Fireworks at Waterside
Waterside Tennis Club has one of the prettiest locations in the GTA. Located on Toronto’s harbourfront, the view sometimes makes it difficult to focus on hitting a tennis ball. And what better view than the fireworks during the Canada Day long weekend, where concentration is likely to go out the window if your match is still going on. It’s the late stage of the season for the TLTL Evening Division and with only two matches left, the Division 4 teams from Waterside and Leaside have only an outside chance to win their division. Standings don’t matter for Dee McKenzie of Leaside. She came off the court with a huge smile and a bounce in her step. Dee and her partner Kim had finally connected on court and won their match. They’d both played and won with other partners but had lost when they’d played together before. “It felt great to finally click together on the court.”
Watching and waiting, waiting and watching
The newly resurfaced courts at the Rosedale Tennis Club are a hot commodity. A rainy month of June delayed completion of the bright blue on blue courts, and members have been lining up to play as soon as the evening matches for the Toronto Men’s League were completed. While waiting, many take a seat to watch the outstanding level of play between the home team and the Boulevard Club. Lightening serves, crisp volleys and penetrating ground strokes are cheered by fans and admired by those whose game may never resemble these A1 players. Approximately 25% of the players at this level are teaching pros and the league gives them a way to keep their skills sharp. One fan, Henry, is actually a beautiful golden retriever. Henry is very interested in the balls that roll his way, yet responds beautifully when told to stay and leave the balls for the players. Henry’s owner, Azar, is waiting for a court and when asked why he doesn’t play in the league, he replies, “It’s all doubles. I’d play if there were singles.” Recreational leagues for adults in Canada do tend to be an all doubles format, leaving the dedicated singles players to arrange their own hits, join intra-club ladders or play in tournaments. When told that there are leagues in other countries that play a combination of singles and doubles in a match, many in the crowd nodded in agreement as Azar replied, “I’d play in that.”
BACK TO ARCHIVE
A regular league player himself, Boyce notes that times are changing, and he sees a need to set a foundation for rules and codes of conduct to be accepted and administered by the leagues. In the interim, Boyce believes that the Miele League Challenge gives the OTA and Tennis Canada an opportunity to partner more with the existing leagues in order to promote and grow the league system across the country and to share best practices in league management. There is certainly enough opportunity for league play within Ontario, as the OTA has over 55,000 members and an estimated base of close to 100,000 players in the province. The OTA is one of the top five regional tennis associations in the world, which gives them access to a large amount of information on how to grow the game of tennis. That knowledge means that there are a great deal of resources and expertise that the current leagues can tap into and take advantage of in order to promote and grow their own leagues in the future.
OTA View on League Tennis
The way James Boyce sees it, the Miele League Challenge is an opportunity to create a “competition format for life.” Boyce is the executive director for the Ontario Tennis Association (OTA) and has a long history with tennis in Canada. “If you lay the groundwork for a national junior league program now, the kids will grow up with it and it will flow seamlessly into an adult program.” That doesn’t mean we should wait to provide inter-provincial league competition for adults. There are many established leagues in Ontario, particularly in the GTA and it will take some time for those leagues to coalesce into a format that allows for cross league championships.A regular league player himself, Boyce notes that times are changing, and he sees a need to set a foundation for rules and codes of conduct to be accepted and administered by the leagues. In the interim, Boyce believes that the Miele League Challenge gives the OTA and Tennis Canada an opportunity to partner more with the existing leagues in order to promote and grow the league system across the country and to share best practices in league management. There is certainly enough opportunity for league play within Ontario, as the OTA has over 55,000 members and an estimated base of close to 100,000 players in the province. The OTA is one of the top five regional tennis associations in the world, which gives them access to a large amount of information on how to grow the game of tennis. That knowledge means that there are a great deal of resources and expertise that the current leagues can tap into and take advantage of in order to promote and grow their own leagues in the future.
Mr. Fix it
What makes tennis work in Ontario? One answer is inexpensive access to public courts. There are 157 community clubs that are members of the OTA with close to 35,000 players. James Boyce believes the popularity of tennis in Ontario is a direct result of a “mature and well defined club structure.” Parks and Recreation departments are delighted to have volunteers take over the day-to-day maintenance and running of their courts. Typically, a group of people who are passionate about tennis form a committee which handles everything from collecting membership dues to hiring a head tennis professional. As the Tennis Canada Ambassadors visit matches at community courts all over the GTA, they continue to be impressed by the behind the scenes efforts of certain volunteers. Be it an Allan, a Neggie or a Zac each public club seems to have a very dedicated facilities manager. Mostly men of retirement age, these gentlemen are indispensable to a community club. Some hire students and train them to be court attendants, making sure their hires keep the bathrooms clean and the courts free of debris. Some paint trim, water flowers and buy the tennis balls and the coffee. Only they know how the timers for those court lights work! Men like Zac at the Unionville Tennis Club took time to cheer on two ICTA ladies league matches recently. The ladies “just love him” and made sure he was included in both the photo op for the Miele League Challenge Web site and the delicious post match lunch!
