February is Black History Month, and the USTA/Midwest Section is honoring the past by celebrating our future by highlighting current local junior players, volunteers and coaches throughout the month. Each week two members of the USTA/Midwest Section will be profiled and highlighted during this month long celebration.
Please visit
usta.com for more coverage about the African American legends of the past and champions of today.
| VIOLET CLARK (Chicago, Illinois) - February 3, 2014 |
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USTA/Midwest Section President Violet Clark has a great tennis story to share - but it didn’t start out as a tennis story. Instead, it begins with how a small act of kindness, 45 years ago, changed her life and how it led her to give back to her community, become passionate about tennis, and eventually be the first African-American Woman to serve as USTA/Midwest Section President.
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| DOROTHY BOWMAN (Grand Rapids, Michigan) - February 14, 2014 |
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Although her official title is CEO and Founder of the CrossCourt Tennis Community Tennis Association, Dorothy Bowman also includes “Diversity Advocate, USTA/Midwest” on her e-mail signature. As CEO of the CrossCourt Community Tennis Association in Grand Rapids, Michigan, her passion is bringing tennis to inner city youth in her community.
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| THE CURRIE FAMILY (Indianapolis, IN) - February 20, 2014 |
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She started playing tennis at age 5 and began playing competitively at age 8; he began playing as a young boy after watching his father play in tournaments and USTA leagues. Their tennis journeys led them both to Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) where he is currently the head men’s tennis coach and where she was the head women’s coach for over 5 years. Their journeys also brought them together, and Brandon and Cameron Currie are now married and enjoying a life together – a life that continues to include tennis.
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| DERYCK TOLES (Warren, Ohio) - February 26, 2014 |
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Deryck Toles was a star in the game of football - an academic all-American and team captain at Penn State University, and later a successful NFL linebacker – but he now finds himself in the game of tennis and has partnered with the USTA to bring the game to nearly 400 students at Inspiring Minds, a community organization he founded that serves at-risk youth in Warren, Ohio.
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| THE SEYMORE FAMILY (Chicago, Illinois) - February 28, 2014 |
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The Seymore family finds themselves in the game – alongside the world’s best tennis players – at the US Open in New York City. Harriet Seymore says that ever since her family’s first trip in 2011, they were hooked and now plan to make it a family tradition.
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