Markham Tennis Club Year in Review for 2020 and Club Closing

MTC YEAR IN REVIEW

Starting in May, coach Chris designed a Liveball program that was extremely successful! As the weeks went by and the rumour spread that this was THE program to join for members looking to grow their doubles game and get lots of practice in, participation grew from 6 players to 18 players! We also wanted to thank Coaches Taylor and Priscilla for assisting in making this program successful!

As adult programming grew and demand was at an all time high, we introduced a Monday night developmental clinic where members could come and learn all the fundamentals of tennis, meet new players and participate in point play! This clinic also started with 6 players and instantly turned into a hit with 15 players joining in by the last session. Lots of laughs, smiles and competitiveness were shared among all players, especially when the game ‘BONUS’ was played.

The last clinic to be introduced was the Thursday morning advanced skills clinic. A lot of amazing points were played and improvement was shown during the 1.5 hour sessions. As more and more people emailed about joining the clinic, we even had our own Tennis Coordinator Kampbell, join herself and show off her amazing backhand! This clinic was super fun, entertaining and Coach Chris was very impressed by the level of play! Big shoutout to Susan for baking a delicious cake for the last session!
 

Wednesday night doubles challenge was a success and it was so nice to see many new faces and committed players excited to play every single week! There were some amazing points that were showcased and a lot of high quality matches which was awesome! This program would not have been able to run if it was not for the hard work by our amazing Tennis Coordinator Kampbell did to organize it and send out emails to over 60 participants!

Our singles ladder also had fantastic participation, with many challenging matches and lots of movement in the rankings.  Thanks to all the participants for making the program a success!

We were also able to sneak in the ‘Socially Distanced Social', which was a huge success and members were treated to some great on-court drills, prizes and amazing food!  What a night that was!

The junior programming was also a huge success this year and there are many many people to thank for this! A big thank you goes out to Vice President Dave Gervan, for putting together the school programs where Coach Chris in the winter of 2019/2020 ran gym class programs and promoted the club. This success foreshadowed what would eventually be a great summer season of junior programming!
 

The summer camps were a big accomplishment, especially considering the obstacles and challenges we faced this year. Thanks is due to Coaches Josh, Julia and Lawson for putting a smile on every kids face with their easy going and enthusiastic personalities! The camps are great for kids of all ages to learn, grown and have fun while playing a great sport! Pizza Friday’s, Ice cream cake and an occasional Ice cream truck stop were some of the highlights ... oh right, and some great tennis as well!!

Adding to the success of our Summer Camps, we had so much demand for junior programming that we brought on well-respected YRDSB teacher Kelvin Lee, who came to us with 15 years of coaching tennis experience. He headed up the Junior Fun Day which had over 30 participants and $500 worth of prizes that were given out. Kelvin transitioned that success into creating a fall after school clinic that was also very successful and super fun!

Coach Chris had organized a junior club championship and it was amazing to see how many participants there were and some great points were on display! Anya Singh played some great tennis won the tournament with some amazing serving, forehands and shots. Congratulations to Anya!   Congratulations to our runner up, Andrew Stevkov also!
 

The Peter Gates memorial junior award for fair play, hard work and dedication  was handed out to Stella Giannopoulos, through an amazing presentation by Susan Gates. We can’t thank Susan enough for her support of our juniors here at MTC. Stella is an up and coming player who loves to play, hit her forehand and run around the court! Rumour has it she may already be beating her mom Erin, who was a staple in the Monday Night Clinics!

Overall we want to give a special thanks to our Head Professional Kusal Fernando, Junior Director Christopher Urquhart and Tennis Coordinator Kampbell Reid along with Coaches Taylor, Josh, Julia, Priscilla, Kelvin as well as Annie and Mackenzie running front desk. This season would not have been possible without all of your dedication and commitment to our club and programs. Additionally we would like to thank the entire board of directors for all their hard work behind the scenes in creating programs, working out court details and keeping our members happy! In a season with many challenges brought on by Covid 19, we are very proud of the membership and staff for how successful the summer went and how we all handled these unchartered waters.   We could not thank all our members enough for their endless support and participation in all the events we ran this season, as well as their respect and diligence with social distancing and Covid regulations. Especially this year, our members constant support has been greatly appreciated through these tough and unprecedented times. You are the reason why Markham Tennis Club is the place to be!
 

And last, but definitely not least, we want to extend our utmost thanks to out-going President, Scott Fraser, and Vice-President, Dave Gervan, for their many years of service to the Club.  After our AGM, we presented them both with recognition plaques (which included pieces of the actual court!) and shared some beautiful cupcakes.  The Club would not be where it is today, if not for the tireless work of these two MTC executives!!  We hope you both enjoy your ‘retirement’…but don’t go to far!!