Game on at 90, Irving Levine Still Lobbing
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Senior Tennis 2011 – 1 Volume Six • Number Seventeen • Spring • 2012 THE NEW ENGLAND SENIOR TENNIS FOUNDATION BULLETIN Game On At 90, Irving Levine still lobbing Marcia Pobzeznik, Special to the Herald News There are no umbrellas in the umbrella stand near the front door of Irving Levine’s home. It’s filled with tennis rackets, and the coat rack next to it has only white caps hanging from it. Levine plops a cap on his head, takes a couple of rackets from the umbrella stand and heads out the door to his clay tennis court where friends are warming up for a few sets. It’s lunchtime and Levine has driven from his business in Fall River to his Rehoboth home – a 19-minute drive – to play tennis and have a bite to eat before heading back to work. Irving Levine reaches way out for a backhand during a “I’ve played tennis my whole life, except when I started my doubles match. Below, this trio of tennis players, from business in Fall River and the World War II years,” he says left, Patrick Riccardi, of New Bedford, Omer Menard, as he walks to the court in his white shorts, white polo shirt of Westport, and George Boyce, of Lincoln, RI, wait for and sneakers. a break in the weather, but seldom cancel their regular Lots of people play tennis, but what is remarkable doubles match at Irving Levine’s backyard clay court. about Levine is that today is his 90th birthday and he’s still known for his tenacity on the courts. “He’s got all the shots,” said Omer Menard of Westport who was playing in the lunchtime doubles match with him Thursday. “He’s got a great lob,” said Patrick Ricarrdi of New Bedford who was running to catch one of Levine’s lobs. A champion player who has played in tournaments around the world, Levine’s basement office in his home is filled with trophies, winner’s cups, pictures and plaques from decades of playing and winning in a sport he is passionate about. He started playing at the age of 13 when he was growing up in New Bedford during The Depression. Over the years he won and placed in both tennis and table tennis championships. His most recent achievement was winning a singles match in the 90-and-over national championship tournament this summer at the Clem Easton Super Seniors event in Longmeadow. He had a broken thumb at the time. Levine said he made himself a promise when he retired for the first time in 1965 after selling his handbag manufacturing company Gamma Leather Goods, that at one time employed 500 people. He promised himself he’d make time for tennis. “I said I would never let work interfere with my tennis,” said Levine. He retired for about one and one-half years and in that time admittedly played a little too much tennis. He played Continued on page 32 2 – Senior Tennis 2011 New England Senior Tennis Foundation, Inc. An organization established by Bernice and Irving Levine for the general purpose of promoting tennis among senior adults in New England. Administration Board Peter Allen, President Irving Levine Rich Heath, Treasurer Wade Frame Bats Wheeler, Clerk Amy Read George Ulrich Carol Redden Ken Miller Dorcas Miller To facilitate the promotion of senior tennis, the following strategies will be implemented: 1. To provide instruction for seniors interested in learning how to play the sport or improve their skills; 2. To support the publication of material to help seniors learn how to play the game, improve their skills and knowledge of the game, and un- derstand the latest health research information relating to the sport of tennis; 3. To distribute a newsletter on a regular basis that freely discusses issues in the sport of ten- nis and at the same time reports the results of tournaments and other competitions and news Yoshi Akabane and Ann Murphy, N.E. Mx 65 Champs of interest to seniors; 4. To run tournaments and other compe- titions for seniors innovatively and in such a way Senior Tennis Newsletter editor as to help participants fully enjoy the sport; Dick Ernst of Cranston, R.I. The 5. To develop and support interstate, inter- sectional and international competitions for Barrington High School boys seniors; tennis coach and a ranking 6. To respond to changing needs and interests senior circuit player. of senior tennis players; 7. To recognize and respond to opportunities to provide leadership within a larger context for the development of tennis (i.e., to support or oppose actions by tennis groups that either further or diminish the growth and support of the sport); Send stories, pictures and articles to: 8. To provide where possible