Welcome to ECTC!
10 and Under Tennis Spring Session
The 2012 Spring session of "10 and Under" Junior tennis (formerly QuickStart) in El Cerrito will be held this year March 26 – May 20. Teams have been formed, and practices are scheduled to start the week of March 26. Matches will begin Sunday, April 15. If you would like more information on this program, please contact Margo Takemiya at margo.quickstart@gmail.com.
NEW from the El Cerrito Tennis Club! A Thursday Evening Drop-in Round Robin, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at the Cerrito Vista courts.
Join us every Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. for a drop-in round robin at the Cerrito Vista courts.
And keep coming back! Courts have been reserved through the end of June!
It's a casual drop-in round robin and open to all (you don't need to be an ECTC member, though we'd love you to join).
Some Tennis-Related Requests from El Cerrito High School
El Cerrito High School has a couple of equipment requests for local players.
Used Balls
The El Cerrito High School PTSA is collecting used tennis balls to put on the bottom of chair legs in classrooms on the two upper floors of the buildings so that the noise of moving furniture around to create learning circles doesn't disturb those in the classroom below. Used tennis balls can be dropped off at the El Cerrito High School main office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday (please write "For ECHS PTSA"), or you can contact Nancy Gordon at nancypgordon@yahoo.com or (510) 910-7992 to arrange for a pickup.
New or Used Rackets
The ECHS P.E. department still needs new or used tennis rackets in good condition for P.E. units using our new tennis courts. Rackets should be suitable in size and weight for 9th – 12th grade high school students. Rackets can be dropped off at the school's main office 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, or you can contact Nancy Gordon at nancypgordon@yahoo.com or (510) 910-7992 to arrange for a pickup.
Boys' Tennis Season
The El Cerrito High School boys' tennis team, coached by Peter Cassman, will be playing its 2012 matches at the new school tennis courts located just south of the gym. Matches are scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons through the end of April. The schedule is listed below. Bring a chair and come root for our ECHS Boys Team!
Home: 2/28 Alameda; 3/8 Pinole Valley; 3/20 Berkeley; 3/27 Richmond
Away: 3/1 Richmond; 3/13 Hercules; 3/22 Alameda; 4/19 Berkeley
From Your President
It's hard to believe that 2011 is drawing to a close, and that my first year as president is almost over. Thanks to everyone on the ECTC board for all your help! And to all our Club members out on the courts, on teams, and at our events. Here are some highlights from 2011 and a look at things to come....
In its second year, the 10 and Under Junior League Tennis Program was a continued success. Thank you to Margo Takemiya for coordinating the program and to all the coaching volunteers. If you like kids and want to help grow the next generation of tennis players, I highly recommend coaching ... it's a lot of fun! To encourage younger kids to learn and play tennis, we've just had permanent lines for a 60-foot QuickStart court installed at the Castro courts. The USTA supports the the 10 and Under program and paid for most of the cost of painting the lines. More...
A Happy Tennis New Year's Day
Upwards of 35 players showed up on a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning to start 2012 off properly — with tennis!
In between the four-game, no-ad doubles matches, participants enjoyed coffee, bagels, cinnamon buns, juice, and sparkling wine. Play continued until well after 1:00.
In the brief annual meeting of the club, the membership approved the board of directors for 2012.
See photos at this Picasa Web Album.
In Memoriam: Henryk Kramek
On December 2, 2011, with the passing of Henryk Kramek, the El Cerrito tennis community lost a longtime friend, a perennial and respected USTA team captain, a popular teammate, and a true gentleman. For at least the last 15 years, Henryk was an active member of the Hackers, an avid USTA league player, and, for more than a decade, captain of many El Cerrito USTA teams. The success of the current Arlington Men's Combo 7.5 team is a fitting testament to his captaining skills.
We regret that he has played his last tennis, and we will miss him on the courts, but we trust he will be long remembered for his many contributions to tennis in El Cerrito. The El Cerrito Tennis Club joins the Hackers and the El Cerrito tennis community in mourning his passing, and we offer our deepest condolences to his wife, Leslie Fuller.
Henryk Kramek: a Personal Remembrance
I always looked up to Henryk. He was taller than me.
Seriously, though, he was selfless in repeatedly taking on the job of USTA team captain. Without him, we local tennis players would have had little opportunity to play in an organized league. The demands of a team captain are endless; I call it a job, but Henryk never considered it work. His constancy was exemplary: he was there for his teams for virtually every practice and every match, whether he was in the lineup or not, and only recently, with his illness, did he cut back on his attendance.
Henryk had an unerring sense of the game of tennis. He had an eagle eye for the small details in your strokes, noticing what you might be doing wrong, and his observations were insightful and valuable. At matches he was a keen observer of the bigger picture, and invariably his tactical tips could maintain our momentum if we were ahead or turn the tide in our favor if we were not.
He had a wonderful, self-deprecating sense of humor, so perhaps he would have appreciated my opening line. He sometimes called himself a graduate of the "Tin Man School of Tennis," comparing his court movement to the rusted-out character from The Wizard of Oz. If he served the opening game of a set, he would announce, "love, love, all you need is love!" And when team practices sometimes turned slapstick, we were awarded his approval rating of "better than Saturday morning cartoons."
I never saw Henryk get angry. He was a gentleman of equanimity, fairness, and integrity; a paragon of good sportsmanship. Occasionally he would send an e-mail asking someone to serve as "capitan du jour" for a match, or to cover the "capitan's" duties for him. I always wondered if the misspelling was intentional, but eventually I came to think of him as "El Capitan," and he will occupy a place in my memory as solid, prominent, and immutable as that mountain. So I will continue to look up to him; he'll always be taller than me.
— Anonymous
Two Reports from US Open 2011
In the summer of 2011, the club auctioned off two pairs of US Open tickets donated by the USTA in recognition for our participation in the QuickStart program. The winners were Margo Takemiya and Lynn Tsumoto, shown below with Fred Takemiya. Here are their stories.
For a recreational player member of the USTA who plays on public courts maintained by a municipal government and our local tennis club, attending the US Open as guest in the President's Suite was an extraordinary experience. I've watched all the Grand Slams for years on TV, including the US Open when it was at Forest Hills. I had dreamed of going to one "someday," and suddenly it happened! More...
Let's see, which bathroom would you use? The one where you'd have to stand in the hot sun in the line out the door and around the corner of the building? With the empty towel dispenser, suspicious liquid on the floor, a crowd of sweating men shuffling toward the door?
Or the air-conditioned one with marble counters, quality towels, my choice of hand lotion, face lotion, sunscreen . . . mouthwash? More...
2011 Mixed Doubles Tournament a Big Hit
On Sunday, September 18, the club's annual mixed doubles tournament hosted team play at the Arlington, Cerrito Vista, and Castro courts. Eight 6.5 teams and twice that number of 7.5 teams enjoyed great competition, convivial company, and a delicious picnic lunch as well as some of the best weather of the year.
Taking first place in the 6.5 division were Liz Holland and Vinnie Bui. Second place went to Anh Bui and and Ray Saturno. The 7.5 winners were Jan Wilkins and Dave Gerstel, who beat Kora Cypress and Gary Wong in the tiebreak of the playoff match.
See video and photos at this Picasa Web Album.
The Club Goes Green
El Cerrito Tennis Club supports our tennis teams in "going green."
We're asking our team captains to reduce the use of bottled water during home matches. ECTC has purchased a big Coleman container for this purpose and is encouraging the team captains to request the visiting teams to bring their own water containers to fill as needed. More...