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APTA IS PLANNING AHEAD – GREAT!

The Long Island Platform Tennis Association has applied to the APTA Board of Directors to conduct the Men’s and Women’s National Championships in 2012. That’s right – 2012. Of course one of the reasons for that year is that it keeps the 10-year string of Long Island intact. It started in 1992, was repeated in 2002 and now they are going for 2012.

The second reason for the seven-year lead-time is that all except one of the intervening years have been spoken for. In a recent interview with President Mark Fischl he recited the commitments for conducting the tournaments as follows:

2006 - Chicago, IL
2007 - Westchester, NY
2008 - Rochester, NY
2009 - Cincinnati
2010 - Philadelphia
2011 - (TBD)

There was a time when no one knew when or where the next National Championships would take place. Fortunately it appears that those days are past. I applaud the Board of Directors for reaching out to gain commitments for these dates for the National Championships for years in advance. To do the tournament properly, it takes almost two years of preparation. The more advance time that is made available, the better the tournament is likely to be.

One word of caution, however. The Board must continue its vigilance each year to be sure that the local association that is taking the responsibility is seriously working on its commitment. Suddenly a key individual of a local Association moves, is injured or loses his or her interest in platform tennis and the commitment of the whole Association leaves as well. It is critical that a number of members of the Board are somehow involved with a follow-up of the Association which has made the commitment.

This is truer now than ever before because of the “term limits” for Directors that the Board has imposed upon itself. None, I mean, not a single individual who is now a Director of the APTA will be on the Board seven years from now.

The President of LIPTA, Duane Hayden, asked me where I would be in 2012. Before I could give some smart aleck reply, he told me about the proposal to conduct the National Championships in 2012. I immediately began wondering what my role might be and then realized how old I would be and I hoped that I would still be around.