Getting to Know Adaptive Committee Chair Christine Costamagna

From playing in USTA Adult Tournaments and Leagues since her late twenties and captaining close to 50 teams to serving on numerous USTA committees, Christine Costamagna has dedicated her time for over 20 years to make a difference in the Northern California tennis community and the sport itself.

“For me, outside of my job, tennis is my passion,” Costamagna shared. “One way I like to be engaged is through volunteering with both the USTA Northern California section and USTA National. “It’s a great way to learn about our organization, support tennis, meet people from across the country, and share my areas of expertise with others.”

Channeling that passion, Costamagna is committed to ensuring tennis is available to all. After being involved in the Special Olympics Northern California for 22 years, she made it her mission to promote and develop recreational tennis opportunities for individuals with intellectual and/or physical disabilities and helped spearhead a new USTA NorCal Adaptive Committee three years ago.

“This is an opportunity to take my passion for tennis and work with a special population of people,” she said. “While Northern California had a Wheelchair Committee, there wasn’t a committee that addressed a bigger adaptive population. I thought we needed a separate committee to address this gap.”

Currently the chair of the Adaptive Committee, Costamagna shared the goal is to promote and develop recreational tennis opportunities for these individuals through inclusion and support by providing programming, equipment, instruction, and events.

Having just gotten off the ground before the pandemic hit, the Adaptive Committee formed partnerships with several organizations across Northern California including, the California School for the Blind and an organization called Break the Barriers in Fresno, CA.

“Our goal is to try to create models on who we can partner with on adaptive programs and have them be successful so we can then take those programs elsewhere and help more programs offer tennis in an inclusive way.”

As part of the committee, Costamagna leverages her extensive experience with the Special Olympics Northern California and is also the point person for teaming up with them to offer opportunities for individuals with disabilities to play tennis. There is a season of play, and Costamagna also helps coordinate community-based play days to promote tennis and offer opportunities for both tennis players and those who have never played before to try the sport.

After a successful play day in 2019 had 30 participants and numerous volunteers come out, looking forward to 2022, Costamagna and the committee is looking forward to building on this momentum and offering three Special Olympics play days across the Northern California section.

In addition to her work on the Adaptive Committee, over her impressive tenure, Costamagna has served on over 10 committees as both a member and chair in the Northern California section, including Adult Competition, Adult Leagues, Budget & Finance, Constitution & Rules, Employee Relations, Executive, Governance & Ombuds, Sanction & Schedule, and Sportsmanship. 

She has also served on and off of the NorCal Board of Directors in multiple capacities for 10 years, as well as served on the National Adult Competition committee for five years acting as both a chair and vice-chair and the National International Cup Selection as a vice-chair, all while maintaining a full-time career at Bank of America as a Senior Vice President & Assistant Secretary.

“For me, tennis is about competition, exercise, and a social outlet in which I’ve met many of my lifelong friends. It has positively affected my life, and there are so many opportunities you can do to be involved in the sport, and I tend to do almost all of them,” she joked.