Hall of Fame: Alex Lee
Alex Lee grew up in Bradley, Arkansas on a farm and never really thought much about tennis as a kid. His only connection to tennis as a child was hearing his brother Jimmy talk about Jimmy Connors all the time. Looking back, Lee doesn’t think they even had a tennis court at his high school.
So, when he went off to college at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, tennis wasn’t even on his radar. Finally his now-best friend, Robert Harris, asked Lee and a group of his friends to go play tennis one day. They all agreed to go and Lee had a great time playing. Then Lee and Harris went to play again the next day. And they continued playing together every day.
He was so hooked that he would even go play with Harris during the winters in Arkansas. All that practice eventually led to them practicing on occasion with the UAPB varsity tennis team. During his sophomore year a spot opened up on the team and Lee jumped at the chance to play. His playing career took off from there and led to numerous successes and tournament wins throughout his life.
Lee is now a life member of the American Tennis Association (ATA). He won National ATA Doubles Championships in 2011 and 2016 with his playing partner Greg Fleming. In 2016 he won the ATA National 60 Singles title. He also got his USTA Missouri Valley ranking as high as 5th in the 35 & Over division in the 1990s.
Outside of his playing career, Lee has made an incredible impact as both a coach and a volunteer. He currently serves as USTA Missouri Valley president after spending nearly 20 years in various roles on the Executive Committee.
He got his start in volunteering thanks to the late Fred Johnson. After a lengthy phone call with Johnson, Lee was convinced to get on board with the USTA Kansas Board of Directors. He continued to get more and more involved with his volunteerism, working his way up to the USTA Missouri Valley Board of Directors eventually leading to his current position.
He has also volunteered his time on USTA National committees, including the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) Committee, Diversity & Inclusion Committee and the Community Tennis Association (CTA) Committee. He currently serves on the Collegiate Committee and tries to pass on his vast knowledge to other coaches.
On the coaching front, he earned his PTR Professional certification in 2001 and his USPTA Elite Professional certification in 2019. Lee currently serves as the head men and women’s tennis coach at Friends University in Wichita where he has coached since 2015, after retiring from the Boeing Company, where he worked for 30 years in information technology.
Arguably his proudest achievements, though, come from his volunteer and charitable work. He founded two nonprofit tennis organizations in 2009: the McAdams Community Tennis Foundation in Wichita and the Lee Sports Foundation in Pine Bluff, Ark. He is currently the executive director at McAdams NJTL. He runs the Lee Sports Foundation with his family, occasionally traveling to Arkansas to help run workshops in the summer months. Both organizations work to introduce tennis to disadvantaged youth in their areas.
Lee is married to Bobbie Lee and they have one son, Alex J Lee. Bobbie plays league tennis and Alex J. plays occasionally. They have all made promoting the growth of tennis a big part of their lives.
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