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| Club News |
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Olympic 4.5 Women Compete at National Championships Olympic Players Win at Midwest Senior Team Championships Jim Criswell - GCTA Award Winner
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 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
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.
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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