Region VII News 2007-2008

Tar Heel 2008

RICH GREEN
JANUARY 26, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, NC

The Tar Heel Mixed APTA tournament at The Chapel Hill Tennis Club took place one year after the amazing Kickoff Exhibition and Clinic which christened our courts with 225 enthusiasts in attendance. Chapel Hill also has a thriving men's league, and the University of North Carolina is installing three courts this summer. These events and accomplishments are wonderful examples of the expansion of platform tennis in Region VII.

Highlights from the 1st Year of Chapel Hill Platform Tennis:

The weather was perfect, 20s in the morning, 40s in the afternoon, and mostly cloudy. There was a high level of play throughout the draw and almost every match was a battle. Eight of the 15 matches in the Open went three sets. Players commented on how strong and evenly matched the field was.

Four players in the Open and many B participants began playing within the last year. It was amazing to see the difference in Aly Stalzer, Lauren Herman, Greg Archer, and Alan Rader between morning and late afternoon play. Some of these players are ready for serious competition. Hopefully they will consider making a trip to Rochester for President's Cup and Nationals.

The local women had so much fun they were asking when there would be a women's paddle tournament. With the addition of UNC's three courts we hope to schedule a Tar Heel Men's and Women's tournament next season.

Champions: Mark Fischl (Long Island) / Edie Murphy (Winston-Salem)
Finalists: Jimbo Galloway (Winston-Salem) / Lloyd Ford (Winston-Salem)
Reprieve: Greg Archer (Chapel Hill) / Kristen McDonald(Kinney) (Chapel Hill)
Reprieve Finalists: Taylor and Joanna Bowen (Charlottesville, VA)
Consolation: Rich Green (Chapel Hill) / Aly Stalzer (Durham)
Consolation Finalists: Alan Rader (Pittsboro) / Lauren Herman (Hillsborough)
Consolation Reprieve: Daniel and Eileen Galves (Savannah, GA)
B Finalists: Ray McEntee / Katherine Shelburne vs Tom Hunter / Wendy Nelson

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Atlanta Update - January 2008

PETER LAUER
JANUARY 28, 2008
ATLANTA, GA

Twenty-nineTeams (up from 18 in '07) competed in the 3rd Annual Peachtree Invitational Platform Tennis Tournament, held at the VERY newly constructed paddle venue at Cherokee Town Club in Buckhead Atlanta, GA). The event was extraordinary for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that the Saturday matches were during a freak snowstorm. The snow made for a storybook opening-day at the Cherokee site, which was completed at 9pm the night before.

Tournament organizer and Region VII President Peter Lauer, remarked on the whole experience of building new courts and running the event: "At Cherokee, our project, begun in September, was 3 parts civil engineering and 1 part court construction. Our engineering drawings called for cutting a 150 yard temporary access road to reach the site, and then to cut away "Mt. Busbey" (as it is known at Cherokee - removing 127 dump truck loads of earth), constructing a massive retaining wall with built in stadium style viewing, adding an underground water retention system (to meet code), building 2 courts in an L configuration, and then full restoration / landscaping.

A dedicated team of people, lead by Art Brannen, a fellow Cherokee member who builds things for a living, and Beth Clay, our head of tennis (and now racquets) and who you'd think builds things for a living, came together to turn the vision into reality. They finished with literally hours to spare on Friday night Jan 18 visit our blog tab on the PPL website for photos, including our tennis pros donning rubber boots & shovels - www.peachtreepaddle.org

Meanwhile, a friend, sponsor and member of the League, Steve Gareleck (raised in Buffalo, NY), who had never played paddle until last year, caught the bug and decided to build a court in his backyard, including the "whale bar" - an after paddle paradise overlooking the court, with huge screen TV, leather comfy chairs, pool tables and lot's more - Bulletworks built the court late last fall, in time for a fabulous 40th birthday bash for his business partner, Rem Reynolds (raised in Rye, NY), and which morphed into a paddle party.

Tournament day, January 19th was a wild ride. 24 hours before the event, the weather forecast changed from partly cloudy and 45 deg, to 32 and a winter storm warning. We had 58 players, 6 from out of town (including APTA President Mark Fischl), converging on the 5 heater-less Atlanta courts, with matches beginning at 8am. We began a scramble on Friday, in the middle of final court construction, to get maintenance crews ready and salt (which sold out in record time from Home Depots).

Fortuitously at Cherokee, David Dodge and the Team from Premier Platform Tennis, had rented 5 temporary heaters to dry the paint faster in time for the tournament. At our request, David kept the heaters in place and his crew an extra day running the machines to keep the courts playable -which worked. Meanwhile, Jennifer Hayes, our unflappable volunteer tournament director, along with Beth Clay (who was supposed to be off duty), did a marvelous job of retooling the match schedules and informing the players, as the weather continued to worsen on Saturday and eventually shut down the other courts.

Saturday night's party at the Lauer house went great, albeit with fewer guests, which meant that here were enough sponsor donated raffle prizes for every one of the 45 guests who braved the night. Sunday, which was cold but sunny, required a delayed start at each club, but we managed to play all the rescheduled consolation matches and award the unique player prizes donated by Mori Luggage & Gifts. For the finals, we attracted a terrific crowd, despite the 22 degree temperature, who got to see a close match (6-4, 6-4) between the # 3 seeded team of J. Laschinger (raised in NY) and Jack Sutherland (Long Island) against me and my partner and friend from Atlanta, Jay Bailey. In the end we were able to defend our title for another year - but the competition for the Peachtree Invitational keeps getting better.

