USTA has representation at annual Missouri parks conference

The United States Tennis Association was well-represented at the 2024 Missouri Park & Recreation Association (MPRA) Conference & Expo, which took place March 5-8 at the St. Charles Convention Center in northwest St. Louis.

Alywn Mushonga—USTA St. Louis and USTA Missouri tennis service representative—attended the annual event alongside John Terpkosh, USTA Iowa TSR and USTA Missouri Valley parks & rec program manager. Mushonga and Terpkosh were in St. Charles on March 6, with the duo showing support for and cultivating connections with the nearly 400 parks and recreation professionals in attendance from across the state.

“It was really awesome,” Mushonga said. “We had a lot of representation from St. Louis itself, which it was awesome to connect with the St. Louis parks. Our main mission was just to showcase tennis, to show that we are here. We are going to offer you support to grow your programs. A lot of parks have tennis courts. They need our help in terms of grants.”

Mushonga said several individuals who swung by the USTA booth inquired about the organization’s national grants, particularly the Tennis Venue Services Grant for facility upgrades such as court resurfacing. Mushonga noted with some public parks converting existing tennis courts to pickleball, court maintenance and advocacy was a hot-button topic among the parks & rec professionals in attendance.

“For most of them, the reason they are changing those courts to pickleball is they don’t have the support in terms of renovating their courts or doing tennis programming,” Mushonga said. “For us to be there was to show USTA can help you start more tennis programs in your parks. We had a lot of contacts with parks we are following up with—especially in St. Louis—that need more programming.”

With parks & rec employees from around Missouri in attendance, Mushonga and Terpkosh had the opportunity to interact with professionals from Springfield, Columbia and Rolla among other cities within USTA Missouri.

In addition to the USTA booth, Terpkosh gave a one-hour presentation centered on the benefits of parks partnering with USTA. He discussed the grants, equipment, programming and support USTA can provide to aid parks in maximizing their tennis facilities for community members. A recent national study by the Physical Activity Council demonstrated public parks are the No. 1 choice for USTA Missouri Valley tennis enthusiasts, as 49% of the section’s players primarily get their game in at a public park.

“We have a lot of parks in St. Louis County that a lot of people don’t use just because there is no programming going on,” Mushonga said. “That’s a lot of the questions we received by a lot of agencies. ‘OK, how can we get some coaches at our parks to do some programming for our community?’”

Mushonga said he enjoyed meeting with existing USTA partners at the MPRA Conference & Expo while forging new relationships with park pros throughout Missouri. Parks & recreation professionals interested in creating tennis programming or in need of assistance can contact Mushonga at mushonga@movalley.usta.com or Terpkosh at jterpkosh@movalley.usta.com.