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John Radcliffe (center) saw an opportunity to create tennis programming in his community and now is reaping the reward as a captain of the USTA Southwest 7.0 team.
© Juan Ocampo
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Radcliffe's team has all the tools to keep the National Championship in the state of Arizona.
© Juan Ocampo
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By J. Fred Sidhu, special to USTA.com
SURPRISE, Ariz. – It has been said that a waterfall begins with a single drop of water. In terms of tennis, John Radcliffe is that single drop of water.
The 69-year-old Radcliffe, who is retired after working in medical equipment sales, resides in a retirement community in nearby Sun Lakes, Ariz., where by his estimation there are 500 to 600 tennis players.
Two years ago, despite the abundance of tennis players in his community, Radcliffe, a veteran USTA League competitor, noticed something was missing: All of the USTA League teams that played at Sun Lakes were men’s teams. There were no USTA League teams for women.
Radcliffe took the initiative and became captain of the Southwest Section 7.0 Super Senior women’s team, which is playing in this weekend’s 2011 USTA League Super Senior 7.0 & 9.0 National Championships at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex.
"I decided I should do something to get the women involved. There are plenty of leagues in the Phoenix area for women to play in," said Radcliffe, who was able to get nine solid 3.5 players on his team roster.
After putting his team together, it didn’t take long for Radcliffe see it was the start of something special. "From the very first match as we began the season, I realized that we really had a good team," said Radcliffe.
One of the biggest rewards for Radcliffe is watching his players develop their games. "It’s great to see how their levels have improved," he said. "It’s really been fun to see the progression of all of these women. They are highly motivated to move to the next level.
According to Radcliffe, the experience of taking part in the National Championship has been a special experience for his team.
"They really put in the work to get here to Nationals. These women know they’ve done something really special. It’s a very big accomplishment," he said. "It’s in our little local newspaper and on the bulletin boards and we have a lot of supporters here from our community."
The word is out about Radcliffe’s success with his women’s team and he is now the captain of three other USTA League women’s teams at different levels.
It is true -- a waterfall does begin with a single drop of water.