Letter in regards to OTA’s position on current status of Tennis in Ontario

Received on April 29, 2021 -> To PTC Membership for latest info.
Hello OTA Member Club Executives; 

As a follow-up to my letter of April 20th concerning the sudden closure of all tennis courts by the Government of Ontario, I thought it would be prudent to provide an update of what the OTA has been doing in an attempt to persuade the Province to reconsider their position on outdoor amenities, and what we plan to do moving forward.  

Our first order of business last week, was to contact Premier Doug Ford and the Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, Lisa MacLeod and ask them to reverse their decision as it pertained to closing tennis facilities. We also had a Zoom meeting with MPP Roman Baber in which we requested that he use his influence to lobby the Province in favor of re-opening tennis courts. 

Additionally, we sent out 2 media releases to over 180 members of the press,stating our position in opposition of the Government recreational amenities closings.  

At this point, I would like to recognize our member clubs for their meaningful contributions to the messaging from the tennis community. As many of you know one of our member-club Presidents, David Harris from Club de tennis Orléans Tennis Club, started an on-line petition, also requesting that the Province reverses its decision with respect to closing tennis facilities. The OTA endorsed the petition and asked all of you to also endorse it (and two other petitions) and forward it to your membership. The response was phenomenal! As of now over 40,000 people have signed David’s petition and another 53,500 have signed the other two!  

Additionally, Kirsty Giles, the president of the Craig Henry Tennis Club in Nepean was contacted by CTV news for comments and spoke of the frustrations caused by this difficult ruling. 

Finally, this past weekend, our new Board Chair Dianne Weatherby was featured in the Toronto Star, where, among other things, she was able to discuss how our clubs have paid strict attention to protocols and provided a safe environment for their players.  

Thanks to all of you for your tremendous efforts!  

While Premier Ford has yet to reverse his decision, we remain hopeful that in the light of mounting evidence being put forth by the medical community (and some politicians) stating that outdoor physical activity is safe when the proper protocols are adhered to, the Province will choose to re-open outdoor recreational amenities, including tennis, across Ontario ASAP. It is certainly obvious that he is aware of the backlash caused by his actions and we are hopeful that continuing the pressure on his Government will pay off. 

Of course, I think we can all agree that sooner or later (hopefully sooner) our clubs and academies will re-open. When that happens, we still have some issues to deal with as a tennis community. Once the Stay-at-Home Order is lifted, we believe that municipalities will again be placed into one of the Covid-19 Zones and again will be obligated to interpret the vague provincial protocols. As you well know, trying to navigate these rules and the municipalities’ interpretations were confusing and frustrating for club managers and players. Not to mention the financial hardship felt by closed clubs, academies, and their employees. 

While continuing to lobby the Provincial government to reconsider the club closing situation, the OTA has also begun to ask for meaningful changes to the protocol that unfairly penalizes our member clubs, players, and their staff.  We have recently created a Safe Return to Tennis blueprint that we feel will help with the re-opening of tennis facilities in most Covid Zones. It is our hope that the Province and municipalities will consider it when reviewing their Covid Zone protocols moving forward. We have sent letters with the Safe Return document attached to the Premier, Minister MacLeod, 120 MPP’s, several cities and regions Mayors and Councilors (more to follow shortly) and members of the press. It is our hope that they will be compelled to review their protocol and adjust it accordingly. 

At this juncture, would like to ask you for your help once again. We feel that in many cases our clubs have the strongest relationships with their respective local municipalities and politicians, particularly Parks and Rec departments in the case of community clubs. We are hopeful that you can take the time to examine the document, and if you agree with its content, forward it to the appropriate contacts and departments within your municipality for their consideration… and where possible, use your influence to encourage them to make appropriate policy changes.  

Our hope is to persuade the Government of Ontario to adjust their recreation facility protocol equitably, and for all municipalities in Ontario to apply the rules concerning tennis facilities consistently. A top-down – bottom-up approach. 

The OTA continues to feel that the most effective way to encourage the Province and municipalities to adjust their stance on tennis, is to show a united voice from our tennis community and to continue to voice our concerns. 

Thank you in advance for your support with this matter.
Sincerely,
James Boyce
President and CEO
Ontario Tennis Association
1 Shoreham Dr., Suite 200Toronto, ON
M3N 3A7

COURT ACCESS UPDATES

Good morning Club members,

As we all know the courts are on school property.  This means that we do not have full control of playable time. School is back in action and we have to respect their very tight restrictions on time as a precaution that they the school board has put in place for property use.  

How does this effect the Paris Tennis Club you ask?  
This means that we do not have access to the courts between the hours of 8-6pm. This means even if the courts are empty (we know this is heart breaking) no one may access the courts throughout the daytime.  
Our slotted times for the club are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday starting at 6pm. We will be using this time to complete our Jr lessons on 1 courts and have access to 2 courts for adult play, leaving one court open to the public. 

