Columbia to Play Host to All-New Junior Circuit Events

As a young girl, Tricia Vogt recalls driving around her hometown of Bolivar, Mo. alongside her father passing out flyers to tennis facilities and sporting goods stores. The handouts promoted junior tennis tournaments her dad, Richard Crippin, constructed every summer. Crippin would give out T-shirts and prizes at his tourneys, and Vogt remembers them always being a blast.

When Vogt began coaching the boys’ tennis team at Father Tolton High School in Columbia in the spring of 2021, she knew it was a natural progression for her to run USTA junior events as well. Vogt got in touch with Courtney Nesbitt — USTA Missouri junior competition coordinator — and inquired about the possibility.

“I said, ‘I’d like to run a tournament.’ And Courtney said, ‘Why don’t you run three tournaments?’ I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ That was all her,” Vogt said. “Courtney has just been great getting everything set up for the first time on the website and getting me signed up as a tournament director.”

Vogt and Nesbitt landed on a USTA junior circuit making the most sense. The junior circuit will take place in three separate one-day installments — July 16, September 24, October 15 — at Cosmo Park in Columbia. Vogt said Columbia hosts Level 6 and Level 5 junior circuits but no current circuits that springboard onto those. Her Level 7 non-elimination, round-robin events fill that void.

“We have so many kids learning in all the clubs we have like The Club at Old Hawthorne and Country Club of Missouri,” Vogt said. “A lot of teachers said their kids would be excited. I’m excited to get tennis going again in Columbia.”