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2010-2011
Fall Opening
Olympic
4.5 Women Compete at National Championships
Celiana
Taylor
Olympic
Players Win at Midwest Senior Team Championships
Jim
Criswell - GCTA Award Winner

Fall
Opening
Olympic will
open for our indoor season on Tuesday, September 7. All leagues,
Play & Learn, etc. will begin on that day.

Columbus'
Olympic Indoor Women's 4.5 USTA team played in the USTA Adult
National Championships, October 30-November 1, 2009 in Las Vegas.

Front
left to right: Kelly Augspurger, Michelle Jarrett, Kathy White,
Mary Drennen, Katie Schottke
Back left to right: Kathy Kinnard, Heidi Younker, Pam Lippy
Missing: Katie Figgie, Mary Jane Hamilton
The
Olympic Indoor Women's 4.5 USTA team has qualified for the Nationals
to be held in Las Vegas October 30-November 1. The team is comprised
of a group of women ranging in age from 20-59. It began when 3
longtime tennis friends wanted to try to get back into the competitive
adult tennis scene because they not only loved playing tennis,
but competing at it. Michelle Jarrett of Gahanna, a local tennis
teaching professional at Olympic Indoor and Lakes, Medallion and
Jefferson Country Clubs, and former Ohio State Assistant Coach,
was mainly responsible for assembling the team. She first recruited
her longtime friends Kathy Kinnard (Athletic Director at Grandview
Heights) and Kathy White (kindergarten teacher in Lancaster).
Michelle and the two Kathys have played tennis with and against
each other for over 20 years. They asked many of the best 4.5
level players in the city if they would be interested in being
on their team and trying to see if they could make it to the District,
State or Sectional tournament. They never thought that qualifying
for Nationals would be in the picture their first season. Among
the players they got on-board are Pam Lippy of New Albany, also
a local teaching professional and one of the best adult female
players in Ohio. Joining them are Heidi Younker (accountant),
Katie Schottke (OSU pre-med student), Kelly Glassburn Augspurger
(used car dealership manager), Shannon Murlin (elementary art
teacher), Mary Drennen (recently retired consultant), Katie Figgie
(loan officer), Mary Jane Hamilton (pre-school computer teacher).
Others on the team who were unable to play in the series of play-off
tournaments were Lois Dosky, Jenne Holle, Sarah Shanahan Param.
Everyone
on this team played a high level of high school tennis and a variety
of Division I, II or III collegiate tennis. Their path to Nationals
included winning the local Columbus area league of 7 teams, which
qualified them for District play. Districts were in Dayton in
August vs teams from Cincinnati, Dayton & Charleston, WV. After
winning there, they played States in Toledo vs teams from Northeast
and Northwest Ohio. Then it was on to the MidWest Sectionals vs
teams from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin. They barely
won there says Jarrett, but as in all sports, in the end, the
score doesn't matter, and off to Nationals they are! Another chance
to say "Go Bucks!"
Click
here for a feature on the team broadcast on WSYX Channel 6.


One
Monday, Celiana Taylor was under the Olympic bubbles playing,
as she did every Monday, in her morning doubles league. The first
set went quick. Beaten soundly, six games to two, Taylor turned
to her long-time partner Kathy Bauman and said, "Okay, Kathy,
now we get down to business." The two came back to win the
second set just as soundly -- 6 to 2. Their opponents eventually
broke the tie in the third, but what they never knew was that
Taylor had played the entire game with double vision. What they
did know was that Taylor was older, in fact, at 89, Taylor was
the oldest player at Olympic. Today, at 92, she still is.
Taylor
took up tennis seriously at an age when many others, unfortunately,
give up competitive sport. Looking to stay active in retirement,
she had heard tennis is a game "you can play until you die,"
so at age sixty-nine, she signed up for her first Play 'n Learn.
Though she expected the hour and half skill session would be the
extent of her tennis career, in no time at all she joined a competitive
league, played to win, and took home the championship trophy --
twice.
"For
heavens sake, Ce, keep your eye on the ball!" In her late
80's Taylor heard this more than once from her pro, Mike Haddow.
Finally she had to ask: "Okay, Mike, but which ball?"
The Monday morning match she had lost was not the first she had
played with vision troubles -- the condition cropped up erratically
-- but it was the match that convinced her to play tennis for
fun, not for fun and a trophy. Though no longer part of a competitive
league, she still hits the court three days a week. "When
you canŐt always see the ball," Taylor explains in her understated
way, "naturally the wins get fewer and fewer."
And
Ce Taylor does like to win. "She was bound and determined
to be competitive," says Bauman, who played with Taylor for
ten years. "It was never just fun and exercise, though it
was that. She was in there to win." Pro Cyndee Wagner remembers
one of her young players coming off the court, dejected that she
had lost to a woman in her 60's. Wagner said, "I hate to
tell you, but that's Ce Taylor and I think she is closer to 87."
For Taylor, there was never any glee in beating younger players,
even much younger players.
She
stopped playing tennis for two years at 89 to work with several
doctors regarding the eye problem as well as a thyroid problem
, sleep problem, and the right shoulder with a separated clavicle
never treated, and a rotator cuff torn twice, never treated. During
this time most of her usual activities were continued. In the
fall of 2008 she was back in a Play and Learn. With this group
of men and women -- a mix of ages and experience -- she saw no
reason to discuss her age, her years of court-time, or her past
wins. "We are all just tennis players," she says. About
her active and influential professional life she also remains
quiet. Very few know about her successful career, and that, according
to Taylor, is how it should be: "I believe we are who we
are at the moment," she says.
At
the moment I met Taylor, she had recently played a Doubles from
7:30-9:00 a.m. with a group of 50 and over women, and then finished
the morning by cleaning out her garage. She says tennis still
leaves her feeling energetic. She also fully admits to not being
as spry at 92 as 82, but for those who think aging is an inevitable
downhill path, she also says she is in better shape today than
a year ago. Taylor doesn't linger on the things she can't do --
like climb a section of Mexico's Copper Canyon on a horse as she
last did at age 81 -- she focuses on what she can do. At the same
time, if she believes she can beat a problem, she will. When doctors
gave up on her arthritic right index finger, she stretched it
every day, and though it took two whole years, a finger that previously
would not bend, now easily wraps around the handle of her tennis
racket.
At
age 92, Ce Taylor has certainly confirmed that tennis can be a
lifelong pursuit. She says she is happy if her story in any way
encourages others to stay active, especially women -- who have
not always been as encouraged to be athletic. Bauman thinks Taylor
has long been an inspiration: "Without her, I may not have
kept playing this long." She says, "I think of Ce, and
she's not ready to quit. Why should I?"
by
Kendra Hovey
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Kathy
White and Kathy Kinnard capture the Women's 45 Doubles title in
2009 and the Women's 55 Doubles title in 2010.

