USTA Texas First-Time Committee Member Recognition

Tami Romero, Corpus Christi

To me, the most enjoyable part of volunteering is seeing the joy and friendships tennis brings to so many. I have usually been involved with the younger tennis players. Working with Tennis on Campus players has been very rewarding. Seeing the competitiveness of the college age players and at the same time the comradery between all of the players and their teams has made volunteering worthwhile. The other added benefit is the people and friends I have met along the way. John Agin, Bert Cole, Cindy Benzon, Ron Woods, Katy Rogers, Terry Sweet and Christine Watson have all been inspirations to me with what they have given to the tennis community.

Dugg Tankersley, Austin

As a player of more than 40 years and father to two Super Champ level sons, I wanted to see if I could lend any assistance to furthering this great game. I’ve enjoyed learning about NJTL as a whole and meeting the individual community leaders. They are very special people! The committee has focused on helping the individual NJTL communities around the state. We have workshopped ideas for improvement and recently planned a roundtable to put action items in place to ensure the success of at least one of the ideas brought forth. I suggested we use an online repository, like Google Drive or other, to aggregate the knowledge from each of the communities. I feel this would help concerning grant responses and fundraising programs, so that each community does not have to recreate the wheel each time.

Hannah Coley, Houston

Tennis has provided me with so much joy and great friendships. I was looking for a way to get involved in my community when an email to apply for a USTA Texas committee appeared. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to give back to an organization that has given me so much. I have really enjoyed getting to meet and develop relationships with others who also want to make an impact in the Texas tennis community. Many of the volunteers, staff and CTA leaders have already had such a huge impact, so I enjoy learning about their experiences. As part of the Budget & Finance Committee, our main task each year is to approve and recommend the operating budget to the Management Committee for the following year. We get to meet with each department to review their funding requests and find out about their plans for the upcoming year. We also review the management of the section’s investment portfolios.

Christina Capetillo, Edinburg

My path to becoming a commitee member with USTA started because of a conversation with Katy Rogers. She told me that I should join and become a committee member because I would be perfect. I had never played tennis in my life nor did I know anything about tennis so I figured why not. I decided to step out of my comfort zone and use this as an opportunity to learn more about tennis and add to my coaching resume. Two years later, I love being part of the Hispanic Engagement Committee as well as assisting any other committees that call and ask me for help. Coaching wise, I absolutely have had an amazing time coaching the Net Generation program at my school. Being a volunteer with USTA Texas has helped me integrate my family into tennis as both my boys participate in Net Generation and they love playing. I feel very blessed to be part of an amazing institution such as USTA.

Stephanie Rodriguez, Round Rock

In order to grow tennis, the Schools Committee was tasked with identifying the feeder patterns for the different school districts around the state. This was a huge task, but we are chipping away at it bit by bit. For the League Committee, I have volunteered as a site director at several Sectional tournaments. I have played in a few Sectional tourneys and had a great experience, but as the site director, I was able to see just how much work goes into preparing for one of these events. I thoroughly enjoyed wearing this new hat in the tennis world and I now have an even greater respect for tournament/site directors. It’s amazing to be around so many people that love the game as I do! Learning, laughing, and building relationships is what it’s all about. I feel blessed that I was afforded the opportunity to be on two USTA Texas committees.   

Nick Jasso, Austin

I became a committee member because I love tennis. It has given me everything I know in life and I am passionate about the game. I love competing in tournaments, attempting to master the game’s many nuances, and teaching it. I believe tennis is a sport that is of great benefit to everyone who plays and is also a sport that would benefit from more diversity. I love the idea of helping the USTA make tennis as accessible a sport as possible in the future. Committees really help shape the direction that USTA Texas takes as a whole. We have the opportunity to inject fresh ideas and energy into our committees, and we have the opportunity to take those necessary baby steps that end up making a big difference in a lot of people’s lives.  

Toni Camp, Spring

I am currently a member of the Advocacy Committee, working on the Tennis Ambassador program for our area. I also had the opportunity to review Building Grant submissions which I really enjoyed as I was able to use past business experience and I learned a lot about tennis ventures the CTAs are planning to expand. Being a USTA committee member has also made me more aware of opportunities to look into as Flood Control projects are being planned in the Spring area, to partner with USTA to hopefully have tennis included in those plans. I think what most people see and know about USTA is the US Open which is of course great. What others might want to know about are that all the committees are really focusing on bringing tennis availability to EVERYONE, not just those interested in tournament play. There is so much work around mentoring and building new programs that is “invisible.”

Sridevi Veeramachaneni, Amarillo

I currently serve on the Sports Science Committee lead by Matt McCoy and other wonderful volunteer committee members. Our committee looks at serving the Texas tennis community by promoting wellness, safety, and performance using science-based principles. One of our current projects is to prevent injuries and heat exhaustion related injuries at USTA youth tournaments to improve their tennis experience. As someone who also works in the non-profit sector, I am deeply appreciative of the value that volunteer committees provide to a non-profit organization. I appreciate all the time, efforts and valuable feedback that other volunteers are providing to enhance everyone’s experiences and joy of tennis. We are all serving as volunteers because of the positive experiences and opportunities this game has made available for us. Serving on the committees provides us an opportunity to give back by improving others’ experiences with tennis.