Rogers Cup 2012 Toronto

This was my first Rogers Cup as president of the OTA, and boy was it a busy week! As soon as I returned from Ottawa Open/Roman Cup, I jumped on court Sunday as line official for some of the qualifier matches with the likes of Fognini, Reynolds, Berrer, Dodig, Odesnik, Gabashvili, Ebden and Stakhovsky. The opening weekend is a good time for us line officials to warm up our eyes and begin getting used to the fast servers. There was also a bit extra pressure this year as the Grand Stand (GS) was outfitted with the Hawk-Eye technology to allow player challenges, just like on Centre Court. I also worked line calls on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I would say my highlight was Wed afternoon at about 2pm when I spent about 30 minutes on court with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs Jeremy Chardy. That was my first time on Centre court and what a thrill to be calling lines for these players!

Ready to go on court

Seventh Annual OTA Presidents' Day

Monday gave me a day break to meet many of the OTA member club reps attending Presidents' Day at the Buick Pavilion. This marks the 7th year holding this event and it is always well attended. I'm sure we had nearly 200 attendees. For those who've never attended, it's a chance to network with like-minded volunteers who work hard to maintain an active club and promote tennis to their members. The agenda is not too heavy...a nice continental breakfast followed by some introductions of the staff and board, and this year a quick update by myself on the results of the OTA survey that was distributed electronically a few months ago. The full results will be published in the September issue of OT Magazine. After a few draws for prizes and a few photos, everyone left for the courts to watch some exciting matches. Thanks to everyone for attending!

For more photos of the entire week at Rogers Cup ATP, go to the OTA facebook page.

Ottawa Tennis Scene

My visit to Ottawa Aug 1-4 quickly proved to me that the nation's capital has a vibrant tennis community, boasting 34 clubs and over 394 courts. The community of clubs, together with the NCTA - National Capital Tennis Association (a region of the OTA) have developed tour players, NCAA scholarship players, top ranked provincial players and everyday club players over the years. However ...

As with many clubs in other regions, Ottawa clubs have their share of challenges. Clubs have difficulty growing their programs to attract new players and many have limited funds for facility improvements. This, combined with limited funding from the City of Ottawa and slow penetration of tennis in the school system has given Ottawa clubs a reason to rethink or at least revitilize their approach to growing the sport.

One of the reasons for visiting Ottawa with OTA Executive Director Jim Boyce was to outline a value proposition to a group of invited clubs to help them address their existing issues and set them on a positive course moving forward to grow participation in the sport. NCTA president Sean Sweeney and Ottawa park and rec manager Ward Cosman are especially eager to promote the benefits of the OTA and also attended. I think some real interest was generated and it is my hope that the OTA can work in closer partnership with these clubs so they do become part of the OTA tennis family. Stay tuned for future updates.

Ontario Open / Roman Cup

My wife and I also got a chance to visit a number of the beautiful clubs in Ottawa. One in particular, the Rideau Tennis Club will be celebrating its 100th anniversary later this year, and has been host to the annual Ontario Open / Roman Cup for many years now. This year there were 60 adults entered for the Open and over 200 juniors for the Roman Cup. The Roman Cup receives generous donations from Mike Cowpland and his wife. The event has been held annually since 2008, in memory of their son, Roman Kowalski Jr., who tragically passed away at the age of 22 in the summer of 2007. Roman had been a very successful tennis player all his life.

The club boasts 11 clay courts and eight hard courts in a beautiful setting next to the Rideau River. The day prior to the start of the Open/Roman Cup, a fun Pro-Am tournament is played, and yours truly decided to enter this year as one of the Ams. Guest pro Ted Thompson and I teamed up and had some exciting matches against our opponents. The matches were followed by a nice BBQ, presentations and a silent auction. Our day on Friday was spent enjoying many of the juniors matches on court.

Many thanks to Rideau Club manager Janet Van Bakel and Head Pro Zhenya Kondratovski for hosting such a wonderful event! More photos can be found on the OTA Facebook Page.

Scott at Entrance to Rideau

Scott with NCTA President Sean Sweeney, Roman Cup sponsor Mike Cowpland and OTA ED Jim Boyce

President's Blog for July 2012

Cleves

The last week of June my wife and I attended our second year at Cleveland's House. Cleve's is a great family resort in the Muskoka Lakes area, offers all-inclusive packages for a comfortable stay, great food and plenty of activities. There are also 16 hardcourts on the property and this particular week they offer their "tennis bootcamp" where head pro Hugh Smith brings in additional guest pros to conduct extensive group instruction, drills and round robins. For six full days, we spent anywhere from 4-6 hours on the court. It's the best warm-up for the summer tennis season you can get and I highly recommend it. There were players attending at all levels. Our schedule for a typical day was something like:

• 8:00   am - rise & shine
• 9:00   am - buffet breakfast
• 10:00 am - hit the courts for drills and skills development
• Noon        - break for hot tub, get ready for lunch inside or on the patio
• 2:00   pm - hit the courts for more drills and practice
• 3:15   pm - stick around for two sessions of organized round robins
• 4:30   pm - pool or hot tub break before dinner

If you're so inclined, you can partake in spa treatments, boating on the lake and nightly entertainment down at Duke's bar. Many new changes were in place this year which made the experience even better. Newly hired chef Jason MacArthur and his team put together an amazing menu and culinary experience for everyone; the food is certainly one of the highlights of the stay.

