Category: News

Tennis Talk
By Betty Olsen

It’s Tennis Time.  Get motivated watching the US Open! You don’t want to miss the tennis club’s mixed doubles tournament Saturday and Sunday, September 16 & 17.

There will be 2 draws, “A” and “B.”  Sign up online.  The tennis club sent out several emails with a button to click on that takes you to registration.  You can also find the same button on Your Courts.  Here is the link so you can register right now! NO PARTNER, NO PROBLEM.  We will do our best to find you one.  For problems, call Karen Hillis, Tournament Director, 209-602-4388, or email hisknoggen@Yahoo.com.

The Men’s & Women’s Doubles club tournament is September 30 and October 1

And finally, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, the club’s awards dinner will be at Foothill.  Please put October 1^st on your calendar as a definite date.  Watch for more information and sign-ups in your email.

The Village Women’s 6.5 team played its first match Wednesday, August 30 in Morgan Hill.  Julie Hawkinson acted as captain.  We were competitive against younger players, but came out 2^nd best.  Two matches went the distance with 3^rd set tie-breakers.  Next match is Tuesday, September 5 at 10:45am at home.  Come cheer on the ladies

Tennis Talk
By Betty Olsen
The US Open is just around the corner, and that means after binge watching the US Open you will be anxious and motivated to sign up for our September Club tournament.

You can do that by opening the email you received many times from the tennis club announcing the dates and a convenient button to click on that takes you to a google document to register (or just click this link!). You don’t want to miss this fun tournament.
Participation is the key!

Mixed doubles will be played on Saturday and Sunday, September 16 and 17. We will have 2 categories: “A” and “B.” The format is a compass draw meaning to continue to play whether you win or lose. You will play 2 matches on Saturday and 1 on Sunday if we have 8 teams for each category, If we have less than 8 teams. adjustments will be made. Each day we should be finished by 1:30pm. NO PARTNER, NO PROBLEM, Sign-up and we will do our best to find you one.

Men’s and Women’s Doubles is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, September 30 and October 1. Again the compass draw will be used as the format. There will be 4 categories: Men’ A. Men’s B, Women’s A. Women/s B. NO PARTNER, NO PROBLEM, Sign-up and we will do our best to find you one.

Put on your calendar, TENNIS CLUB AWARDS DINNER, Saturday, October 1 at Foothill. Watch for your email to sign-up.

Contact Roy Pennington, Peggy Seidel or Jim Murphy to sign=up for our
interclub Mixed Doubles League. We will have 4 teams that will play October, November with a few weekends. The spring league was such a success, this fall league was requested. You don’t want to miss it either!

Tennis Talk
By Betty Olsen
Meet new tennis club member Amit Seth and wife Swati Seth, who just
moved into Valle Vista on July 30 th ! He said he had his eye on the
Villages for a while so when he turned 55 in March he called his realtor.

Amit grew up in Bangalore, India and participated in cricket and
snooker while growing up, and now he represents the US at the
Snooker World Championships. He has one younger sister who lives
with her family in Los Gatos.

About 10 years ago Amit retired from cricket and took up tennis. He
started with USTA leagues playing as a 3.5, but now plays USTA 4.0
from Courtside. Amit is competitive in several sports: cricket, snooker,
billiards, tennis and is looking to try pickleball.

He is still working, so most of his sports are played on the weekend.
Amit moved to the US in 1992 and currently is an AI and Data
Technologist at The Weather Company owned by IBM. Yep, The
Weather Company is the largest company in the world reporting on the
weather! So, if you have weather related questions, Amit is your guy.

Besides his sports, Amit feels compelled to give back to his community
by volunteering on several non-profit boards. His is especially
passionate about working for non-profits fighting child trafficking.

Welcome to the Villages Amit and Swati.

Tennis Talk
By Sherry Benz

Sunday saw the Tennis Club out on the golf course trying to understand why it was so much harder to hit a stationary ball than one that is traveling at the speed of light.  The format was a “step aside scramble” where you chose the best ball of the group for each shot and each person hits from that position except the player whose ball was chosen – he/she must “step aside”.  There were some bright spots:

• Low net for 18 holes:  Cheryl Heusser, Jay Pinson, Roy & Kathy Pennington
• Low net for 9 holes:  Sherry Benz, Dennis Cullen, Donna Quartaro, Marty Funcell
• Closest to the pin #4: Cheryl Heusser for the women – Vince Alvarez for the men.