and to support Dick Ernst facilities for senior players at either a reduced 71 Philmont Ave., Cranston, RI 02910 rate or at no cost to them; 401-785-0532; or [email protected] 9. To create and support a governance struc- ture that ensures continuity to the Foundation Advertising in this publication is available at 1 and support for its goals and strategies. $500/page and $300/ /2 page. N.E.S.T.F. website www.neseniortennis.org Senior Tennis 2011 – 3 NESTF President’s Message I hope that you’ve kept active over the past easy winter, because the 2012 lineup of great events will again be loaded. On January 4, about 900 current recipients* of our occasional e-mail blasts received NESTF’s notice that the full 2012 tournament schedule had been finalized and posted. We also included a very senior-friendly link to just the senior tournaments on our own NESTF website, encouraging everyone to begin their calendar-marking early. The very highly attended Slam tournaments will see some notable improvements in 2012, based on valuable player feedback: 1. The hard court Slams at Yale in early June will become a prominent national “Category II” for age groups MW50, 60 and 70. (Other age groups will remain simply the NE hard court Slam.) This is the first Cat II national ever to be held in New England! A large team of motivated advocates deserves our thanks and congratulations for having proved the capability to hold a first-class national senior tennis event here. 2. The Clay Slams will again be held at Beverly and Concord, but both will be held a week later in August to reduce conflict with USTA League playoffs. 3. The Grass Slam will move to the Essex County Club in Manchester, MA, on the weekend after Labor Day. Essex is a great facility with 10 grass courts and 10 clay courts plus nearby indoor facilities in case of rain. As always, NESTF’s entire Board remains dedicated to the Foundation’s goals adopted when it was generously founded by Irving and Bernice Levine in 1996. Focused entirely on promoting senior tennis, NESTF continues to invest roughly $20,000 annually in a mix of areas: grants (up to $2,000 each) for effective senior tennis programs and events, plus preparation of these semiannual online Bulletins. The Board recently accepted with regret the resignation of an original NESTF Board member, Carol Jaffe, whose sneakers and warmth will be very difficult to replace. Please always feel free to call (508-366-0312) or e-mail me ([email protected]) whenever you have a suggestion for NESTF improvement. Best wishes for a highly active 2012 tennis season! *If you didn’t receive our helpful e-mail but wish you had, please add or update your address to our file by simply e-mailing our Webmaster Ken Miller at kmiller@ neseniortennis.org. Pete Allen, President New England Senior Tennis Foundation 4 – Senior Tennis 2011 Alan Chandronnait: Inventor By Jerry Johnson Alan Chandronnait, a New England tennis-hall-of-famer, has become an inventor. A longtime teaching pro from Bow, New Hampshire, Alan has always been concerned with balls rolling all over the court when he is giving a lesson or clinic. The idea for Tennis Safety Nets occurred to Alan one evening as he was giving a group lesson at his tennis academy. Play was constantly being interrupted by balls which were hit into the net. Alan realized that if he could come up with a system to keep balls from rolling out from the net and onto the court, the drills would run smoother, the players would be safer, the students would have more lesson time, and ball pick-up would be much easier. So he decided to do something about it. He invented and patented a revolutionary tennis product: Tennis Safety Nets. For the past eight years he has been perfecting his Tennis Safety Nets product which “captures 94 percent of the balls hit into the net.” Tennis Safety Nets provides several positive benefits to both the player and the teacher. The court is much safer without balls rolling back into the court when hit into the net. This allows drills to keep a much better flow. When playing, it’s nice not to have interruptions when first serves or ground strokes hit the net. Stoppage time for lessons, drills and practice is minimized dramatically since the danger of a netted ball rolling back to your feet has been removed. Tennis Safety Nets is a cutting-edge product for private lessons, group lessons, match play, and tournaments. Here is Alan’s Tennis Safety Nets LLC website: www.tennissafetynets.com. You will find a lot of information on his innovative product and how to order it. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.