Franklin County Community Tennis Association

The Franklin County Community Tennis Association (CTA) is a vehicle to encourage the social aspects of tennis plus the fun!

David Hoffman has been involved with the organization since its inception in the early 2000s and now serves as president. He said the group’s primary focus is simply getting folks young and old to play more tennis.

“People want to have fun doing playing tennis,” Hoffman said. “For the most part our activities are focused on that. It is a lifetime sport and we have people who are older in our area who can enjoy tennis for a long time. We just focus on getting as many people participating as we can and hope those who join us have some fun.”

World Team Tennis (WTT) is one of the group’s most popular endeavors – and has a unique twist. Within each team, players are split into an A & B group. When teams in the league square off, the like-skilled groups will play each other. 

Hoffman said WTT has seen as many as eight teams in one session. 

“Splitting players into those groups makes for more competitive – and more fun matches,” he said.

The group also has drop-in playing times and other leagues for adults that have heavy participation.

Popularity amongst junior players in the area is one challenge Franklin County CTA faces. With the lack of organized high school tennis teams at public schools in the area, continuing tennis beyond middle-school age sometimes falls by the way of bigger sports in the area like volleyball, football and basketball.

One way the CTA is trying to keep young player interest is lobbying those area schools with no tennis team to add the sport. Though attempts thus far have proven to be a tough sell, Hoffman hopes tennis is a sport that gains more traction in the area for young and old. 

A major accomplishment of the Franklin County CTA was efforts in adding more courts to the area. The group teamed up with the parks director in Washington, Mo. to make that dream a reality. Before completion of the project in 2012, Franklin County had just four courts. With the addition of six more courts, finding a place to play became much easier.

“The USTA came through with a grant and we were able to put that to good use to help us get more courts,” Hoffman said. “It was a lot of fun researching and talking to parks departments about surfaces and how to go about designing the courts.”

Hoffman – who coaches junior varsity tennis at Lafayette High School – believes tennis is a game nearly anyone can play and enjoy.  

“What is wonderful about tennis is that it is a game you can enjoying playing regardless of what level you are. That is a big thing. I’m a big believer in participation.”