I’m sorry if this has impacted your regular play time. We all are wanting to soak up as much outdoor play time As possible. 

Please stay kind and cooperative as we wrap up our season. 

Julie Tranmer
A Note from the County Office regarding Tennis Court Hours 

Hi everyone, the County has put together a schedule for the usage of the tennis courts starting Tuesday September 8, 2020.  Due to the courts not being available until 6:00pm and the lights not being operational we thought this was the best moving forward.

Paris Tennis Club will operate the following days and times below as they need to have their youth program finished up
Monday’s, Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 6pm- until dark
Saturdays 9am-11am.
There will be one court open for public asses during all the above times.
They would like the Saturday & Sunday Sept 26 & @7 for their end of year championships.

Pickle Ball  
Will have the designated time Wednesdays and Fridays from 6:00pm until dark. There will need to be one court left open for public access.
We are suggesting if pickle ball users are interested in daytime use, they use Poplar Hills Park, or the Buford Community centre (these courts have just been re done).
 
We recognize this year has been very difficult with the lights, not being able to use the courts earlier and etc., we appreciate everyone’s cooperation.
Thanks,

Lisa Koekoek 
Recreation Coordinator
LESSON UPDATES
Hi everyone,
We have received more information and a definitive answer from the school board regarding court usage before 6pm. Unfortunately, we have not been given permission to use the courts prior to 6pm during the weekdays. This affects our scheduled lesson groupings on Monday and Wednesday evenings. The new lesson time changes are effectively immediately. Here are the new lesson hour changes (please note that they differ slightly from the proposed adjustments):

Monday’s 4pm-5pm would change to Monday’s 6pm-7pm
Monday’s 5pm-6pm would change to Monday’s 7pm-8pm
Wednesday’s 4pm-5pm would change to Thursday’s 6pm-7pm
Wednesday’s 5pm-6pm would change to Thursday’s 7pm-8pm

My apologies for the change midway through the season. Please let me know if these new time spots do not work for you. We will try to come up with a solution or reimburse you for the remainder of the season. Thank you for all your cooperation and consideration. 
Coach Jourdyn

Junior Lessons 2020 Updates

Hey Tennis Team!
Thanks to all our players for making the first half of our 2020 season a great success and so much fun! With so many new players and so many players continuing to improve their skills and athletic capabilities, all our coaches can see the hard work paying off that you are putting in! Next Week is Lesson Week #8 (Final Week), and so we will have concluded PTC Session # 1 by August 8th.

As a reward for our players, we will be running a FUN DAY Challenge Session for Red and Orange Level Beginners on Monday, August 10th at 4pm. Players from classes on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, some Wednesday players (at their discretion) and private lesson students will be invited to this session where players will be challenged by coaches to achieve a certain goal on target practice or rally skills in order to earn points, climb the leaderboard and win prizes. This is intended as a fun competition for players who are not ready for full match play. Register Here for your spot via email in the FUN DAY Play Session . [warning: candy prizes may be included]

For all players in intermediate and advanced lesson groupings, we will be running a multi-day junior tournament at PTC! Here’s how the show will run:

  1. Any interested players from any lesson grouping at PTC or other junior members, register your interest here via email for entry into the 2020 PTC Junior Invitational
  2. Draws will be set for entry into Qualifying and Round 1. Matches to be scheduled beginning at 4pm on Wednesday, August 12th. Based on entries received and court time available, BYE’S may be granted to some players, and play divisions may be set by coaches rankings. Play will conclude with Day 2 – QF, Semi-Finals, and Finals (as required) beginning at 4pm on Thursday, August 13th. Play will be scheduled to conclude no later than 7pm on Thursday.
  3. Awards ceremony will follow during the next week of lessons to honour the tournament champions. 
  4. All participants will receive a small prize for their participation, as well as light fruit and snacks provided by the PTC during the play sessions.

Both the 2020 Junior Invitational Tournament and the 2020 FUN DAY Challenge Play are free for all current PTC junior members to participate.

