Alaska Tennis Association is overcoming the odds stacked against it

It’s been more than 35 years since Ronald Reagan stated, during his first inaugural address, “Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look.” We discovered heroes in every state, starting with the determined 69-year-old who won a match at an ITF Pro Circuit event earlier this year in the Alabama town of Pelham, and culminating with the coach who has overcome multiple sclerosis to build a winning program at the University of Wyoming. Their compelling stories of courage, perseverance and achievement demonstrate that the message delivered by our 40th President rings as true today as it did then.

Finding a place to play tennis in Anchorage, Alaska, has its natural challenges.

“We have snow on the ground for six months of the year,” says Allen Clendaniel, President of the Alaska Tennis Association (ATA). “It's not like Seattle, Portland or New York, where they complain about their weather. We literally can't play.”

Beyond the outdoor conditions, the ATA has faced other hurdles. Recent court closures in Anchorage reduced the number of indoor courts to four, and a recent bid to fund new public courts failed. But none of that has kept the ATA from promoting the game it loves.

By resurfacing existing outdoor courts, providing generous scholarships to junior players and, most recently, establishing tennis programs in local middle schools, the ATA is overcoming the odds stacked against it.

Knowing that summer in Alaska is fleeting, the ATA takes full advantage. Thanks to the resurfaced courts in Anchorage’s Delaney Park, the association has seen an uptick in quality in the tournaments it hosts, including the Cathie Tracy Tournament and the Coho Slam. (The latter is named after a local species of salmon.)

“Because of the size of our tennis community, we have to be much more flexible in how we do things,” says Clendaniel. “In our 3.5 division, you'll often have two 14-year-olds playing two 50-year-olds. I think that's one of the cool things that's different about our tennis community. It's a lot more together, because we kind of have to be.”

After handing off the operations of a successful 10-and-Under tennis program to the USTA Pacific Northwest, the ATA has focused its efforts on middle school-aged players. Last summer, more than 50 middle-schoolers attended a jamboree that the ATA put together.

"We're really focused on the youth, because that's the future and we have to create more tennis players,” says Clendaniel. “Having fun, not hypercompetitive options for tennis, is our focus. It's not a natural tennis climate, but there's a lot of people up here who love it and play all the time.”