From Campus to the Courts

GSW alum travels the country as a USTA umpire

By Stephen Snyder

On its own, New York City is a considerable melting pot of nationalities and ethnicities, and for three weeks each year, 70 additional countries are represented on the courts of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York during the U.S. Open Tennis Championships. Georgia Southwestern alum Courtney Schumacher Potkey makes the annual trek at the end of each summer, too, but as a USTA umpire.

Getting into Tennis

“I played softball in college,” said Potkey who initially came to GSW to be on the softball team – she played second base. “When I moved to California, I got into tennis. The tennis club where we played had a futures event.”

Potkey explained a “futures event” is a tournament where players try to get enough ranking points to move up in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) rankings.

“I would help the (club) tennis pro run the tournament desk, making sure matches got on the right court at the right time,” she said. After talking with the tournament supervisor who works for the USTA (United States Tennis Association), an opportunity to work the tournament in a different way presented itself.

“My mom and I were working, and we asked him, ‘Hey, what are those people doing on the court lines? That looks like fun. How can we try it?’” Potkey added. “He said, ‘Well, are you guys busy tomorrow?’”

They were not. And after showing up the following morning, Courtney and her mom were ready to be tennis umpires.

“They gave us a little bit of training and told us how to move on the court and where you’re supposed to stand based on where the players were serving,” she said. “That’s kind of what got me started. I just worked my way up from there, and within a couple years, I was working the top professional events – tournaments like Indian Wells (BNP Paribas Open, California) and the U.S. Open Series events.”

In April 2013, Courtney worked the Davis Cup in Boise, Idaho and the Fed Cup in Del Ray Beach, Fla. This is an honor as the selection process to work these events is highly competitive.

To become a certified umpire, annual training is required, and you must pass an annual written test appropriate to a specific type of officiating. Depending on the round of the match, three to 10 umpires could be on the court at one time (including the chair umpire).

Hand-Eye Coordination

Growing up a softball player, Courtney said, “I would goof around and play tennis.” Working nights at a newspaper as a graphic designer after moving to California made it difficult to play in softball leagues.

“I worked 4 p.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday, so I couldn’t really find a softball league to play in,” she said. “My parents were into tennis, so I decided I would pick that up. It would be the next easiest sport for me to play. I already had the hand-eye coordination thing down. It was a pretty easy transition once I learned not to hit the ball over the fence.”

Before umpiring on the pro circuit took up most of her time, she played tennis in the mornings before going into work.

“I still do play, but I don’t have that much time anymore, with all of the traveling that I do as an umpire,” she said. “I play on league teams for the USTA. I captained the last few seasons with a friend of mine.”

Always on the Line

Since graduating from Chattahoochee High School in Alpharetta, Ga., Courtney has made good use of a map. From Americus, she moved to California, where she now lives in Sunland. As a USTA umpire, Potkey travels to as many as 15 different states in a given year, making a prolonged stop in New York for three weeks each September. During that time, her eyes are peeled to the court lines. “Last year was my busiest year so far, and I did just over 60 days of actual line calling,” she said. “Leading up to the U.S. Open, I was on the road a total of six weeks straight.”

Including travel days and down time in between tournaments, Potkey was on the road for a total of five months.

And she is always at her best. The advent of the Hawk-Eye tennis officiating system has solidified that fact. “Statistics show that we are right about 75 percent of the time,” said Potkey. “Hawk-Eye solves a lot of problems without a problem even starting.”

Hawk-Eye is the first and only ball-tracking technology to have passed stringent testing measures. This technology is now an important part of the top professional tennis tours. It is featured at over 60 events each year.

“I was working an ATP event in Los Angeles about two or three years ago, and at the time, we set the best record for percentage of Hawk-Eye, and the players were only right 19.5 percent of the time at that event,” she said. “Some players actually do see the ball better than others.”

A tennis umpire for nine years and a USTA umpire for seven, Potkey is good at what she does. She was the 2012 recipient of the Junior McGovern Award for excellence as a young umpire. This honor is not given out every year. In its 65-year existence, the Junior McGovern Award has only been given 24 times. Courtney was a little surprised with the recognition. “I was shocked, to say the least,” she said.

When there’s a great point, the crowd just erupts. There is not anything quite like the feeling you have hearing almost 25,000 fans in mad cheers at one time.

Under the Lights

The last tournament in the U.S. Open Series and the final tennis grand slam of the year, lights shine brightest at the U.S. Open. Potkey is one of roughly 375 officials that work the event. All of the best players in the world put the U.S. Open on their calendar.

“Here at the Open, I have worked Arthur Ashe [Stadium],” she said. “I’ve been on all of the big courts here, working the women’s finals the last [three] years (including 2013), which was really cool.”

The day she agreed to this interview, Potkey was set to umpire on Arthur Ashe (the largest tennis stadium in the world) later that night. Without her saying as much, the tournament schedule showed that she worked matches that night that included six seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and eventual champion on the men’s side Rafael Nadal of Spain.

“It’s definitely cool to be on Arthur Ashe when there is a big name player out there, and the stands are full,” she said. “When there’s a great point, the crowd just erupts. There is not anything quite like the feeling you have hearing almost 25,000 fans in mad cheers at one time.”

In a Sou'westerly Direction

“I really enjoyed my time at Southwestern, and actually, tennis was my P.E. requirement class,” Courtney added. “It was college. I remember having such a good time with the sorority (Zeta Tau Alpha) and being involved socially. I think one of my biggest accomplishments or proudest achievements when I was there was taking the Sou’Wester and kind of getting it back on a regular operating schedule.”

Potkey served on the staff of the Sou’Wester, GSW’s student newspaper, from Fall 2001 to 2003. “I worked with Sheila Averitt Jones very closely,” Courtney said. “She was the advisor. I put a lot of hard work into it, and it was nice to see that it paid off. It always gave me a good feeling when I’d walk around campus and see students walking with a newspaper in their hand reading it. It was validation that people actually do care about this paper.”

Having lived in California for 10 years now, Courtney and her husband, Darren, will be moving to Georgia soon. Darren was recently named executive director of USTA Georgia. And though she attended Georgia Southwestern for three years, Courtney finished her bachelor’s degree in graphic design at California State University San Bernardino.

Courtney will be taking off most of 2014. She’s expecting twins.