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Members make the 19th annual TAA a success
August 2008 -- May 10 marked the 19th year of Tennis Across AmericaTM and USPTA would like to thank all of its members for their continued participation in this tremendous grassroots program. More than 1,400 participants helped run events throughout the country and through Tennis Around the World in Fiji. Even though the Tennis Across America month of May has come and gone, a number of events are still scheduled to take place during the remainder of the year. The registration deadline was extended this year from July 1 to July 8 to give all our members extra time to register their Tennis Across America events in order to receive credit for themselves and their divisions. If you forgot to register your event this year or turned in your registration form after your event, you missed out on a great opportunity to gain exposure for yourself and your club. We encourage all USPTA members who want to run a Tennis Across America event next year to register their events well in advance to take advantage of all of USPTA's marketing initiatives. You will bring new exposure to your event and bring more new, current and former players into the grassroots level of the game.
USPTA has continued to generate more exposure for its members with Tennis Across America. For the third year in a row we aired a commercial on the Tennis Channel during our TV show, "On Court with USPTA," in April, May and June. We had numerous calls from consumers asking for clinics in their areas. We referred them to our Tennis Across America section on our Web site that listed all of the registered events that were open to the public. We also provided them information on USPTA Find-a-Pro, so they could look for professionals in their areas and inquire about specific events.
Marketing tools that were at the professional's disposal were the program guide, sample press release forms, information on the Web about Tennis Across America, and a Tennis Across America poster in the March issue of ADDvantage. We hope everyone who ran an event took the time to use these publicity tools. If you did not, we suggest you try to use them next year. You will be surprised at the difference it makes in your event.
The USPTA kicked off the 19th annual Tennis Across America by hosting an event at MacGregor Park with Zina Garrison and her academy from 4-7 p.m. on May 9. The theme of the Tennis Across America event was Tennis - for the health of it!SM
USPTA board member Randy Mattingley presented Zina Garrison and her All Court Tennis Academy with a check for $5,000 from the USPTA Foundation. USPTA board member Jack Groppel, Ph.D., spoke about the Association's new initiative Tennis - for the health of it! and how this is opening the door for our new relationship with the American College of Sports Medicine and its new initiative, Exercise is Medicine™, and introduced their vice president of the initiative, Adrian Hutber, Ph.D. Adrian stressed how excited ACSM was to start this new relationship. Once the presentation was over, Jack kicked off the Tennis Across America clinic.
The clinic showed widespread diversity with some very good potential talent as 200 children enjoyed two hours of drills from USPTA pros, snacks and gift bags. USPTA donated 10 cases of Tennis Across America balls, 10 cases of T.I.P. 2 balls and 60 junior racquets.
There was pre-event coverage in the "Houston Chronicle" the day before the event on the front page of the lifestyle section and also in the sports section. One news station, NBC 2, attended the event and did an interview with Zina Garrison that was aired on Friday night's 10 p.m. news, the Saturday morning news and also during Sports Sunday at 10:35 p.m.
On May 3, USPTA pro Dee Henry hosted a Tennis Across America event at Biola University tennis courts in La Mirada, Calif. Dee and his 28-person staff that included USPTA pros Jim Emerson and Christy Humphrey ran the event for 79 children, juniors and adults. This year's event marked the 13th time a Tennis Across America event was run at Biola University tennis courts.
USPTA pro Mohammed Jannif, who now resides in Tokyo, hosted a Tennis Around the World event for the children of his hometown in Nadi, Fiji, on July 15 and 16. Mohammed was able to get about 100 racquets sent to Fiji from Tokyo for the children of various schools who participated in the event. The children were given the racquets as a gift and they enjoyed two days of lessons from Mohammed and fellow USPTA pro Paul Albares.
Each year, tennis industry stars support Tennis Across America by serving as honorary co-chairs. This year's co-chairs are Billie Jean King, sports legend and social pioneer; former touring pros Zina Garrison, Tom Gullikson, Todd Martin, Harold Solomon and Tony Trabert; TV analysts and former touring pros Mary Carillo, Cliff Drysdale and Pam Shriver; world-renowned tennis coach and Master Professional Rick Macci; author, speaker and Master Professional Peter Burwash; sports science expert Jack Groppel, Ph.D., and Wayne Bryan, USPTA member and father of Mike and Bob Bryan.
USPTA would like to thank everyone who participated in or is planning a 2008 Tennis Across America event. We would also like to offer sincere thanks to HEAD/Penn Racquet Sports for providing special USPTA Pro Penn Tennis Across America balls as souvenirs.
For more information about Tennis Across America or Tennis Around the World, please contact Rick Bostrom at 800-USPTA-4U (877-8248) or sports@uspta.org.
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