Mixing it Up
The format for the ICTA Mixed League makes for a very entertaining evening. There are six positions in a fixture, with 3 men’s doubles, 1 ladies doubles and 2 mixed doubles taking the court each week. As match times are staggered, players arrive early to cheer on their team while waiting to get on the court. Once the early matches finish, those players stay around to eat and socialize while watching the rest of the tennis. ICTA Mixed is a league for all abilities and sizes as Leaside Tennis Club’s Court 1 Men discovered last Thursday evening at the Mixed A division match against Davisville Tennis Club. It turned out to be a mental challenge for Peter Hidas and Spencer McNaughton to play against a 13 year old young man, Penfield Binet, plus his 6’ 5” giant of a partner, Eddie Brisbois. No one wants to be accused of beating up on a young player. The men from Leaside quickly learned that it was okay to be aggressive with this particular young player, because he was certainly not going to have any mercy on his opponents! Pen is one of the two U18 juniors allowed to play in a fixture at the A level. There may have been a 14” height difference on the court but there wasn’t any substantial difference in talent as Pen and Eddie won 6-4, 6-4 for Leaside.
Wonky Weather Wreaks Havoc on the Courts
We have all heard that familiar refrain from the pizza commercial: “It was a rainy day…” Tennis matches in June have had more than their fair share of gorgeous afternoons turn into pools of water on the court by match time. Freak hail storms, high winds and downright deluges have played havoc with all league schedules. So many of the ICTA Junior matches have been rained out that the League Director, Agnes Kern, recently extended the season by an extra five weeks. Delays and rainouts have further complicated things for the ICTA Mixed Majors teams, as they compete to see who plays in the showcase matches at the Miele League Challenge on Saturday, July 26. These teams need to have all of their first half matches completed by June 22 in order to qualify for the finals.Making weather related match decisions is one of the unrecognized responsibilities of captaining a tennis team. Many captains become amateur weather people during their tenure, watching online satellite videos and hour by hour forecasts. It’s always a difficult decision to make when the forecast calls for isolated showers and the visiting team is coming from the other side of the city.
On this particular evening the Mixed Majors Team from Thornhill Park drove to the beaches to play against Kew Gardens. Storm clouds that had threatened the GTA all afternoon finally released for the five minutes that it takes to completely soak a tennis court. The sun peeked out but the hard courts could not be salvaged. After much discussion, the ICTA teams chose play after the Toronto Men’s League matches finished on the adjoining clay courts. It made for a very late night, with the last, and deciding, court starting after 9:30 p.m. and not being able to finish before the lights went out at 11:15 p.m. That match must now be played again in it’s entirety at a later date. Now we know how the pros feel at Wimbledon!
BACK TO ARCHIVE
“With the ICTA being over 40 years old, we have strong and well developed mixed and ladies leagues. Of course, there is room for growth in these two leagues, and we would welcome any clubs who wish to participate in either one. However, the ICTA' s focus for future growth is in the Juniors and Plus55 leagues,” says Sherry. The ICTA will reach out to existing clubs and will also target new clubs to grow these two leagues. For existing clubs, the ICTA will increase their correspondence using their ICTA Web site. For new clubs, they plan to increase their community outreach and liaison efforts. “This past spring, Rick Bertozzi, ICTA's vice-president, worked with the OTA to solicit more participation for these two leagues. Additionally, we have been able to recruit a highly qualified external liaison, Sonja Zibin. Sonja, Rick and I will focus on these efforts.”
The evening Mixed League was the original format started by Forrest, and volunteer director Bill Crothers has managed it for 25 of its 46 years. Bill has watched tennis participation in Canada rise and fall in his long tenure, yet the ICTA has grown every year. Agnes Kern is another longstanding volunteer, and has had many positions, including president for five of her 23 year involvement. Agnes is proud to have started the +55 league in 1996 and now serves as director for the Junior league. Now those are dedicated volunteers!
In 2007, as a way to celebrate their 45 years of league play, Sam Kern, past ICTA president, and Tennis Canada agreed to run an end of season tournament with all four leagues playing matches at the Rexall Centre. On September 6, 2008, as part of the Miele League Challenge, players will be back to compete in an expanded version of last year’s tournament. Sherry is excited about the plans for this year’s Rogers Cup and the ICTA tournament in the fall, and says “I am tremendously grateful to the generosity of Miele for their sponsorship…I am thrilled that the Miele League Challenge has been developed to include not only the ICTA's 2008 tournament events but has also been expanded to include other tennis leagues. The sponsorship from Miele will allow us to enhance the tennis experience for both the players and spectators for our Rogers Cup showcase and our fall tournament at the Rexall Centre. In particular, Stuart Teather, the ICTA tournament director, is working on several initiatives, and we plan to finalize details in the next several weeks, so please stay tuned.”