New Lesson Series

I’m happy to announce our next round of lessons will be scheduled for 6 weeks and is scheduled to begin on the week of August 17th. This puts the class on schedule concluded by week of September 21st, with no weather delays.
When school begins in the fall, we have been informed that we will not be given access to any courts during school hours, so all lesson groupings will be run in the evening and weekend slots we have been provided. The coaches will determine player interest from registrations and tryouts and will allocate students for best fit of lesson grouping. In order to accommodate this variability, a lesson product for pre-registration has been made available on the site for purchase if you want to secure your spot on court. Please Note that while the purchase of this product will hold your lesson spot, if the coaches determine we have sufficient players of advanced level capability to run a longer (more than 1 hour) or more involved program, there may be an additional cost required for the additional coaching time.https://theparisclub.ca/product/2020-lesson-series-2-pre-registration-product/ 

Monday 4pm
Monday 5pm
Wednesday 4pm
Wednesday 5pm
Thursday 4pm
Thursday 5pm
Saturday 9am
Saturday 10am

All time slots to be allocated by coaches. These hours are court priority for PTC and we have access to allocate 6 students / 1 coach. At 7 students for a single session, a second coach will be allocated an so on, as interest and availability persist. Our goals are to get as many students learning and hitting with their peers as a enhancement to private lesson and casual social play activities. Coaches have indicated seem availability for private lessons continuing through the summer season.

Cheers,
Tom Tranmer
Paris Tennis Club

Latest Newsletter – Junior Programming assignments are in!

https://mailchi.mp/cf426e8aec2c/ptc-lesson-groupings-2020-programming-assignments

Please note that we will be asking all program participants to respect the following, due to the current COVID situation:

These Submissions will be Mandatory for all Club Members, both Junior and Adult, beginning on Monday, June 8th.

Hello Tennis Players!

Thank for your interest in our 2020 season and your participation in our first ever week of Junior Tryouts (Try-it-outs?).

We’re very happy to be able to offer lessons to the majority of all of our participants. 

Emails have been sent out. Please check your inbox for your lesson groupings, with Coach Jourdyn, Coach Dora and Coach Tom.
If you were expecting to hear form me, and you have not, I may have an out of date or missing contact for you. Please send me an email directly to tom@theparisclub.ca, with the name and age of your student and your contact information.

Online Program Purchase Links: 

If Junior Membership Still Required: 

https://theparisclub.ca/product/2020-junior-membership/

Participant Information Link (required – waiver): 

http://theparisclub.ca/participant-registration/ We are set to begin lessons on This Week on Monday, Tuesday AM,Wednesday, and Thursday. 

In the even of inclement weather communication to reschedule will come from your coach directly.

Thanks for your participation in our sport.

Cheers,

Tom Tranmer
& the Paris Tennis Club Team

COVID-19, What it means for us, today.

Dear PTC members,

We are going through some hard times these days and I know we all want to get out and play tennis. Sadly our courts in behind the Paris district high school have been and are still closed due to COVID-19. We have been advised by the County of Brant that they will not consider the reopening of the courts until April 6th, at the earliest. As soon as we have more information to report on the reopening dates of the courts, we will send out a message to you via this mailing list.

Memberships are currently available for sale online for the 2020 season. If we are unable to open and run a full season of programming those who have already purchased memberships for the 2020 season will either have the option to extend their membership one extra year without charge or get a full refund.

At  this time our opening day get-together may need to be postponed, but at this time we are still hoping to be all to run all of our regular seasonal events, including 2020 club championship and summer fun tournament.

Lesson programming is currently available for registration on the website, however at this time we recommend holding off on signing up due to the uncertainty of our start dates. We hope to be able to offer a full season of lesson programming but we are most concerned at this time about being good citizens of the community.

Thank you for your patience,

Sincerely,

Hudson Tranmer
Jr. Member & Volunteer
Paris Tennis Club

Summer’s Over, Hello Fall

We have a Canadian Grand Slam Champion! Congratulations to Bianca Andreescu for her US OPEN 2019 Title Victory over Serena Williams!
Welcome to the Paris Tennis Club

Club Championship Weekend: September 27-29, 2019 Come Join us for a great weekend of Tennis Events to wrap up Season 2019, including:

No Cost for Club Members for All Events, but Advance Registration will be required.

Email Today to secure your registration spot in the Championship

Some Notes: Minimum/Maximum numbers required to run programming.

  • Junior Fun Day: 6 participants min
  • Social Doubles Tournament: 12 participants min / 32 participants max
  • Competitive Singles Tournament: 16 participants min (8 each for ELITE and STANDARD divisions). 48 players max.

Singles divisions will be based on the 2019 Ladder Play with PTC and Dufferin Club Members. Players with match history will receive seeds and byes into the tournament draws.

Format will follow a double loss-elimination bracket so players will fall into a relegation bracket with their first loss.

RULES For the SINGLES and DOUBLES tournaments: 
Each Round of Play will be first TWO of THREE mini-sets to FOUR games, win by two. A tiebreaker to 7 points will be played at 3-3. Early Rounds will be played with no-ad (deciding point), and the third “set” will be played as a 10-point tiebreaker. Later matches will be full games, based on court scheduling and availability.

DOUBLES TEAMS will play a ROUND ROBIN SCRAMBLE format. Your entry into the tournament is as a solo and you will be paired up with a new partner each round. Keep track of your games and sets won to determine Doubles Champions for 2019!

