MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

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1 Rancho PeñasquitosTennis Center Volume 29, Number 3 March 2017 Mission Statement To become the leading recreational tennis center in San Diego s North County area, by implementing activities, and providing facilities that cater to the casual, social and competitive tennis needs of people in the local community. 2015/16 BOARD MEMBERS PJ Greenwald, President Vicky Young, Vice President Linda Beach, Rec. Secretary John Parsons, Treasurer Sabine Schroeder, Membership Onay Havens Marty Fellenstein Julie Islitzer Barbara Brokaw STAFF MANAGEMENT Executive Director, Mike Donahue Club Director, Julie Maiorano Office Manager, Connie Komin LEAGUE COORDINATORS Men s League, Dan Scherer Women s League, Carol Donahue Level Coordinators: A Patti Sherman BB Carey Ramos Junior Team Tennis League Ernie Blando Minh Vo Nick Bennett LL EDITOR Julie Maiorano MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT This month I would like to say a special thank you to ALL the men and women who put in hundreds of hours a year organizing our leagues here at Rancho Penasquitos. Carol Donahue and Dan Scherer coordinate the adult leagues and Ernie Blando, Minh Vo and Nick Bennett handle the junior leagues. Carol Donahue joined our club in 2000 with more than just the desire to become a fantastic tennis player She brought her talents in computer technology and computer programming, great organizational skills and the willingness to give her time to make our lives better. Carol and Julie Maiorano shared the job of women s league coordinator starting in They were responsible for the creation of a fair and responsible set of rules for league organization that have set us far ahead of many other clubs in San Diego. Currently, as women s league coordinator, Carol oversees as many as 13 teams in a season. None of these teams could function without a captain. I would venture to say that at least 90% of the women who play league have served as either a captain or co-captain at least once. This is an amazing amount of volunteer hours for any club to be blessed with. However, the amount of time required for recruiting and providing personal assistance necessary to keep each team level running, takes more time than a single e person can manage. So Carol asked Carey Ramos and Patty Sherman to help coordinate women s leagues. These ladies supply a constant level of support for everyone who captains a team. Dan Scherer has been a member since 2002 and became the men s league coordinator sometime around We now have over 30 men playing on four teams every week. Dan appoints and guides the volunteer captains. After years of recurring issues with NCDTL s Men s Winter League, Dan canvassed league captains from all the north county clubs to develop a consensus, which was overwhelmingly to play a USTA league. He successfully petitioned USTA to provide a winter men s league. Ernie Blando, Minh Vo and Nick Bennett have worked with our junior leagues for the past ten years. When they started the junior program, they had only 4 or 5 teams. Today, they have 10 to 13 teams and close to 100 juniors in every season. The continued on page 2 1

2 President s Message / continued from Page 1 amount of time spent coordinating (recruiting, scheduling, management, coaching etc.) of the league has tripled over the past ten years; and they are still willing to give of their time and talents. The league was established to encourage children to become active tennis players for life and also to prepare them for future competition, starting with playing for their high school tennis teams. in any given season, the coordinators must find close to 20 adult volunteers to work with the juniors. They offer their time with great compassion for the players and the game of tennis. RPTC s Tournaments are an integral part of any club, and they provide a significant amount of income to offset our operating expense. I want to thank our tournament directors, Sabine Schroder (adult), Solomon Liu (Junior Open) and Ernie Blando (Junior Satellite) who volunteer an extremely large amount of their time. Being a Tournament Director takes months of planning, advertising, recruiting volunteers, soliciting donations, dealing with sign-ups, and coordinating with USTA. Thanks to these three members volunteering, Rancho Penasquitos has a fantastic reputation in the San Diego District, providing some of the most successful annual tournaments. PJ Greenwald RPTC s Spring Season of DWOPs (Doubles Without Partners). Sundays, April 9th through June 11 th, 2017 Group 1 Level: 7:30-9:30 am, 4 courts of level, doubles matches, switching partners for 3 sets. 9:30-11:30 am 1 court of players Group 2 Level: 9:30-11:30 am 2 courts of 3.0 lower 3.5 level Cost: $5.00 per player (pa y s for the tennis ba lls, provided) If you d like to participate, please per your play level, by March 24th: Group 1 Debbie Linn, dlinnofpq@aol.com Group 2 Debbie Hansen, sangirl4@hotmail.com Please include your name, level of play, address, cell phone number, along with the Sundays during the season you are not available to play. Once registered, you will receive a schedule with a Roster of DWOPs players and their phone numbers. All players are responsible for finding their own subs, if unable to play. Questions? Please direct to the Group manager, listed above. Th Ce ho #3 2

