July 2010 CTA of the Month |
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Clarksville Tennis Association of Clarksville, Tennessee has been chosen Community Tennis Association of the month for July, 2010. The officers and board members are shown below:
As you might expect with a vibrant community tennis association, all of the officers and board members have to take an active role. Such is the case with Clarksville Tennis Association. Most of the officers and board members have served for more than one year, and all are active, not only in making decisions, but in running sponsored tennis events. One of the main areas of expansion in recent years has been in junior tennis. CTA has recognized that the key to getting more people playing tennis in Clarksville, is to get more kids starting to play at younger ages. For this reason, a new officer position was added in the last year – Junior Tennis Coordinator. Fran Powers, who serves in that position, was very active in junior tennis before being elected to the board. Under her direction and inspiration, there are now many more opportunities for young tennis players in Clarksville. One of the most note-worthy events sponsored by Clarksville Tennis Association has been the Kids Tennis Carnival. The first one was held in 2009, as a USTA tennis block party, and featured Quick Start Tennis for the younger children. After so many parents and children expressed how much they enjoyed the event, CTA made the decision to make it an annual event. The second annual Kids Tennis Carnival was held in May 2010. Over 30 children participated, most of them were under 10 years old. To supplement tennis events targeting children, CTA has promoted Quick Start Tennis as a block of instruction in county PE classes. In July of last year, officers of CTA teamed with Cathy Harris of Tennessee Tennis Association and Joe Fleenor of Southern Tennis to present an inservice to all county PE teachers. The rationale for Quick Start was explained to the teachers, as were the health benefits to the children. After the classroom portion of the inservice, the PE teachers were given an opportunity to participate in some QS drills and games as they learned how to use the equipment. Although the great majority of the PE teachers wanted to begin using Quick Start, most of the schools had no tennis equipment to use. Furthermore, tight school budgets made it unlikely that they could purchase any. To address this need, Clarksville Tennis Association began accumulating a supply of Quick Start Tennis equipment to loan to the schools whenever they wanted to have a QS block of instruction. In this past year, CTA was finally able to get enough equipment for an average county PE class of 60 to 70 children. Toward the end of the school year, elementary schools began to borrow the equipment and conduct week-long QS instruction for their children. CTA officers and volunteers took the equipment to the schools, help them set it up, showed them how to use it, and even helped them conduct the PE classes. In effort to get more children involved in Quick Start, CTA visited the Clarksville YMCA to introduce QS to them. Convinced of the benefit to the children, the YMCA wanted to add QS to their summer program. Paige Commander, Vice-President of CTA, took the equipment to them and trained their counselors on how to use it, and showed them drills and games they could use for their children. CTA is already trying to convince the YMCA to set up a Quick Start league in the fall. Clarksville Tennis Association sponsors several annual events, such as the Calcutta Doubles Charity Event, the Fall Classic Tennis Tournament, the CTA Winter Indoor Tournament at APSU, a Junior’s Tennis Tournament, and the State Line Feud charity event with Hopkinsville, Kentucky tennis players. A new event was added this year, as over 30 players from Clarksville traveled to Nashville to play a match with Hadley Park Tennis Club. This was such an enjoyable event that plans have already been made to make this another annual event. For further information about Clarksville Tennis Association, check out their web site at www.Clarksvilletennis.usta.com. |
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