Club Nights for social play continue through the end of September, on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. Come on out and get your hits in before the winter comes along and shuts us down for the season.

Lessons from Monday for Juniors have been consolidated onto Wednesday nights for the remainder of the season to best accommodate players and coaches. We may be looking at a time bump as the month progresses to begin all sessions at 5:30 in order to take best advantage of the available light.

Hope to see you soon!

Brant County Club Championships 2019

More Info Coming Soon. We are looking at an All-Brant Club Championship this year, open to Paris and Dufferin members, around September 28-29 with: 

  • a Competitive Singles tournament final, with seedings established from the Season Competition Ladders
  • A FUN Doubles Scramble Social Tournament (sign up as solo, partners scrambled for each match) – All Players\Skills are Welcome
  • A Junior Fun Day – Play and Practice session with Fun tennis games and activities and Red-Court play

PTC Summer Lessons and Programming Updates

Happy Summer Everyone,

I just wanted to jump in here with a quick message regarding the conclusion of our first week of 8-sessions, and the availability of lessons packages for the remainder of the outdoor season. We will be planning lessons through the end of September, so stay sharp for the Club Championships by renewing in a lesson series today.

First off, a big thanks to everyone with their patience with the weather delays this season. It has reminded me how much headache could be saved if we had facilities that could accommodate practices in the rain 😛

We have some VERY exciting Tennis initiatives and partnerships for 2019 in our community to announce in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to the PTC newsletter and make sure to enjoy all the hits you can this season.

Lesson Series Renewals and Registration

Spots in lesson groupings are available now to any and all interested players, and also NEW OPTIONS are available via the new SUMMERflex Lesson program (see below).
https://theparisclub.ca/lessons/

Spring Season Wrap-up

  • Monday (Red & Orange) – 2 Sessions Remaining : Last Session July 15
  • Wednesday (Green) – Last Session July 3 THIS WEEK
  • Thursday (Red) – Last Session July 4 THIS WEEK
  • Friday (Green & Adult) – OFF THIS WEEK July 5 – Beginning again 7/12/2019
  • Saturday (Red) – Last Session July 6  SummerFun Tournament July 13th

SummerFun Tournament 2019: 
Save the Date July 13th

Come join us for the Third Annual SummerFun Tennis Tournament, to be held on: Saturday, July 13th (Rain-Date: July 14th) at Paris Tennis Club, with the following schedule:

• 10 am – 12 pm RED Level games and activities for Juniors
• at 12 pm SIGN-IN for Junior Competitive Tournament
• 12 pm – 1 pm BBQ LUNCH ($) for All Juniors and Volunteers
• 1 pm – 4 pm Junior Competitive Tournament
• 4 pm – 5 pm Open Court Play, Demos and Warm-Up
• at 5 pm SIGN IN for Adult Competitive Tournament
• 5 pm – 6 pm BBQ DINNER ($) for all Adults and Volunteers
• 5 pm – 10:30 pm Adult Tournament
• Singles (Division 1 / Division 2)
• Doubles (Mixed Teams)

Tournament Entry will be FREE for all Paris Club Members. Food available at additional cost.
Register today with an email to info@theparisclub.ca, or online at https://theparisclub.ca/summerfun-tennis-tournament/ to secure your spot in the tournament. Registration for each section of the draws will be open to drop-ins until the event starts, but advance registrations will help us to plan and organize the event for player numbers.


NEW Lesson Series DATES and NEW Coaching Assignments 

** NEW ** SUMMERflex Lesson Options –
or those with many summer plans

For those looking to keep it loose this summer, but still add in weekly lessons and practice for both Juniors and Adults when you can, Paris Tennis Club is now offering $20 per lesson drop-in programming for ALL AVAILABLE* 1.5h program slots and $10 per lesson for all 1h lessons. Players with advance registrations will always receive priority placement for available practice slots. If program is full, due to court or coaching availability, then no additional drop-in players will be accepted.
Available Programming Includes:

  • ** NEW ** Wednesday 6:30pm  Green Ball 1.5h Session with Dora and Jourdyn Coaching and increased player cap-limit of 12.
  • ** NEW ** Thursday 6:00pm Ladies Only Summer Clinic with Coach Dora 
  • All 1.5h Junior Lesson Programming
  • Friday 6:00pm Adult Intermediate Lesson Programming with Coach Dora

And for $10, drop in to any 1h Junior Program:

  • All Red Level Lessons 

*Please note, lesson space availability must be confirmed via email in advance of drop-in session. Unconfimred participants will be turned away if the session is filled up. **Payment of lesson fees can be provided in-person to the staff on hand or coach, or in advance with online payment via Stripe Credit Card with our new “Submit a Payment” form.

Looking forward to seeing you on the courts.

Cheers,

Tom Tranmer
Paris Tennis Club