3 Open Play for Mixed Doubles! RPTC is trying out a new event! Mixed Open Play w ill run on a trial basis on the following dates to see if there is enough interest to justify making it a permanent event on the club s schedule. WHEN: 7 pm - 9:30 pm, Friday, March 3, March 17, March 31, April 14 and April 28. Mark your calendars! Mixed Open will operate the same way Men's Open does. There will be no host. Office monitor will set up a table to check member IDs. Members play free of charge. Non-members pay an $8 fee. If there is no open court, players write their names on a white board to form a queue. Players play one no-add set, then rotate; and may continue playing more sets if there is no player waiting in the queue. No partner? No problem! Just come. Your next partner is waiting for you. Mixed doubles has become very popular at RPTC. This winter, we fielded an unprecedented 5 mixed doubles teams at the 7.0 and 8.0 (combo) levels. We hope to see you this month for some fun social mixed doubles! CHECK OUT OUR RECENTLY BEAUTIIFIED LANDSCAPE! Thank you to Club Care Day chairperson, Karin Bruinsma, and all those volunteer gardeners who showed up to spend the day gardening, weeding, pruning and generally beautifying our club s landscape. The beds were in much need of thinning out; bushes cut back, undergrowth cleaned out, etc. Great job, RPTC gardeners!! Thank you!! 3

4 RPTC/WTT MIXED DOUBLES SOCIAL TOURNAMENT! Friday, March 10 Friday, March 6:30-9:30pm at Rancho Penasquitos Tennis Club Sign up soon! Space is limited. We are full almost every time and it is so much fun! Come join us! 7.0 and 8.0 mixed categories You can sign up with a partner, or we can help you find one! COST: $10/RPTC & WTT Members and $15/Non-members FORMAT: Round Robin Mixed Doubles. CATAGORIES: 7.0 AND 8.0 combinations PRIZES: $20 gift card per team winners What to Bring: Men, please bring beverages to share. Ladies, please bring snacks, salads or dessert to share. Sign up soon as space is limited to six teams per level! RSVP THE WEDNESDAY BEFORE PLAY DATE TO: Mike Hasson at: mike@w ttsandiego.com

5 RPTC RUMMAGE SALE COMING SOON! Thank you, Barbara Brokaw, for volunteering to chair RPTC s Annual Rummage Sale!! Rummage Sale Dates: April 21 and 22 Barbara needs a strong committee to help! Please contact her at barbarabrokaw@sbcglobal.net to volunteer your help. Time to start pulling your rummage donations together! Look for information on drop-off days in the next LobLetter and Facebook posts! Thank you to all those who contributed to Sam Langley s memorial Celebration of Life and to all who attended. A plaque honoring Sam has arrived and is located at Court #3. 5

6 ASK THE UMP! Michael E. Kelley USTA Certified Official National Hard Courts Tournament Referee Note: Mike Kelley, long time member of RPTC, is a highly respected and very busy USTA official. He has years of experience and you can find him officiating at most of the larger USTA tournaments in the So. California area, including college tournaments. Dear Ump, I was recently playing singles with my friend, and during one of the points he sent up a lob and I went for the kill with an overhead. He returned my smash but the ball caught the side of his racquet, causing it to go high toward my side. I didn t think the ball would make it over the net so I made no attempt to go for it, but it landed on my side and, because it had so much spin, bounced back over to his side where it hit the ground twice. Since it bounced once on my side and twice on his, who won the point? Submit your Ask the Ump questions to office@rptctennis.com then look for the reply in upcoming LobLetters! Sincerely, MD Dear MD, The question you should ask in this situation is, Who was the last person to successfully return the ball? In this case the answer would be your opponent. Even though the ball ended up on his side of the court, you did not successfully return the ball into play, so your opponent won the point. UMP Note: Mike Kelley, long time member of RPTC, is a highly respected and very busy USTA official. He has years of experience and you can find him officiating at most of the larger USTA tournaments in the So. California area, including college tournaments. 6

