Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By NANCY MORGAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 9, 2001
Good things come in threes. Just ask Clearwater's McMullen Tennis Complex.
After undergoing some much-anticipated renovation in the past year, the facility recently was recognized for its improvements by state and national organizations.
The Tennis Industry, the Florida Recreation and Parks Association and the U.S. Tennis Association have bestowed awards on McMullen.
As a result, the complex is being recognized nationwide for improvements to its 17-court public facility, including the replacement of eight hard surfaces with har tru courts that feature underground watering.
"We just had an assessment meeting for the McMullen operations," said Kevin Dunbar, director of Clearwater's Parks and Recreation Department. "We had hoped to use the improvements at McMullen as a catalyst for expanding our programming, and I think we are now able to do that.
"We want to branch out to create city-wide tennis operations," he said. "I think what has been accomplished at McMullen will allow us to expand in that way, and we are going to first focus on Morningside, the Bayfront and the Clearwater Beach sites."
Earlier this summer, McMullen Tennis Complex was named one of 12 Court of the Year winners by Tennis Industry. Overall, four municipal sites were honored. The FRPA selected McMullen as one of 17 facilities it will showcase in its annual publication.
The USTA, the national governing body of tennis, named McMullen one of three sites in the large center category -- facilities with 11 or more courts. The last, and only other, Pinellas facility to receive the USTA award was the Treasure Island Recreation, Tennis and Golf Center in 1997.
"The awards we have received for McMullen speak to the work Leroy (Chin) does for the city and what he brings to the facilities with his expertise," Dunbar said. "He toured other facilities, had discussions with the staff at Welch Tennis Courts, then developed some of his own ideas.
"Leroy developed a pretty good idea of what we wanted at McMullen while he addressed the issues and requirements of a tennis player."
Chin -- Clearwater's Park, Planning and Project Manager -- said he selected the best attributes of the various facilities he visited in the Tampa Bay area to develop the concept for the McMullen project.
"We wanted to create an ambiance of a private/public facility tucked within the city," Chin said. "With the improvements, we hope more people will come to McMullen and, with the soft courts, play longer."
Tomas Ollestad, a USPTR and USPTA teaching professional, arrived at McMullen this summer and immediately began offering a variety of opportunities.
"There are no better courts around," Ollestad said. "They are always moist and ready to play. People come in here and ask if we're a private club, which, of course, we're not.
"We've had a good summer of programming and activities and expect to have even more this fall," he said. "One of the activities we'll be offering is after-school tennis for three different levels of juniors."
Brian Craig, supervisor of tennis operations for Clearwater, plans to continue expanding programs and sees the awards as an asset in achieving such goals.
"For regular users of McMullen, winning these awards was no big surprise," Craig said. "We hope the publicity about the awards will encourage others to come out to McMullen.
"We will keep adding programming and going out to offer city-wide activities and, hopefully, capture some of those that have not been out to play."
ADULT TEAMS AT STATE: Four squads venture to Altamonte Springs this week for the USTA Florida Section Sectional Championships.
Winners advance to USA League Tennis National Championships this fall.
After qualifying in the West Regional Tournament, East Lake Woodlands' 3.0 women and Safety Harbor Spa's 4.5 and 5.0 men will compete with three other regional winners for a state title. A fourth team, the men's 5.5 club based at Treasure Island Tennis and Yacht Club, is entered. The East Lake squad will play a round-robin with teams from Gainesville, Miami and Ormond Beach. The Spa 4.5 battles Gainesville, Miami and Melbourne. Spa's 5.0 meets Pensacola, Fort Lauderdale and Melbourne. Treasure Island takes on Gainesville, Miami, Bradenton and Lakeland.
Competition begins Friday and concludes Sunday.
JUNIORS AT NATIONALS: All this week, players are competing in USTA tournaments, beginning with Jeff D'Adamo and Justin Herzig (boys 12 division) and Christina Liles, Jamie Mera and Yumi Hasegawa (girls 12) in the clay court championships in the Delray Beach area.
The hard court nationals include Kaela Kennedy, Linda Tien and Miranda Gutierrez in the 16 draw in San Diego; Jennifer Dent, Kelly Nelson and Evangelina Soriano, 18s in San Jose, Calif.; George Navas, Marc Spicijaric and Evan Dufaux, 14s in San Antonio; and in Kalamazoo, Mich., R.J. Murray, Ryler DeHeart and Goran Dragicevic, 18, and Sukhwa Young, Konstantin Lazarov, Yuichi Uda and Ryan Buchanan, 16.
The champions in the 18 girls and boys tournaments receive a U.S. Open wild-card berth.
NET NOTES: In last weekend's Little Mo East Regionals in Alpharetta, Ga., Morgan Basil was a finalist in the girls 9 division and Kelly Palmer finished third.
Chelsea Townes, in the 11 class, Joseph Valdes, 8, and Garrett Betsarakis, 9, reached the quarterfinal round.
Each of the age divisions' semifinalists in the four regionals advance to the national tournament, Oct. 27-29 in Austin, Texas. Palmer and Basil will be among the challengers.
Soriano defended her top seed in the girls 18 bracket to win the Hot Hot Super Series at East Lake Woodlands. Austin Kondor upset the No. 1 player in a boys 10 semifinal to advance. Finalists included Anastasia Sokolova, girls 16, Basil, 10, Benjamin Kronk, boys 18, Nicholas Berning, boys 14, and Bryan Szeto, 10.
MOVING ON: Kevin O'Connor, a 1983 Clearwater Central Catholic graduate, has left the Saddlebrook Resort after serving five years as its director of sports marketing.
O'Connor accepted a job as executive director of a multi-sport facility in Los Angeles owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group. The 34-year-old will oversee the planning and execution of tennis, soccer, cycling and track events.