Cleves is an associate member of the OTA and is providing special discounts for their various vacation packages.  Special thanks to resident pros Hugh and Maddy along with guest pros Gary, Max, Lorent and Andrew for putting on a great tennis workout week!

Pros L-R: Maddy, Gary, Hugh, Lorent, Max, Andrew

Boot Camp Team with Pros

Visiting Roger Martin

I was fortunate enough to get some time with the Chair of Tennis Canada, Roger Martin, in early July. Roger is also Dean of the Rotman School of Management at U of T and has written and lectured extensively on strategy, integrative thinking and productivity. We spent some time discussing how the competitive tennis landscape in Canada has changed (for the better) over the last eight or more years. One of Roger's biggest contribution to tennis in Canada during his tenure as chair has been his ability to apply his strategic expertise to refocus Tennis Canada and ensure the development budget has increased from $2M eight years ago up to $12M for this year. Producing top players takes investment and time with proper coaching and training, and it would appear TC is starting to see this investement pay off, first with Milos Raonic, and now recently with big wins at Wimbledon for Filip Peliwo (ranked #1) and Eugenie Bouchard (ranked #2). All three are direct products of the National Training Centre in Montreal. Let's hope this trend continues and those players in the spotlight now are just the tip of the iceberg for better things to come.

And of course I would be remise if I didn't credit the wonderful work of the OTA and the other provinces in providing a feeder system for TC. OTA provides by far the largest number of sanctioned events of any province combined with an outstanding schools tennis program and club support system. All these components ensure as many kids as possible have access to the sport from an early age, which increases the probability that a select few will take their skill to the professional level.

President's Blog for June 2012

I was out the other night playing my Intercounty match at Richmond Hill Lawn T.C. (RHLTC) and saw president Mike Bowcott mingling with the members. RHLTC as you might remember just celebrated their 50th anniversary. The club has had an amazing transformation, from rebuilt courts, new fencing and lighting, new brick walkways and patio, new seating areas and great landscaping. The town finally put some money into this facility after many years of neglect, thanks to Mike and his team's hard work dealing with the mayor and councilors to free up the money. I spent some time talking with Mike about growing the game and he is a big proponent of grassroots tennis for young kids (ages 5-8), and is continuing to work with the town to have some additional public courts in the area redone with proper tennis surfacing so that camps, lessons and even leagues can be started. Negotiating these kinds of changes and improvements is always tough but Mike seems to have the town's attention, and I wish him luck.

My own home club (Markham T.C.) was incorporated this year and now has the opportunity to apply for grant funding to upgrade their tennis facilities. The largest funding available is through Trillium. Many people don't know that by simply incorporating their club, they open up a whole new source of revenue through these granting options. If you read through the requirements, it specifically indicates: "....We help sports and recreation organizations in their efforts to be more effective and responsive to community needs and fund new equipment and the repair of community facilities to improve access to sports and recreation." I know the president, Donna Carpenter, will be working hard with her executive to apply for and capture available funding to hopefully upgrade that dated clubhouse, replace the deck and perhaps even look at putting a case together to bubble the courts during the winter. The OTA can help in all those areas so I encourage clubs thinking about this to give the office a call and discuss it further.

President's Blog for May 2012

Volunteers form the cornerstone of our sport across Ontario. Without all of you and your countless hours invested in growing tennis in the local community and beyond, tennis would not be growing in popularity. In fact, according to the Canadian Tennis Brand Health Study commissioned by Tennis Canada in 2011, there continues to be growth in the number of Canadians who play tennis at least once per year - 4.9M in 2011, up 3% from 2010.

The OTA President Survey was released to our member club contacts on Apr 20 and already we've received about 25 surveys back with some very valuable feedback. My hope is to reach at least a 25% return rate by the survey close date of July 20th. I encourage all club Presidents to complete the survey sooner rather than later.

The Ontario Sport Awards dinner was held April 19 at the Ontario Place Atlantic Pavilion, celebrating Ontario's finest athletes, coaches, volunteers and corporate sponsors (like having a DSA at the provincial level). The 2011 recipient of the Syl Apps volunteer award as nominated by the OTA went to Gus Morhart, with the corporate sport citation going to Marco Distler of Miele Canada. Each sports association in Ontario is allowed to nominate one outstanding individual and corporation in these categories annually. Congratulations to both Gus and Miele.

