President’s Letter

Well, it’s over. The 37th Annual World Medical Tennis Society meeting, hosted by the AMTA in San Diego, came to a close the evening of September 14. We had a wonderful turnout of 70 AMTA members, including 10 new members.

It all began on the courts with an opening ceremony MCed by Betty Olsen. A tribute was given to former AMTA president Homer Peabody, who spearheaded the development of the Barnes Tennis Center, the magnificent facility where all the matches were held. The festive atmosphere was punctuated by a Navy band.

The CME and matches began the next morning. Lon Olsen did a superb job of organizing and running the CME program, which was very well attended. I’m pleased to say that we offered our international audience 25 hours of high quality CME.

The tournament ran as or more smoothly than any of the hundreds I’ve played in before, thanks to Betty’s hard work. She had the forethought to hire Steve Bickham and Allison Tarrant to schedule, announce, and receive scores from the matches. Their combined experience, with a high tech computer display that showed who was playing on which court and which matches were next up, made for a uniquely relaxed mood among the participants.

A dinner was held Tuesday night on the deck of the aircraft carrier Midway in San Diego harbor. Private tours of the ship were held between eating and dancing.

You’ll be pleased to know that the USA team won the Nations Cup this year, beating Germany in the final. Your team members were Jeff Williams, Hugh Burris, Greg Kaufman, Rollin Odell, and Craig Broome. Rollie, at age 72, played a particularly inspiring OPEN SINGLES match, winning in two close sets to clinch the title for the US.

Jeff Williams, a 50 year old cardiologist from San Diego, won the open singles tournament dropping only 4 games in 3 matches. I had the privilege of playing doubles with this amazing player in the Nations Cup, and it was quite an experience. We trounced two pretty good teams. You know how when you’re playing doubles sometimes and have a brief mental lapse, you find that you’re a couple of games down? Well, playing with Jeff, when I had a brief mental lapse, I’d find that we’d WON two more games. Once, when I was at midcourt, trying to decide whether or not this high floater coming my way was going out, a blur from my right leapt in front of me and volleyed the ball away for a winner – end of decision.

The Americans won a number of gold medals, in addition to that of Jeff’s, including Brendan Gaylis at M45S, Hugh Burris at M60S, Leland Housman at M65S, Paul Young at M75S, Vern Larson at M80S, Hugh Burris/Craig Broome at M60D, Bud Foran/Jack Jacobson at M75D, Betty Olsen at WnonMD70/75S, Betty Olsen/Ginger Nash at W70/75D, Carmelita Moczynski/Luisella Bresciano at W60/65D, Nancy Beggs/Melinda Voda at W50/55D, Jeff and Marcia Williams at OpenMX, Hugh and Carol Burris at M55/L50MX, Hans Weber/Monika Purucker at M65/L60MX, and Bud and Carol Foran at M75/L70MX.

Another highlight was the evening Phong Nguyen took about 20 AMTA members to his favorite Vietnamese restaurant, ordered for us, and helped prepare the foods at two tables.

I’d be remiss without mentioning our invaluable volunteers. Betty’s multi-talented daughter, Linda Bookman, and her husband Matt, involved themselves in everything from registration to photos. Matt’s parents, Phil and Lois Bookman graciously flew down from Los Gatos, CA and donated a week of their lives to helping with registration, manning the information booth, and whatever else needed to be done. Several others helped with stuffing welcome packets and registering participants including Rose and Bert Baysa, Pat Manion, and a few of Betty’s friends who are San Diego locals.

We’ve already received numerous emails from our international friends remarking on how excellent this meeting was. Many have told us it was the “best ever”. What wonderful testimonials to the Olsen’s, who made this their “baby” for the past four years.

If you missed it, then we missed you. Just resolve to rekindle your involvement in the AMTA and come to the next national meeting in April to be held at the beautiful Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa, Florida.

Craig Broome, President, AMTA

Letter from the Executive Secretary of WMTS

Dear AMTA Members,

Betty and Lon Olsen have just pulled off their finest tennis hour. No, it wasn't their winning the MXD championship in the Not-Telling-Age category. They have accomplished, in the greatest fashion, the staging of the 37th meeting of the World Medical Tennis Society in San Diego, in September. A special thrill was our winning the Nations' Cup competition. "You shoulda been there."

This meeting has to rank in "one of the all-time best" category. From the smoothly-run, no-wait registration desk on Saturday to the Awards Dinner on Friday, the final evening--with flamenco dancers!--the tennis, scientific sessions, and special events went off in grand style. The Olsens' countless hours spent, miles driven, determination and perseverance when no sponsorship money was coming in, and...their love for AMTA and WMTS accounted for the great success. As I said...their finest hour. Many, many thanks to Betty & Lon. Now they can sit back and rest on their well-deserved laurels!

Sponsors are just not out there any more. A big thank you to the sponsors who did take a chance with us: Biotronik, Olympus, Furgal Tours & Penn Balls. Many AMTA members tried to obtain sponsorship but were unsuccessful. Belt-tightening had to be done on some items. It helped greatly to have personal contributions from AMTA members to defray expenses. 30 members, some of whom did not attend the tournament, helped with expenses; $36,000 was raised this way. We extend thank yous to these members who believe in AMTA and WMTS.

There is more on the meeting on the WMTS website, www.wmtstennis.org . Also, there is information there, and on AMTA's website, www.mdtennis.org about next year's meeting in Croatia, in September.

Ciao, Jim Manion, Exec. Sec'y, WMTS