Allow bragging rights … Donna drove the green on #6, Sherry put in a 12’ birdie putt – girl power!  Prizes were given for the winners and lots more by random draw.  Thanks to Scott Steele for donating a couple of baskets of range balls … some of us need it more than others!

The food was fabulous … tostado shells with all the fixin’s. Thanks to my co-chairs, Jayme and Lynn Dickson for a great job.  It’s never too late to have fun!

Get ready … VTL (Villages Tennis League) is coming back in October!  Remember how we met and played with other Club members, some we had never been on a court with.  It was (mostly) friendly competition and a lot of fun.  The play will be mixed doubles and most matches will be played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays with only a couple of weekend matches to include our working players  Thanks to Roy, Peggy and Jim for “herding” this group.  Sign up … and make a new friend!

By Karen Hillis and Betty Olsen

Saturday, SEPTEMBER 16 and Sunday, September 17
Mixed Doubles Club Tournament
Saturday, SEPTEMBER 30 and Sunday, OCTOBER 1
Men’s and Women’s doubles Club Tournament

Now is the time for you to grab a partner and put these dates on your calendar.
We hope to have 8 teams for each category: Mixed A, Mixed B, Men’s A, Men’s B, Women’s A. Women’s B.

On Sunday, October 1 there will be a dinner at Foothill to socialize and hand out awards.

You don’t want to miss any of it!

By Sonia Soin and Betty Olsen

The Fun Mixer 2023 on Friday, July 21 was a great success thanks to everyone. A special thank you to all those who helped Harry and me organize this event from the start. It was our first time taking home the Mixer Black Binder.

Thank you to all the ladies who helped set up and decorate the area, welcome and register all the players with name tags and score cards. And special thanks to those who stepped in to fill in some spots last minute.

We had 24 players filling all 6 courts mixing it up at 4:30 p.m. and another 24 players mixing it up at 5:30 p.m. The viewing stands were filled with spectators most of the time with lots of comments and cheering. We were especially excited to have several new tennis club members participate.

Following the tennis, a delicious BBQ was organized by Linda Dumont, social chairman, and her culinary gang. A very big thank you to Brian Dombrowski for grilling all those delicious burgers.

There is one sad note to this otherwise Fun Mixer. Nancy Spisar took a tumble on the court and hurt her right wrist. …turns out she is having surgery this week! Nancy and our President Randy Shaw will be rehabbing their bodies for the next while since Randy had knee replacement surgery day of the Fun Mixer.

Sonia Soin and Kathy Dombrowski at the Tournament Desk.

Spectators filling up the viewing stands.

Nancy Spisar and Mary Ringel

Tennis Talk

By Betty Olsen

I would like to introduce you to one of our new tennis club members. His name is Tony Loiacono. He and wife Hanne moved to village Hermosa April 2023. When you meet him, you will wonder if he is related to Steve Olsen because if you were glancing at the courts from the viewing stand you would think you were watching Steve except Tony is a lefty!

Tony grew up traveling because his father was in the military. But the unique reason he moved and traveled so much was because his dad was a PGA tour golf pro in the military. Tony has an older brother who is a scratch golfer. He also has a younger sister.

Tony went to high school in Florida and played trombone in a jazz band. He went to Florida State University and became a wine sommelier working his way through college at Disneyworld. After college he and a friend did a road trip from Florida to California but ran out of money when they hit San Francisco. However, he never returned to Florida because he met his wife here and raised his family in Redwood City. They have one son, Nicholas, who is a musician. He plays several instruments, but the guitar is his main instrument but now is a music producer and owns a recording studio in San Mateo.

Tony has enjoyed many careers including working as a yacht broker in Newport Beach. Tony and Hanne now own a special events company. Their clients include Stanford and many IT companies. However, he says he now works part-time because he can rely on repeat business.

