Looking Forward With Pride

Stonewall Tennis has grown to become an indispensable part of the tennis landscape in Minnesota, from providing an inclusive environment within the sport for the LGBTQIA+ community to partnering with USTA Northern to put on events like the Love All Pride event held in late June.

USTA Northern checked in with Stonewall Tennis Commissioner Chris Hartkemeyer about the history and impact of Stonewall Tennis in Minnesota and where they're going from here.

Could you please provide us with some background and history of Stonewall Tennis?

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Stonewall Tennis was the creation of Scott Sundstrom, who at the time, was a USTA Northern Board Member and a player in Stonewall Kickball. Scott grew up playing tennis his whole life and now spends his time coaching boys and girls tennis at Mounds View High School.

Scott conceived the idea for Stonewall Tennis in 2019 after joining a kickball team within the organization and realizing the need for the same safe, inclusive environment within tennis for the LGBTQIA+ community. The idea behind Stonewall Tennis was to have a more social, less intimidating, and most importantly, fun way of coming together to enjoy the sport.

There are no teams, no competitive match play, and most importantly no expectations to perform a certain way. Players of all levels are encouraged to join and see if tennis is the sport for them!

How has Stonewall Sports positively impacted the LGBTQ+ community? 

Stonewall Sports – Twin Cities has had a huge impact on many of our players in the community. It is often heard in the league that growing up queer, many of us avoided partaking in competitive sports for fear of being discriminated against or made to feel unwelcome.

A Stonewall Tennis player told us about growing up in a town that was not very LGBTQ friendly and being horribly bullied for the way they acted and spoke. As a result, they never felt like they could play sports with the kids at school.

But finding Stonewall Sports was a blessing because the drive was always there for them to participate in sports and now, they can feel safe in the space being offered. Many of the players in the league know each other outside of Stonewall as well and are able to foster long-lasting friendships through the camaraderie of playing sports together.

What are your participation numbers? How many people play in a year? 

Stonewall Tennis has been operating 4 seasons over the calendar year since it started in 2019. Each season accommodates 48 players and in the past year we have had approximately 125 different players play tennis with us.

Our seasons are always full and we have many more players that want to join than we can currently serve. Tennis is only one of the six sports Stonewall Sports – Twin Cities offers with close to 1,000 members across the organization.

How has Stonewall Tennis's relationship with USTA Northern enhanced programming? 

The Stonewall Tennis program would be non-existent without the grant funding awarded to us from USTA Northern. USTA Northern has been critical in helping Stonewall Tennis keep costs low for our players, as well as helping secure both equipment and instruction for our outdoor summer seasons. They also offer additional events and spaces for our players to branch out and play tennis outside of Stonewall Sports.

What are the future goals and aspirations of Stonewall Tennis? 

We would love for Stonewall Tennis to continue to operate for many years to come and offer a safe and inclusive environment to our players.

Our hope for the future is to be able to increase the number of players we can have per season and be able to offer more instruction to beginner level players who may not have had opportunities to play or learn the sport.