2022 NEIGHBOR ISLANDS YEAR-IN-REVIEW

West Hawaii Community Tennis Organization

www.ustahawaii.com/westhawaii

NICK YAMASAKI, President westhawaiitennis@gmail.com

The West Hawaii region has had a very busy year. We held 11 tournaments at the Royal Kona Resort Tennis Club, which included Orange and Green Ball, Junior and Adult Tournaments. We also had the opportunity to host the BIIF Championships for the High School Players at the Seaside Tennis Club at Mauna Kea Resort. It was nice to see a lot of new junior players on the court.

As for the Adult leagues, we had the privilege to host the Mixed 40, Adult 65 and Ekolu Sectionals at the Fairmont Orchid at Mauna Lani.

The West Hawaii Community Tennis Organization is here to help promote and develop the growth of tennis in West Hawaii, through numerous programs and grants. We were able to help support the various tournaments and leagues through our grants, including to help send our Adult 65 - Women’s 8.0 team, Kauna’oa, to Nationals.

East Hawaii Community Tennis Organization

www.ustahawaii.com/easthawaii

NANCY KELLY, President ntk96720@yahoo.com

Tennis is alive and well in East Hawaii for adults and juniors!! In 2022 we ran nine adult leagues, adding the Mixed 55 & Over league. We had a total of 83 teams which was still below the 92 teams we had in 2018 before the pandemic. Our highlights included hosting the Mixed 18 sectionals and the men’s 65 and Over team advancing to Nationals. The continued success of tennis in East Hawaii would not be possible without the EHCTO committee and LLCs, Jane Iida, Ioana Agasa, Andrea Ueno, Jon Tokuuke, JoAnn Ishida, Dave Okamura, Kira Mae, Sheri Kinoshita, Lori Nekoba, Diane Noda, Richard Tsunoda, and Nancy Kelly.

Hilo Junior Tennis hosted a July summer tournament and a Green Dot tournament in September. There were four Junior Team Tennis Leagues in the Fall with eight teams. Two teams participated in the Sectional tournament with the 3.0 (14) team winning the championship. We continue to do drills and Match Play and had three juniors compete at National tournaments. Thanks go out to Board members, Jill Atwal, Reiko Bando, Karen Dodo, Grace Funai, Christine Gumbs, Zaida Igawa, Michael Kanemoto, Sandy Kimura, Paige Nakano, Jenny Nishida and J Yoshimoto for their dedication and efforts to support and promote the junior tennis program in East Hawaii.

Our Play and Learn Tennis program on Oahu and Maui provided classes at 20 facilities, private and public. Over 8000 students benefited from our accessible, active and affordable classes. Each session had over 100 classes to choose from. 65% of our participants are children and 35% are adults. 18 coaches helped to serve and retain this surge of interest in tennis as people ventured outside for safer recreation in our still present COVID environment. Just like the rest of the country, we had great opportunities to share the healthy sport of tennis with many new families.

To enroll or learn more about this program visit: ustahawaii.com/classes