Family Night tournament slated for May 10

As part of USTA Missouri’s ongoing efforts to offer fun and creatively themed tennis opportunities for players of all skills and ages, the district is hosting an all-new tournament series in 2024. The Family Night series features installments on Friday evenings at Springfield’s Cooper Tennis Complex.

“We have quite a few families who play at Cooper or just in our area,” said Maddy Platko, who is running the Family Night tournaments. “But very rarely do they have opportunities to play with each other unless they are taking that upon themselves to do so. It gives an opportunity for families to play together. It’s a fun way to just promote tennis, eat some pizza and connect more with each other.”

The first Family Night tournament is slated to take place Friday, May 10 with players able to register online for the tournament soon. The fun-filled evening includes matches occurring indoors at the Cooper Complex from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Participating families can enter the following parent/child doubles divisions:

• Mother/Daughter

• Mother/Son

• Father/Daughter

• Father/Son

“I definitely have to give credit to the parents of some of our juniors,” said Leslie Echols, USTA Missouri executive director. “Pretty frequently I’d get at least one parent saying I’d love to play with my son or daughter. Or could my son and daughter pair up as a doubles team. It made me realize we really don’t have a lot of opportunities outside of strict NTRP divisions. We don’t have a lot of opportunities for families. After a few of those requests, I really wanted to provide that opportunity.”

Teams will be placed into round-robin divisions based on playing level. Pairings can accumulate points, with participation in all the Family Night events encouraged. One team from each division will win a grand prize at the conclusion of the tourneys based on point accumulation. Attending teams will enjoy pizza, snacks and desserts throughout the evening on Cooper’s balcony.

“One of the things I’m most excited about is bringing together junior and adult players, because adults don’t get a lot of interaction with the juniors,” Echols said. “In terms of your traditional adult tournament or league players, they don’t see the junior players a lot. But the juniors really bring so much to the game. Seeing their excitement toward tennis is really neat and motivating for adults.

“Also, it might be a way to bridge adult leagues with junior players. So many of these parents play tennis, but they are not playing in our leagues. It might be a really exciting opportunity to meet more adult players who we just don’t know yet.”

The Family Night series arrives after the USTA Missouri District ran a four-tournament Date Night series in 2023. With the input of district players and the success of the Carl Alcancia Memorial Tournament—which featured family-style divisions—Echols and Platko thought tourneys geared toward families made sense for 2024.

“We’re starting with this one, but I would absolutely love to explore other formats,” Echols said. “Different families come in all shapes and sizes. It would be great to expand the offerings. We’re limited to six courts for this, but if it goes well we can definitely look into turning this into something bigger.”

To that end, Echols and Platko encouraged district players to reach out to them with their ideas for future tennis tournaments and events. Echols can be reached via email at ustamissouridirector@gmail.com. Platko can be reached via call or text at 870.706.0274.

Platko is stepping up to run Springfield-area tournaments in 2024 while also assisting with 18 & Over Springfield leagues. She’d like to boost the number of USTA Missouri league offerings and teams across the board, particularly on the men’s side. Platko also hopes to increase the number of individuals participating in district tourneys throughout the year.