Had a chance to drop by for the kickoff of the Philpott Art Auction fundraiser held at the Movie Poster gallery at 1875 Leslie St. Unit 18. Featured some nice drawings and watercolours from the late artist Allan James Cunnington. Daniel Nestor wine tasting provided by Peter Jensen of NEXUS wine group. You could also bid on an autographed 6-bottle case of Nestor win. All proceeds went to the Philpott Inner-City children's tennis fund. Thanks to the ladies of Philpott: Ceciley Parker, Sharon Arnold and Eleanor O'Gorman.

Met Susanne Pacher, VP at the Thorncliffe Park Tennis Club during the OTA's AGM meet & greet. Very nice lady who is working hard to make a difference for the hundreds of high-need families in that part of Toronto. She is looking for funding opportunities to help partially or fully subsidize a four week tennis program for the kids in the neighborhood. Canadian Tire Jumpstart program is one such source which may work out for this club. Good luck and I hope to hear more about the club's successes over the summer.

Dropped by Tennis Canada's COE the other day and met Victor Krustev's mom. If you check the 2011/2012 OT Magazine yearbook you'll see that Victor was ranked #1 in the U12 age category as of the end of 2011, and is currently #2 in the U14 category. I remember Victor when he attended one of the tournaments I held at the Markham Tennis Club way back in July of 2006. He was around 7 years old at the time and I knew right away he would be making an impact on the tennis scene. Victor is currently sidelined with an injury and needs a number of months to recover. These are the challenges faced by a lot of juniors who work extremely hard from an early age, but sometimes their bodies don't behave quite the way they expect. Victor is recovering well and we all wish him a speedy recovery to get back on the courts real soon!

The 2015 Pan and Parapan Games being held in Toronto and surrounding GTA is only three short years away. The sport of tennis will be well represented and there will be more announcements and feature events occurring as we get closer to the date. On May 4, CIBC,  as the lead partner, announced it is donating $1M in athletic scholarships over the next 10 years to encourage athletics and education. I was on hand for the announcement and also was able to see the future site of the CIBC Athlete's village that will be built just east of Front and Parliament in Toronto. The artist's rendering of the area looks amazing and will leave a lasting legacy of affordable housing and new condo spaces.

Met our new female rep for Tennis Canada National Seniors Committee, Jennifer Bishop. What a nice gal and full of energy, enthusiasm and new ideas. The committee is an advisory committee that exists to support, guide and promote Tennis Canada’s Seniors Tennis mandate. Jennifer is originally from Newfoundland and grew up playing competitive tennis from an early age. We look forward to her contributions. Congratulations Jennifer!

Saturday, May 5 was a busy day for summer club openings. The weather behaved so I was able to get out to my home club, Markham Tennis Club. I've been a member of MTC for 20 years with my family and it continues to foster a friendly and social environment. Past President Jim Fehr and incoming President Donna Carpenter were on hand to ensure all had a great time.

Next visit was the 50th anniversary celebration at Richmond Hill Lawn Tennis Club. RHLTC was founded in 1960 and located to their present location in the late 1970's. President Mike Bowcott addressed the crowd of about 150 and noted that back in the 60's, family membership was $35 while individual adult membership was $15, and a bottle of coke was a nickel. Mayor Dave Barrow addressed the attendees and presented the club with a 50th anniversay certificate.  Snacks, drinks and a special cake were served to all visitors and founding members Sam (age 91) and Joan Malcomson were on hand to visit with members and recall fond memories of the early years.

Last Words : I invite everyone to visit both the OTA website and the OTA's facebook page often, as I make attempts to maintain a social media presence in the tennis world. As of this writing, you can find a variety of pictures of great volunteers, events and celebrations on facebook. I am happy to promote any event or milestone going on in your region using the same tools.  Please send me pictures featuring your favourite event, volunteer or activity and I'll do my best to get it some recognition. Or better yet, invite me to attend and I'll take pictures!

DSA Awards Ceremony

Once again the OTA put on a fantastic evening honouring two lifetime tennis volunteers at the Cricket Club. OTA's Distinguished Service Award (DSA) ceremony was first launched in 2003 to recognize outstanding volunteerism for the sport of tennis in Ontario. This year the OTA honoured Malcolm Still and Helen Trainor. Their bios can be viewed at www.tennisontario.com

Angus Glen Tennis Centre Opens

Four new indoor courts have opened at the Angus Glen Community Centre at Kennedy and Major Mac. The facility was a joint project between the Town of Markham and the provincial and federal governments. Final Cost, $4M, but it was worth every penny! Check it out!