its Hall of Fame.
The Foundation's Chairman, Bob Brown, and Museum Curator, Jim McCready, have worked with museum consultant Ed Puches to develop a model of a display case featuring the 1970's decade. It is pictured below. Mr. Puches of Irvington, NY has developed projects at Harvard University and IBM. Eight similar display cases will be included in the museum to highlight other decades since the sport's invention in 1928. A great deal of the memorabilia has been collected, but more is still welcomed by the Committee. [...]
On January 13th, Helen Garrett and Mary Jane Parks, newcomers to the 70s, swept to victory by defeating Nancy Libby and Gail Reifsnyder in the finals of the 70+ Women's Nationals, 6-1, 6-0. Helen and Mary Jane have the habit of winning their 1st eligible age year. Congratulations.
Nancy Libby has the distinction of being in the finals four years in a row and five out of the last six.
The draw was the magic number of eight as required by the APTA. We had perfect weather and the entrants are a fit and fun group. We always look forward to the competition and sharing the day with our age group.
Source: Ann Brown, Tournament Chair, Platform Tennis Magazine, Vol. 11, Issue 4, March, 2010
http://vimeo.com/9191361
"The future of our sport is looking bright!" Those were the closing words that APTA Junior Nationals Tournament Director Michael Gillespie proclaimed after he draped the traditional medals around the necks of the last finalists and champions of the 2010 edition of this annual, day-long tournament.
Bright indeed. This year, 200 juniors participated in the annual junior championships, held on Saturday, January 30, in New Canaan, Connecticut, and hosted by members of the New Canaan Field Club. Teams traveled from as far away as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and even from Hinsdale and Highland Park, IL.
The weekend kicked off with the traditional Friday night "Welcome Party" for all participants. Each of the Field Club's four courts were set up with a different activity: Court 1 featured nationally-ranked players Mark Parsons and Brian O'Connor taking on chal[...]
Planning for the 2010 APTA Men's and Women's Nationals began April 20, 2009 and culminated with the four day event taking place March 4-7th, 2010.
With Waynesborough Country Club as the host facility, our vision was to change the format of the evening parties and host the men and women on Friday night, instead of Saturday, and offer a "Come as you are" party on Saturday evening, to allow players and spectators to watch the men's quarter final play, with beer flowing and a BBQ grille serving up chicken and burgers through the night.
We were rewarded by the tremendous turnout for the Friday night party (over 400 players/volunteers attended) as well as for the Saturday night men's quarter final play (close to 400 players/spectators came to watch). [enlarge image to read full letter]
Georgetown University - After eight years of playing paddle and three years of passionately promoting college platform tennis I offer some observations, advice, and optimism for the future of the sport at the college level. There has been a lot of talk about college platform tennis and, I'm pleased to say, something to show for it too.
At Yale University, Kate Macauley (Yale '11) and Rob Coster (APTA College Program Chair) have done a great job securing two courts at a nearby country club, getting support from local players and enthusiasts, and holding weekly events for Yalies. After two years in the making, Yale Platform Tennis Club has 30 students of all abilities on the roster, and about ten players who play each week. Kate has been successful by recruiting Yale friends to play and has grown interest through club fair events at school. [enlarge image to read full report]
The two things I will miss most about leaving the APTA board are the relationships I have bridged through trying to achieve a common goal and the experiences I have shared with the thousands of enthusiasts throughout the country during my time on the board.
It is hard to believe that it has been five years since our first clinic and exhibition took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mark Fischl and I went up to the Woodhill Country Club just off Lake Minnetonka on a beautiful Minnesota fall day. The leaves were in their prime fall colors and the weather was a gorgeous 55 degrees and sunny. We had 35 people come out for what would be the beginning of an 18-city tour during my tenure with the APTA board.
When I first started this initiative, my goal was to bring in some new life and direction to depressed or undeveloped paddle markets. The idea was to bring out new players and help the[...]
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