Jim
Criswell and Phil Ludwig win the 2009 Men's 65 Doubles title.
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In his senior
year in high school, Jim switched sports from baseball to tennis,
a sport that he had played to some extent when he was 12 years
old. He played 3rd singles on the first Worthington High School
Tennis Team. Following graduation from high school, Jim helped
organize the Cardinal Tennis Club in Worthington. Over the next
several years, he was a club officer and president of the group.
He actively promoted play by the formation of tennis ladders and
team play for adults and youth.
Jim played
college tennis for the Ohio State University and lettered in 1960.
His college coach was John Hendrix. After graduation from OSU,
Jim became a chemistry teacher and a tennis coach at Columbus
Whetstone High School. During his years at Whetstone, his teams
won 11 consecutive City League Championships. Two of his players,
George Learmonth and Randy McLaughlin, won the Ohio High School
Athletic Association's State Doubles Tournament one year and they
were the runners-up the following year. During Jim's time at Whetstone,
he never cut players from the team. Each year, he would have around
30 players playing in varsity and junior varsity matches. Jim
has always felt that it is important that everyone who wants to
learn the game should be encouraged to do so.
While at
Whetstone High School, Jim was an active member of the Ohio High
School Tennis Coaches Association. He served as Secretary-Treasurer
for several years. He helped set up the State Coaches Team Championship
Tournament. He was twice speaker at the annual Ohio High School
Coaches Clinic. For many years, he coordinated the Columbus area
high school tennis scene by being the Director of the Central
District High School Tennis Tournament for the Ohio High School
Athletic Association.
For eleven
years, during the summers, Jim was the first tennis pro at Columbus
Country Club; he was also the Head Pro at Winding Hollow Country
Club for three years and at Olympic Swim & Racquet Club. After
11 years as a teacher and a high school coach, Jim left Whetstone
High School to become the Manager and Director of Tennis at the
Olympic Indoor Tennis Club. He is still there today. As with the
Cardinal Tennis Club, Jim set up Olympic with the same primary
emphasis on league and team play for adults and juniors. For over
20 years, Jim and Olympic Tennis have offered free tennis lessons
to both adults and young people in a continuing effort to get
more players into the game of tennis. His USA-123 Programs have
brought over 100 new players into the game each year. The Easter
Seal Tennithon at Olympic for Junior players has raised close
to $100,000 over the years. Jim was recognized with an "Outstanding
Promotion of Tennis Award" by GCTA in 1999.
Three years
ago Jim started The Bernard Master Junior Satellite Circuit that
is played at all the local indoor clubs. It is a series of six
tournaments and a masters tournament played in each age group
of 10's thru 18's for boys and girls. Close to 200 juniors participated
last winter.
Jim has been
a major promoter and organizer of tennis in the Columbus area
for over 45 years. During this time he has helped to develop the
USTA Adult Leagues and he has established and directed several
USTA sanctioned junior and adult tournaments. For many summers,
the best players from around the state have played in the Bernard
Master Olympic Tennis Classic which Jim has organized. He has
also been the co-tournament director of three men's professional
satellite tournaments that have been held in Columbus.
Jim and his
family have truly supported tennis. Jim has written several articles
for local publication in the SNP papers in support of tennis.
His wife, Mary, works at the Olympic Indoor Tennis Club; his son,
Wynn, is a teaching pro in St. Louis where he was just awarded
St. Louis Magazine's award as the top teaching pro in St. Louis.
Wynn was a professional player with wins over the Bryan Brothers
and James Blake in doubles as well as Sandon Stolle in singles.
For more
2007 GCTA award winners, Click
Here!
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