Stephanie Farid Named Columbia Local League Coordinator

Stephanie Farid and USTA Missouri Executive Director Leslie Echols crossed paths in early August and got to talking about their mutual passion for tennis and growing the game locally. Farid was aware of a job posting for Columbia local league coordinator within the district and thought she might be a strong match. Echols offered her the position and Farid accepted.

“The other league coordinator was one of my kid’s old coaches, so I knew there was a position around,” Farid said. “I ended up talking to Leslie and said, ‘I actually recently retired from my job. I love tennis. I’d like more adults to play because I play pretty much every day.’ And she said, ‘Great.’ It just was a fit from there.”

Farid competed on a USTA 3.5 women’s team about four years ago before playing with a different 3.5 women’s squad last summer and this year, too. She retired a year and a half ago from her career as a physician and felt the Columbia role would be an enjoyable and unique way to chip in locally.

Her hire follows the announcement of Amy Mathew serving as interim adult league coordinator.

“It’s a great group of people. It’s a great sport,” Farid said. “Having people exercise is important. Tennis is a game that is physical. It’s also mental. It’s something you can do until you’re 90. What drew me to doing it now was just the people are wonderful. They’re fun. It’s a great way to get people together. It was a good way for me to make a contribution that was different from what my career had been.”

Farid dabbled in tennis growing up as a country-club player but spent more time on the ice as a figure skater. Her four children all played tennis at a highly competitive level and participated in USTA offerings throughout their junior careers. Her husband plays, too, and the duo frequently hit together.

“I was real familiar with tennis, but then I started playing as I got older when my kids were playing,” Farid said. “A lot of my friend group, we just all play tennis. As a family it’s really fun because every place we go, we always take our racquets.”

In addition to the excellent exercise tennis provides, Farid said she’s been drawn to the sport because of its accessibility and the low numbers required to get a game going.

“I’d much rather play tennis than go to the gym,” Farid said. “It’s something you can always improve on. It’s easy to grab one, two or three people and play a game. Or lately if we don’t have a doubles group, we bring in five or six and we play games kids play in high school, ‘21’ and such. It keeps your brain sharp. Not only do you have to physically be able to do it, but there’s a lot of mental aspect to the game.”

Farid has hit the ground running with her new Columbia local league coordinator post, as she’s been working to coordinate a team to enable some mixed-league play this summer. She is excited to loop in more adult men’s and women’s players to expand the USTA Missouri district’s offerings.

“It’s nice when you have a great community like Columbia where you can do some mixing and matching of teams,” Farid said. “Everybody kind of knows each other. It’s competitive, but yet it’s fun competitive. My goal would be to get more and more people interested. More people enjoying the team aspect and looking forward to playing. Get more people playing actual league tennis than what we’ve had.”

To view USTA Missouri job postings — including local league coordinator and social media/communications specialist — click here.