2021 Midwest Awards

Each year the Section honors dedicated individuals and organizations for their service and support of the Section’s mission to grow, develop and service the sport of tennis.

His family has been extremely supportive of Sonthana and the sport of tennis. His young children are active in the sport and his wife takes on the role of “manager of everything." She keeps the family together and on time for events, and helps with many tennis-related projects, including creating T-shirts with special designs for Sonthana’s events.

Arnie was paramount in organizing CDTA captains/players' open forums which resulted in changes with league rules, participants' gifts and league awards. All of these changes have resulted in a marked increase in player/captain satisfaction.

Another change he implemented was the creation of an Adult Play Committee with three subgroups: Administration, Growth and Events & Championships teams. To recruit competent and motivated volunteers, he introduced a vetting procedure for the volunteers resulting in 40 candidates vying for the positions. Diversity and inclusion together with experience and expertise were used as the selection criteria. He developed a mission and vision for each team and met monthly via zoom technology which he strongly suggested and implemented. 

Arnie also took under his wing the new District League Coordinator since Arnie's experience included seven years as a USTA League Coordinator. He serves as the CDTA's main resource for league rules, players' and captains' questions and NTRP questions.

Furthermore, he instituted a vision for the Midwest Section Nominating Committee to focus on Diversity and Inclusion when seeking and selecting candidates for the Midwest Section Board of Directors, Delegates at Large, and Nominating Committee. Arnie's passion, commitment and leadership skills support the USTA Midwest's mission to grow the game.

Over the years, Friends of CICS Tennis has sponsored after school tennis programs at CICS campuses including CICS Prairie, Basil, Avalon, Wrightwood, Bucktown, West Belden, Longwood and Lloyd Bond.

Violet was a long-time member of the Board and eventually the President of The Board of Love to Serve Tennis and Education Foundation.

Violet was a tennis mom of three beautiful girls before becoming a tennis volunteer. It began with Adrienne as she began playing tennis with Love to Serve. Camille and Gabbie followed her. All played Midtac and ATA tournaments and achieved USTA Midwest ranking and in Camille and Gabbie’s cases National rankings. Gabbie went on to be the first African American female to win a NCAA individual championship (DIII) in any Division. She was a two-time winner. And yes, Violet plays tennis as well as running 5k races for charity.