Order of Schedule:

Junior Clinic:  10:30am-12

Doubles Exhibition: 12-12:45

Adult Clinic:              1-2:30 pm

Points against Luke:   2:30 pm

Cost is just $25 person and you will have a great time. Luke travles across the country running clinics and seminars, and we are fortunate to have Luke visit Binghamton. To reserve, call 722-3491 or e-mail BTC@tennisctr.com

Lt to rt, CC Weissman, Tom & Nancy Doyle, Becky Gennett, Jodi & John (kneeling) Miller, Jeff Kopolow-c, Kelly Draper-c, Darren Lapadula, Sue Vail (holding beer) & Scott Engleman (also holding beer)

On Saturday & Sunday, May 22 & 23, Binghamton Tennis Center hosted the USTA Mixed Doubles Regionals. Events included 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 & 9.0 and teams representing Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton & Elmira competed.

Our local 7.0 team captained by Kelly Draper & Jeff Koplow won, advancing to Sectionals, held in Schenectady in June. Good luck to our team as they attempt to qualify for nationals!

Special thanks to our USTA volunteer admin team of Laurie Palmer, Dickey Sopchak & Reeta Hayes for running such a smooth and seamless event, as well as all the prior planng and scheduling.  Hosting playoff events is a bonus for our lcoal teams who do not have to travel and keeps Binghamton on the tennis map of upstate NY.

The Special Olympics added tennis to their curriculum about 6 years ago. Each spring they drudge up the hill early Sunday to engage in tennis activity. They have stuck with the game, showing marked improvement in both skill and strategy. The tennis community is being enriched every Sunday morning by this group of individuals who love playing and competing.

 Three years ago, Jen Sorber,  Special Olympics Director(who knew nothing and still claims she knows nothing about tennis) boldy decided she would like to run a SO tournament, and solicited our advice. We decided the event should be held at BTC. The rest is history. The event is now an annual, and a highlight for both particpants and volunteers alike.

The players compete like this is the US Open finals. Their enjoyment factor obvious, their attitude infectious, the appreciation level off the charts. This is high energy interactive tennis at its finest.  The culmination of a sngle point might lead to the following scenario; the team winning the point high fiving, the team losing ther point high fiving because they played such a good point, and one of the players yelling at volunteer John to wake up and throw them a ball for the next point to begin.  There are no dull moments.

While the players are the center stage stars, one must commend the large cadre of volunteers Jen has assembled. Among them are many BTC adult and junior members, and we admire and appreciate of the time and effort they put forth. Special thanks to club members John & Jodi Miller & family, Dave & Colleen Hanzes, Nancy Doyle & family, Renee Brosnan, Sue Caparoli, Maura Burtis & Shane Regan.

The Binghamton Tennsi Center is very proud to be the home of SO tennis and wish them the best of luck in the upcoming State tournament in Utica June 5.  We will be rooting hard for all of you.

The mens open singles & doubles winner receives a wild card into the qualifer of the $50,000 LGT Tennis Challenger held August 8-9 @ Rec Park.

Click on the above BTC Clay Court link to enter online through the USTATennis Link site. Algo go here for your start times whch shoudl be posted by Thursday morning. Entry deadline is Wednesday June 9 5pm.

I have attached both interview below

Click on TV interview below. You will see the video after a short ad.

TV Interview

Here is the USTA/Eastern interview. Click on the bottom tag that says League Captain Colleen Hanzes. The top tag, five questions with does not appeared  linked for some reason. Maybe I am just high tech challenged.

The clinics run on successive Saturdays, May 8, 15 & 22 from 12-1pm and the general public is invited.  Using USTA’s innovative Quickstart tennis featuring modified court length, pressureless balls and shorter nets, the empahsis is on fun, cario workout and competitive games!

We will be running low cost group tennis lessons using Quickstart starting June 1. To sign up for the free clinics, Quickstart group lessons or for more information, please call us at 722-34912 or e-mail BTC@tennisctr.com

Last Saturday, May 8 we hosted our womens tennis pro-am, sponsored by Leonard & Cummings & Oakdale Images. The event was an outstanding success. 12 capable  and eager female amatuers competed with 12 pros in a round robin format, everyonge getting to play four mini stes of tennis. The top four point getters then got to choose their pro and compete in  a seminfinal playoff consisting of 7 pt  sudden death tiebreaks.

Receiving picks by lottery, Nicole Saunders wisely chose Billy Mendler. Colleen Hanzes then  made a sentimental pick & chose Michael Starke. Julia Hutchinson made a wise pick by choosing her BCC coach Collin Crawford, and Sue Vail, went against or with the grain depending on your viewpoint and choose Anna Edelman, one of our three female pros from Binghamton University women’s tennis team.

Bill & Nicole snuck by Michael & Colleen 7-6 due to a volley flub by Michael & Julia & Colleen roared by Sue & Anna thus setting the stage for our final showdown. The final became a bit of a Collin Billy show, how tw0 teaching pros dueling shot for shot. Eventually they got tired, the women got involved and showed their mettle,with Nicole & Biull prevailing 7-4.

A mothers day celebration, we had a mothers day cake, flowers for our two participating sponsors, Sue Locke & Patricia Cummings, and a special bouquet for Colleen Hanzes, who was fresh off the heels of her NJCAA national tennis tile for BCC!

As part of our annual pro-am, we run this as a charity event, and collected numerous donation items fot the local womens SOS shelter. We will keep our donation bin available until the end of May. Thanks to all of our participants for donating!

A very good time was had by all, and we again thank our sponsors in joining us to put on a wonderful fun filled event.

Winners: Billy & Nicole

Amatuers                            Pros

Sue Vail                                            Billy Mendler

Colleen Hanzes                                Michael Starke

Julia Hutchinson                             Collin Crawford

Nicole Saunders                               Jim Orr

Patricia Cummings                          Clark Crawford

Sue Locke                                            Boris Tropan

Laura Lindsley                                  Libby McGovern

Laurie Salmon                                    Anna Edelman

Debbie Karst                                       Jillian Santos

Becky Gennett                                   Jordy Asher

Trish Socash                                     Jerome Kilmer

Trace Sladish                                   Ted Chakos

finalists Collin & Julia

Kris & Colleen all smile with mothers days flowers