I asked Tony how he found out about the villages, and he remembers when they decided to move, they looked on Zillow. And are we glad they did! Tony joined the tennis club after participating in Jay’s Sunday drop-in and states they are very happy with their move choice. They were looking for a friendly community with many activities to choose from and they found it.

Tennis Talk

By Betty Olsen and Nancy Domingo

Saturday, July 1, the tennis club held its annual Bocce/BBQ meeting. Nancy Domingo, chairperson, and her committee did an outstanding job organizing this event. Peggy Seidel, Sherry Benz, Judy Falarski, Betty Olsen manned the check-in desk where folks picked up their name tags and raffle tickets a well as their Bocce times.

Approximately 91 members and guests filled the shady spots at the umbrella tables. Don Clarke and Lolivic Shaw entertained us with two songs, “Shallow” and “Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer”. Randy held a short meeting with Roy Pennington announcing fall League Tennis.

Volunteer chefs cooked steak, salmon and vegie burgers served with Costco chili, potato salad, green salad, and ice cream bars for dessert. Yum!

Nancy Domingo’s guest, professional jazz singer, Yvonne Flores entertained us with a song on her album Sheer Bliss. She will be performing on August 12 at the San Jose Jazz Festival in the PG&E Hammer Theater Stage at 3:00pm.

And then to finish the day, Nancy handed out the many raffle prizes totaling $400.00, to conclude the day’s festivities. We were happy to see many new members attend as well as some of our older folks no longer playing but still tennis enthusiasts.

Our next event is our “Fun Mixer” Friday, July 21 chaired by Sonia and Harry Soin. Please go to “YourCourts” and on the right side click on “Coming Events” to sign-up. Following tennis, there will be a BBQ at the viewing stand.

Attention all Tennis club members. 2023 Tennis mixer is almost here, so sign up now before all spots are filled. The date of this event is Friday, July 21st starting at 430 PM. There will be two sessions. We promise you an evening filled with interesting tennis games with a twist. Each participant can sign up for only one session. Don’t miss out! The evening will be filled with fun tennis, food, music, and prizes.

We have a great organizing committee of volunteers to ensure you all have a great time. The committee comprises of Linda, Betty, Liz, Nancy, Helen, Brett, Doug, Asra, Sonia and Harry. We can always use the help. so feel free to reach out to Harry or Sonia if you would like to help.

Check your email or sign up on Your Courts.

Schedule of events :

Session 1 – 4:30PM

Session 2 – 5:30 PM

There will be a BBQ following the tennis, so bring your appetites. And don’t forget to bring your own drinks because the event is BYOB.

By Sherry Benz
TT 6/29/23

Some folks imagine that “jump start” is something you need when your car’s engine won’t turn over. Yes, but the Tennis Club’s Jump Start program is different, helping Villagers who are a bit (or more than a bit) “rusty” and even some brave folks who wonder if they could start a new sport as a senior. Dozens of “want-a-be” tennis players have passed though, most of them very successful in upping their game and joining in play. We have just concluded the 2023 Jump Start session (10 weeks in all) and a party followed – just a wee celebration of all we have learned, new friendships, and the fun we had on the courts.

This is the 2nd year for Peter Groot. He showed up with a wooden racquet in 2021 and a healthy resolve to get back into tennis after 42 years! And, wow, he has turned into a very formidable opponent. His advice is “don’t think that you can’t play”! Thanks to the generosity of one of our members, we were able to provide Peter with a free racquet and the sky is the limit! Myra Dykstra is also attending for the 2nd year and really appreciates having input from different coaches, helping her break old habits – don’t we all want that!

Speaking of coaches, we couldn’t offer Jump Start without the generous time and expertise given by Mike & Gail Tuft, Peggy Siedel, and Roy Pennington. Not to mention a few others who dropped in to help: Karen Hillis, Betty Olsen and Barry Stein.

We all know that our skill improves with practice and the more balls we hit and the more players we play against, the better we get. So … everyone, take advantage of Open Play. You are welcome at any level and you can continue to get coaching, if you would like. Open Play is Monday and Friday from 4:30-6:00 PM on courts 5 & 6. Contact Peggy Seidel if you have a question: peggy@theseidels.net or 713-398-7955. We’ll be looking for you!