Tennis, Everyone?

The Ojai.

For four days in April, the two words that usually stand in for our southern California Shangrila meant something a little different. From the East End to Oak View and beyond, the largest amateur tennis tournament in the country makes use of every court and much of the townspeople’s goodwill, organization, and energy. This spring marked its 112th year (the tournament was not played during some of the war years), with hundreds of volunteers holding down the fort and the traditions: court managing and card-flipping, tea tent and trash pick-up, fresh orange juice, and hand-written updates on the kiosks near the center of Libbey Park in the center of town in the center of the Valley.

And it all began with a Thacher, specifically our founder's tennis-lovin’ brother, William, who’d been a champion, both at Yale and in national intercollegiate competition, singles and doubles. Ignoring Sherman’s request that, for a visit west to the nascent ranch school (a visit that would, incidentally, last forty-five years), he leave his court whites and racquets at home in Connecticut, William soon made tennis into the most popular game at the school and in the Valley, his considerable skill and easy enthusiasm drawing in everyone in his legendarily magnetic field. The Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament, which he founded in 1896, carries on its roster of winners the name of nearly every great U.S. player of the 20th century, including Bill Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Helen Wills Moody, Tony Trabert, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer, Maureen Connolly, Gussie Moran, Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, Pancho Gonzales, Alex Olmedo, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, Chris Everett, Michael Chang, Lindsay Davenport, Pete Sampras, Taylor Dent, the Bryan twins, and Sam Querry.

From the days of yore when virtually the whole student and faculty population helped with one aspect or another of the massive event, “it’s now become a sophomore rite of passage,” says Pete Fagan, who, beyond mathematics teacher and athletic directo, is Thacher’s all-OVTT, all-the-time go-to guy for several days prior and then for the tourney itself. Nearly every tenth-grader participates as a ballbirl--a gender-neutral term coined by faculty member David Babbott several years ago. “The kids put in very long hours, and they do a great job. I’m always very proud of them,” Pete says. Volunteers from the junior class--Julianna Childs, Maddie McMorrow, Justin Myles, Jarrett Kong, Willie Halsted, Conrad Troast, Melanie Reimer, and Ellie Hancock--pitched in as experienced ballbirls on a new and special set of matches this year: the Pac-12 championships, held under the lights, SRO in the stands, 3-set matches the result of which translate to an automatic bid for NCAA championship play. Pete also counted on the before-dawn to after-dusk good will and good work of sophomores Auden Ehringer and Lili Boyle--“exceptional assistants.”

As is often the case, a handful of Thacher students played in the tournament: Grace Bingham ‘15, Mitch Wiel ‘15 , Willie Halsted ‘13, Jarrett Kong ‘13, and Justin Myles ‘13.

A few days after the out-of-town competitors had packed up racquets and headed back home, Lili weighed in with this assessment: Dozens of tennis players, coaches, and fans poured onto the Thacher campus, along with some unwelcome rain, on Thursday afternoon. Under our tent by the upper courts, we Thacher sophomores were ready to help. All day Thursday and Friday, we organized the tournament bracket, positioned the players in their allocated court, and instructed the cars swarming the main parking lot.