We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics. ~Joyce Meyer

This month the theme in our schedule is “Always Improve”. I believe that we as a team here are encouragers and not critics. I believe that when you walk in our doors, we are here to improve your day.

We hope that by spending part of your day here that your outlook and output improve the rest of the day. As the saying goes, there is always room for improvement!

This leads me to a program that many of you may not realize has been happening for the past few years and has been consistently getting better. With the help of some grant money from the USTA we have been running high school team tennis leagues on some Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the year.

We have been offering a league for the Girl’s in the Fall, Boy’s in the Spring, and Mixed in the Winter. We started this during the Covid times so kids could play one of the few sports that were allowed at the time.

We have since been able to use some of the USTA grant and our own time and resources to provide these leagues at no cost to the students.

A big reason these leagues have improved since their inception is the work of our very own Zoe Jovanovich. Zoe has spent many hours organizing the teams, schedules, and awards. Zoe is truly an encourager. She has done an amazing job.

This past Mixed League had an incredible 78 high school students playing, many who normally must wait until the weather outside to play.

Zoe makes the high-ranking varsity player, and the green junior varsity player all feel good about their participation. Each player gets a certificate of participation and here are some of the awards and results.

Numbers for the whole league:
-78 certificates/players

League Champion

(and recipient of “The Golden Ducky”)

-Bellingham Bayhawks with 63% of games won

 Individual Awards:

Highest % of Games Won

-Leo Kuhn – 80% – Bellingham Bayhawks

Most Sets Played

–Bernadette Leib – 13 – KitchenAid Mixer

Sportsmanship Awards

(Voted on by the League Teams):

-Bernadine Salvatierra – Squalicum

-Cooper Graddon – Lynden Lions

100% Team Player Awards

(Competed in EVERY match for their team, barring weather cancellations/defaults)

-WE HAD 19 QUALIFYING PLAYERS!

A BIG SHOUT OUT to Zoe for continually improving this program and being such a great encourager to all the students that participate in this program.

We hope that we can continue to work with the USTA and keep this program as part of our regular yearly schedule to help the kids keep improving.

~Matt