7 CANDIDATES FOR RPTC BOARD POSITIONS RPTC is looking for members in good standing (18 or over) who would like to run for election to the RPTC Board of Directors. Three (3) successful candidates will begin their two year terms in June Please consider contributing your time to the club as a Board Member volunteer. Our Board represents the entire membership, including active players, periodic players, league players, social players, daytime players, nighttime players, competitive players and junior players. We are always looking for new ideas and perspectives brought in by new volunteers in order to continue being a fantastic tennis club! So please volunteer yourself; or let us know of a club member who would be a great candidate! The monthly board meetings are usually held from 6:30-8 PM on the third Monday of each month (except December). Officers are elected by the Board at the beginning of each board term, which include: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Membership Director. These roles entail additional time commitments. Each board member serves on Board committees or in club volunteer roles (tournaments, league coordination, fundraising, maintenance, etc.) The committee will announce the deadline for members to announce their desire to run. In the meantime, if you are interested, you can send a brief summary of why you would like to run, relevant experience, and how you hope to contribute to the club. It will be forwarded to the election committee. Send to: office@rptctennis.com with subject: 2017 Board Candidate. Thanks! PLEASE REMEMBER TO SLOW DOWN MEMBERS: Please keep your speed in the parking lot to a maximum of 10mph and watch for pedestrians. The Park staff is watching. CAPTAINS: P lease inform your opposing teams before each home match, of the park s maximum 10 mph speed limit and let them know there are children in the parking lot. Thank you! 7

8 San Diego District Tennis Association Wounded Warrior Tennis Program Update RPTC has held two fundraisers in the past year for the San Diego District Tennis Association (SDDTA) Wounded Warrior Tennis Program (WWTP) (not affiliated with the Wounded Warrior Project) and, as a result, our club has raised nearly $2,500 in these efforts! These funds have supported weekly tennis clinics and the WWTP annual national camp for service members and veterans with visible and invisible injuries and disabilities! The next camp will occur in May and, it is expected that service members and veterans will attend. Campers are provided air travel, lodging, meals, local transportation, and tennis instruction at no cost to them for the week-long camp. The cost for airfare, lodging, meals, and running the weekly clinics and annual camp is in excess of $60,000 so many grant requests and fundraising efforts are required to keep the program going. The camp and clinics have made a significant positive impact on the lives of many of the participants. The annual camp is now in its sixth year and the weekly clinic at Balboa Tennis Club has been around for several years longer. More information on the SDDTA WWTP program can be found at Partly inspired by RPTC s fundraising efforts and led by a dedicated group of volunteers, Morgan Run Club and Resort has organized a WWTP fundraising event on Saturday, March 25th from noon-5 PM to which our club members and others are invited to participate. The Morgan Run Warrior Games will feature a WTT-style mixed doubles tournament, tennis skill activity courts and a wheelchair tennis demonstration. Morgan Run will make 11 courts available for the afternoon. It should be super fun. The cost is $40 per person all of which will be donated to the WWTP program and this donation is tax deductible (via Tennis Lovers for Charity which is a 501(c)(3) organization). To sign up and for more information see You can also contact Beth Dammeyer at mbeth.dammeyer@me.com or steveleffler@san.rr.com. Attention: LATE NIGHT PLAYERS Court lights are timed to go off by 9:45pm. For your safety, staff asks that all night players be packed up and walking out no later than 9:40pm. Mike Bouvier installing a new panel on the upper patio. Thank you, Mike!! 8

9 MEN S OPEN PLAY Saturday mornings and Tues Evenings (check online scheduler for times) $8 Guest Fee for Non-Members. MEN S WORK OUT Thursday evenings with Tony Parzanese 7:00-8:30 p.m. $20 members $25 non-members BOARD MEETING March 6:30 pm. Multi-purpose room DEADLINE TO SUBMIT MARCH LOBLETTER ARTICLES April 24 (Submit to office@rptctennis.com) (Photos should be in jpeg or gif format w/captions) Remember to pay your membership dues! If your membership dues were due in January or February, you re late! ($25 late fee) Please remember to send in your membership dues on time to avoid late fees. Thanks! RPTC STAFF December Board Meeting Highlights Board will plan a special meeting to address late court reservations. New election committee: Julie Islitzer, Linda Beach and Sabine Schroeder office holiday schedule approved. Next Board Meeting: March 20th 9