USTA Nebraska 2021 Year in Review

January

ACE Hunger Tennis Tournament: Close to 100 tennis players from Omaha and Lincoln took part in the Ace Hunger Tennis Tournament Dec.19-20 to raise donations for the Food Bank for the Heartland in Omaha. Local player Sreedhar Marupudi organized the mixed-doubles event and paid for court time at local tennis facilities in Omaha. As a result, $2,000 and 3,000 pounds of food were donated overall. Read more.

February

Zimbabwe Native Lives his Best Life in Nebraska: Fungai Tongoona came to Lincoln in 1998 to play for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Men’s Tennis Team. He had an immediate connection with former head coach Kerry McDermott and played four years for the Huskers. He was the assistant coach for the Husker Men’s Tennis Team for seven years, and is now the Tennis Director at Genesis in Lincoln. Read more.

March

Twins take Tennis to Next Level: High school seniors Clare and Joe Plachy look forward to their senior years, and playing tennis in college. Both are seniors at Lincoln Pius X High School and both will be playing Division II college tennis in the fall - Clare at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Joe at Augustana University in Sioux Falls. Both said tennis pro Rich Halpine of Genesis Racquet Club is their role model. Read more.

April

Wheelchair Athlete Makes History Once Again: Last year Lily Lautenschlager made history in Nebraska as the first wheelchair tennis athlete to make a high school tennis team when she made the Lincoln East Spartans reserve team. However, the season was cut short because of COVID-19 and she never played a match. This year, as a junior, the stakes were higher as she had to make the junior varsity team. Once again, she defied the odds. Read more.

May

UNO Women’s Tennis Team Wins City of Omaha Parks Award: The University of Nebraska-Omaha women’s tennis team was recently awarded the School Volunteer Group of the Year from the Omaha Parks and Recreation department. The Mavericks received this award for doing beautification projects around the community including picking up trash, raking leaves, mulching, trimming trees and painting tennis backboards at local parks. Coaches and players say it’s important to give back to the community. Read more.

June

Former Husker Coach McDermitt Joins Genesis: Former Huskers men’s tennis coach Kerry McDermott is now Director of Tennis at Genesis Lincoln Health Club. McDermott spent 37 years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and also played for the Huskers from 1976-1980. McDermott is looking forward to the new challenge, and loves teaching tennis in any capacity. Read more.

Nebraska City Tennis Program Keeps Growing: Ten years ago around a dozen kids signed up for a tennis camp at Steinhart Park in Nebraska City. Fast forward to today and more than 60 kids signed up for summer camps with four new tennis courts. Jason McNeely heads up the program and is also the head boys’ tennis coach and assistant girls’ tennis coach at Nebraska City High School. Now he just needs to keep up with the demand. Read more.

July

Patrick Family Shares Love of Tennis with Coaching: For Joel and Shelly Patrick of Lincoln, tennis is a way of life. Both play and coach the sport and even got married on a tennis court. Joel is a staff pro at Woods Tennis Center and Shelly coaches the girls’ tennis team at Norris High School in addition to teaching math. In the summer you’ll often find them playing mixed doubles as their daughter looks on from the sidelines. Read more.

Hernandez Loves the Joy of Coaching High School Tennis: Ricardo Hernandez is the head coach for the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams at Bryan High School in Bellevue. He also teaches Spanish at the school. The student population at Bryan is 67% Hispanic, and he knows that diversity is not only important in athletics and everyday life. Read more.

August

Four USTA Nebraska Teams Take District Titles: Omaha’s Koch Family Tennis Center was the setting on July 17-18 for the USTA Nebraska 2021 18-over District Championships for the 3.5 and 4.0 men’s and women’s teams. The 4.0 winners will advance to the USTA Missouri Valley Section Championships in St. Louis on Aug. 5-8. The 3.5 winners will head to Oklahoma City Aug. 19-21. Read more.

Meet the New USTA Nebraska Pathway Coordinator: USTA Nebraska recently hired Mike Saniuk as its new USTA Nebraska Net Generation Youth Pathway Coordinator. The position will help grow the game of tennis in Nebraska and since he is already the Director of Tennis at Miracle Hill Tennis Center in Omaha, he is well qualified for the role. Read more.

September

Nebraska Teams Make Splash at Section Championships: A number of USTA Adult League teams in Nebraska made it to the USTA Missouri Valley Section Championships in August. After winning a championship, three Nebraska teams are heading to the USTA Adult League National Championships in Phoenix. One team is the Veitzer 18 & Over 10.0 Mixed team. The team is excited for the experience. The Buckley team won a Section Championship in the 18 & Over 5.0 Men's division. Read more.

Wheelchair Classic Draws Players from Across Region: More than a dozen participants came out to Woods Tennis Center in Lincoln Aug. 27-29 for the USTA NE L4 Lincoln Wheelchair Classic tournament. Players came from all over the Midwest including Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska. Lunch and snacks were provided. Tournament director Kevin Heim said they have seen a decline in the amount of wheelchair tournaments within the USTA Missouri Valley this year, so players were happy to participate in this one. Read more.

October

Kearney Couple Shares US Open Experience: For most of us, the closest we’ll get to the US Open is watching it on television. For Ty and Jane Strawhecker of Kearney, they were able to get up close and personal to many of the top players as they spent 15 days volunteering at the venue in Flushing Meadows. It was an experience they will never forget. Read more.

Heim & Taylor at World Cup: The BNP Paribas World Team Cup, this year’s biggest competition in wheelchair tennis, is taking place in Italy. For Lincoln’s Kevin Heim, it’s the third time he’s been to the World Team Cup, and the second time as Team Captain for the U.S. Quad Team. He said he looks forward to the event, because it’s always a great opportunity to take part. Read more.

November

Nebraska USTA Teams at Nationals: With a lot of hard work and perseverance, a number of USTA Nebraska teams made it to Nationals this season. The 40 and over 4.5 team captained by Ron Betts made it all the way to the finals in Scottsdale, Arizona. They lost a close match to Texas, but Betts is proud of his team and the second-place finish. Read more.

UNMC Forms new Tennis Club: A new tennis club has formed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, thanks to a generous Grow the Game Grant from the USTA. The UNMC Racquet Club was created last summer based on the needs of tennis-loving students who wanted an outlet. Organizer Tiffany Truong said UNMC has intramural sports like soccer, volleyball, basketball, golf and even curling, but was missing her favorite one. Read more.

December

USTA Women Combine Love of Tennis and Books: “Let’s start a book club!” were the famous words of four Lincoln women, who after finishing up a game of doubles and realized they all had a common love of not only tennis, but reading. The rest, as they say, is history. The group of about ten tennis fanatics started up in 2017, and has been going strong ever since that day on the court. Read more.