In all, I'm very pleased to report that paddle is alive, exciting & growing down here in Dixie - I hope APTA members from around the country will put the Peachtree Invitational on their tournament schedule for next year - and I can (almost) guarantee no snow - it never snows here" (Peter says with a wide grin).

RICH GREEN
JANUARY 26, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, NC

The Tar Heel Mixed APTA tournament at The Chapel Hill Tennis Club took place one year after the amazing Kickoff Exhibition and Clinic which christened our courts with 225 enthusiasts in attendance. Chapel Hill also has a thriving men's league, and the University of North Carolina is installing three courts this summer. These events and accomplishments are wonderful examples of the expansion of platform tennis in Region VII. [Read more...]

RICH GREEN
DECEMBER 4, 2007
RICHMOND, VA

The Region VII (The South) Men's PCQ Series began December 1st with the Games on the James. 14 teams competed in Richmond , Virginia with mild weather in the 30s and 40s. The series continues in January and February in Atlanta , Winston-Salem , and Charlottesville .

In the final, 3rd seeds Rich Green (Chapel Hill) and Mark Tulenko (Charlottesville) upset top seeds Andy Todd (Richmond) and Hampton Bargatze (Richmond) 6-3,6-2.

Fred Gumbinner (Washington, DC) and Brian Kalbas (Chapel Hill) took third.

Reprieve winners Patrick Kearns and Greg Wells. Consolation winners Marc Marcussen and Blake Gayle.

Platform Tennis Program Emerging in Chapel Hill

RICH GREEN
Logo by Taylor Bowen; photos courtesy of Anna Creissen
OCTOBER 30, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, NC

Consistent with true paddle momentum, Chapel Hill is leaping forward only months after the successful APTA/PPTA kickoff event in January. The first full season is gearing up to surpass the most optimistic expectations of bringing paddle to a new area.

Todd Ward, of Cincinnati Country Club, graciously came to Chapel Hill for half a day on his way to an exhibition/clinic in Winston-Salem on October 5th. Chapel Hill Tennis Club's teaching staff received instruction on how to teach paddle and a group of volunteer members were happy to participate in clinics during the staff's training.

Beginning November, CHTC Director of Tennis, Michal Z Zaluski, plans to offer free introductions to paddle (non-members welcome), women's weekday clinics, junior clinics, and paddle socials.

The biggest and most exciting news is the early formation of leagues so long before expected. There is solid interest in all league offerings: Weekend Women's Quadrants, Weekend Co-ed Quadrants, and Weekday Evening Men's Teams.

The Men's League is the largest and the most promising for expanding paddle to area clubs. League founders Rich Green, Dennis Egan, and Ray McEntee are organizing 4 teams with plans to have 16 players in action on Tuesday and Thursday nights with end of season playoffs. More than 40 players have signed up within weeks of announcing plans for the league. We're buying a fire pit, one team brings the beer, and the other team brings balls. It's an easy sell, almost everyone wants in when they learn about it.

Members from PrestonWood CC in Cary and Governor's Club in Chapel Hill are participating in the league while actively working on bringing paddle to their clubs. Next year we plan to expand and invite other area clubs to form teams.

CHTC is also hosting the 1st Annual Tar Heel Mixed on January 26th. Several teams have already committed to coming down to see some of the paddle magic in Chapel Hill. We plan to have a local qualifying tournament to feed into an 8-12 team main draw using our good as new, resurfaced, two Reilly courts. Please contact RichGreen10s@gmail.com if interested.

All Indicators are Way Up for Platform Tennis in Atlanta

PETER LAUER
OCTOBER 1, 2007
ATLANTA, GA
by the Founder & Director of the Peachtree Paddle League and new Region VII President

DATELINE ATLANTA: All indicators are way up for platform tennis in Atlanta according to Peter Lauer, Founder & Director of the Peachtree Paddle League (www. peachtreepaddle.org) and new Region VII President. Atlanta will more than double court capacity with the addition of 3 new courts, 2 at the Cherokee Town Club in Buckhead, and 1 at a private home in Sandy Springs. With 5 courts total, League capacity and geographic flexibility are dramatically improved.

As a result, the PPL has been able to expand to 150 players, with 14 matches each week over a 14 week season, running from Thanksgiving to March 1st with the Grand Finale & Perpetual Cup trophy. The buzz continues to grow, with some of the best tennis players in Atlanta coming out to try the sport.

Cherokee will christen its new courts with an Exhibition on Saturday December 15th, with former National Champion Brian Uihlein and a team from Chicago coming down, as well as APTA President Mark Fischl.

The 3rd Annual Peachtree Invitational Tournament is scheduled for the weekend of January 12th & 13th, with double the draw size, good competition and great Southern hospitality plus the stunning new GA Aquarium and the World of Coke exhibits should make for another delightful event.

For all of you with friends who've moved to Atlanta and love paddle, connect them with Peter (lauerp@executiveboard.com) as there is now lot's of opportunity to play down in Hotlanta!

Courts in Chapel Hill, NC