March 2020 President’s Letter
March is one of my favorite months of the year for several reasons. It heralds the official start of spring, the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament and outdoor tennis in Kentucky! It also means we spring forward with the time change so more daylight to play tennis.
College tennis is in full swing now and the high school season is just starting up. For high school coaches that are not aware, the Kentucky High School Tennis Coaches Association is offering free memberships this year. Click HERE for an online membership form. In addition to playing tennis, I hope you have an opportunity to attend some matches and support your favorite high school and college tennis teams this spring.
Our USTA Kentucky staff just returned from the USTA Southern Staff Exchange where they exchanged ideas with their peers and will apply best practices to grow the sport in the Commonwealth. I was looking forward to attending the USTA National Annual Meeting in Orlando at the end of the month along with our Executive Director Jason Miller and other Kentucky tennis leaders, but just found out today that the meeting is cancelled due to COVID-19. However, they do plan to have a virtual meeting that weekend and I should be able to glean lots of information from the various speakers. I especially look forward to learning more about the vision of our new USTA CEO and Executive Director Michael Dowse and sharing it with you next month.
Congrats to Rainey Johns for her efforts in securing multiple grants for the reconstruction of the Woodford County Park Tennis Court Complex and addition of lights! The grants included $250,000 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund; $81,000 from USTA, USTA Southern, and USTA KY; and $25,000 from the Woodford Health Foundation. This is wonderful news for the Woodford County tennis community and will hopefully provide a roadmap for other public tennis facilities to obtain similar funding in the future.
When not watching basketball games in March, please take advantage of the better weather and longer days to enjoy more tennis. It would also be a great time to encourage your friends and family to join you. We are always looking for more volunteers at the community tennis association and state level. If you are interested in serving in some capacity, please let me know.
At Your Service,
Mike Eden