Hear ye, hear ye, signs of hope.
Herein you will read that Covid continues to have us mostly mired in a waiting game as the world inches toward inoculation. Yet, there are significant movements afoot and hopeful signs of pathways forward.
Here is a summary of what was reported at the February 26 meeting of the Board of Governors.
Aiken: ATC continues to have a full schedule including doubles clinics and Monday night league. The Norty Knox would be the next tournament to consider but presently it is hard to see a way forward to host that in April.
- Boston: T&R is slowly getting back into it with 40-50 hours of play per week. It was disappointing to cancel the Winter League, but club championship sign ups are taking place.
- Chicago: RCC is busy with mostly singles throughout the day. The club is working its way through its 2020 level and club championship tournaments. The club is also considering hosting the U.S. Open for racquets in mid-May.
- DC: Prince’s Court schedule is not full but not empty. Play continues amongst an eager group of people, with sixty hours of play last week, and will probably progress to full-tilt play in the summer.
- NY: With nearly all members working from home and many outside the city, the number of people coming into the R&T is down by 80% overall, but court use is up with 250 hours booked in January.
- Newport: NTC currently has around 40-50 hours of play a week but Night League was canceled. Draws are just going out for club tournaments and there are active discussions around scheduling for the summer.
- Philadelphia: RCOP is a tale of two groups: established players haven’t come back yet, but a lot of new players are getting on court, including the women and men’s national squash champions.
- Tuxedo: The court is seeing a lot of lessons and doubles. The pros are being creative in helping to keep people engaged with in-house tournaments.
- Lakewood: The GCU campus still closed.
Going forward:
Prince’s Court is planning to host an invitational event for the U26 juniors. The Executive Committee is in favor of this event but given the limitations still imposed by the pandemic feels it is inappropriate to sanction it as an official USCTA national tournament.
The National League is scheduled for May 12-16 in Boston. There is a possibility of the National Open and the Below Zero being played this summer. There is a possibility of the U.S. Open and the U.S. Professional being held in October and November.
The composition and leadership of the Scheduling Committee are in transition. The clubs appointed the following representatives to the committee. (Those in parentheses are pending final decisions.)
Boston: Arthur Drane
Newport: Noelle Shiland
Tuxedo: Todd Yanuzzi
New York: Dan Laukitis
Phil: (Peter Vogt)
Chicago: Jonathan Lewis
Aiken: (Mit Carothers)
DC: Ryan Carey
Lakewood: Rich Moroscak
Ladies: Jane Lippincott
Seniors: Steve Hufford
Juniors: Jane Lippincott
Professionals: (Ivan and Tim)
I’m happy to see that a fair number of past committee reps are staying involved, and that at the same time the committee will have some fresh new faces. Welcome Noelle and Todd.
At the recent meeting of the board, we announced that henceforth Rich Mueller from Tuxedo will chair this committee. One of the things the Board reorganization aims to achieve is to fill key positions with people especially well suited for these roles. This is a case where we have done just that. Rich is an ideal person to take on this role because of his deep experience in sports administration: navigating inter- and intra- agency politics (as head of golf at Columbia University and in leadership positions within the Ivy League conference and NCAA), managing the needs of his player-athletes and their demanding logistical and scheduling challenges. Additionally, he has been in the weeds with the effects of the pandemic on sports and been involved in evaluating proposals to safely return to action. Rich has very good ideas on how we can build on our traditions yet improve things.
Rich wants to help us get us back into competition as soon as it can safely and fairly be achieved. The Executive Committee has already adopted his mission phrase, Pathways to Play, as a refocusing of our efforts to explore ways to forge ahead with national events that can be safely executed. The invitational juniors event at Prince’s Court will serve as a test case to develop standards and procedures for other events. The Scheduling Committee will collaborate with the Executive Committee to process the issues that arise related to safety, fairness, policy and participation. This comes as welcome news to many of us who have been patient and understanding, yet are eager to return to competition.
Rich also has ideas for adopting technology to centralize the global calendar to minimize conflicts and maximize participation; to develop and publish a handbook of tournament policies and procedures; to start and finish the scheduling process earlier, so clubs can better plan internal events; and to improve our data gathering and statistical analyses to help us prioritize our events.
Finally, I want to thank those who have served on this committee during my tenure as chair, whose participation has been invaluable to the success of this committee over the years. It’s an important task. The committee doesn’t just annually produce the schedule. It assures that all constituencies have active advocacy and promotes the maximum participation around the country and internationally. I leave feeling supremely confident that the newly composed committee is in hands far more capable than my own.
Dan Laukitis