Spotlight on The Inter County Tennis Association
The Inter County Tennis Association (ICTA) was formed by Forrest Mountain in 1962 as a way to provide competitive tennis for two of the larger clubs located outside of Metropolitan Toronto. Brampton Tennis Club and North York Tennis Club each entered five teams at various levels of play and thus the ICTA was born. Forty-five years later the ICTA spans six counties, has four separate leagues (Mixed, Ladies, Junior and +55), 86 member clubs and close to 5500 players. It takes a dedicated executive team to make all that tennis happen and new President, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone is grateful to have a good mix of the old and the new on the Board to keep the tradition flowing and the organization growing. And the ICTA executives are keeping one step ahead of that growth.“With the ICTA being over 40 years old, we have strong and well developed mixed and ladies leagues. Of course, there is room for growth in these two leagues, and we would welcome any clubs who wish to participate in either one. However, the ICTA' s focus for future growth is in the Juniors and Plus55 leagues,” says Sherry. The ICTA will reach out to existing clubs and will also target new clubs to grow these two leagues. For existing clubs, the ICTA will increase their correspondence using their ICTA Web site. For new clubs, they plan to increase their community outreach and liaison efforts. “This past spring, Rick Bertozzi, ICTA's vice-president, worked with the OTA to solicit more participation for these two leagues. Additionally, we have been able to recruit a highly qualified external liaison, Sonja Zibin. Sonja, Rick and I will focus on these efforts.”
The evening Mixed League was the original format started by Forrest, and volunteer director Bill Crothers has managed it for 25 of its 46 years. Bill has watched tennis participation in Canada rise and fall in his long tenure, yet the ICTA has grown every year. Agnes Kern is another longstanding volunteer, and has had many positions, including president for five of her 23 year involvement. Agnes is proud to have started the +55 league in 1996 and now serves as director for the Junior league. Now those are dedicated volunteers!
In 2007, as a way to celebrate their 45 years of league play, Sam Kern, past ICTA president, and Tennis Canada agreed to run an end of season tournament with all four leagues playing matches at the Rexall Centre. On September 6, 2008, as part of the Miele League Challenge, players will be back to compete in an expanded version of last year’s tournament. Sherry is excited about the plans for this year’s Rogers Cup and the ICTA tournament in the fall, and says “I am tremendously grateful to the generosity of Miele for their sponsorship…I am thrilled that the Miele League Challenge has been developed to include not only the ICTA's 2008 tournament events but has also been expanded to include other tennis leagues. The sponsorship from Miele will allow us to enhance the tennis experience for both the players and spectators for our Rogers Cup showcase and our fall tournament at the Rexall Centre. In particular, Stuart Teather, the ICTA tournament director, is working on several initiatives, and we plan to finalize details in the next several weeks, so please stay tuned.”
School’s Out for the Summer
The end of June marks the mid-point of the 14 week season for the ICTA Ladies League. It is also the end of the school year and many teams get a whole new look for the summer. People pack up and head to cottages, teachers get added to rosters and students emerge from their tennis academies to play on their mothers’ teams. For the B team at Aurora Community Tennis Club, the arrival of Sherylann Tsuyuki could not have been timed any better. Sherylann played with her mother, Harriet Hori on court 1 against the first place Unionville team and won in two competitive sets. It was the only court they won but the Aurora ladies were very excited, as they’d lost all four courts easily to Unionville at the first match of the season. The captain for Aurora, Hillary Jackson, pointed out the improvement in the scores across the board and attributed that to the fact that the team practices each week with a tennis professional. At each practice they work on strokes and strategy and break down the prior week’s match to determine what they could do better. Team coaching works for Aurora as they have climbed steadily in the standings after a very poor start to the season. The ladies from both Aurora and Unionville love being part of the Miele League Challenge, particularly the online contest. Many have entered to win a Rogers Cup VIP package for 10 people and the coveted Miele G212OU dishwasher.
