By Rita Maloof, First Vice President
This winter season brought rain, wind and frigid temperatures right along with it, but for most of our ALTA players, good sportsmanship remained a part of the game during what turned out to be a challenging season. Our patience was tested; we had to handle tough situations; and as is always the case, there are those who rose to the top. The coveted ALTA Sportsmanship Award recognizes outstanding displays of fairness, integrity, honesty, and plain old common courtesy on and off the court at ALTA matches. Just being nominated is an honor. Nominations can be made at any time and are reviewed seasonally. Award winners receive a letter from the ALTA president, a sportsmanship bag tag, and are recognized in Net News. It’s easy to recognize extraordinary behavior, but there’s only a small few who will take the extra step and act on what they witnessed. Thank you for taking the time to bring outstanding acts of sportsmanship to our attention. Please join us in congratulating a few of our winter 2024 award recipients.
Cherokee Town Club
Mixed Doubles B4
Players: Missy Martin, Tim Curtin, Sherri Herrick
Nominated by: Greg Sgrosso, Co-Captain at Hanover West
We had an unfortunate situation due to the behavior of a line 1 player at Cherokee Town Club. The captain, Missy Martin, reached out to us multiple times that day and through the next few days apologizing for the behavior. Missy wasn’t there, but her team all gave her feedback throughout the day.
I was not there either, but it sounds like one of the worst cases of misbehavior I have ever heard. Missy really went above and beyond to take responsibility for her teammate’s actions and showed how that behavior didn’t represent what the rest of the team is about.
Missy Martin continued to show great sportsmanship to reconcile the event with our team and reached out directly to our player who was brought to tears due to the verbal abuse she undeservedly received that day. Kudos to Sherri Herrick who forfeited that line due to her partner’s behavior, along with Tim Curtin who was playing line 3 at the same time who went over and tried to help calm things down, as the commotion was distracting all matches.
E.E. Robinson
Mixed Doubles B8
Players: Seong Park and Hyojin Lim
Nominated by: Juile Adams, Captain at Stillwater
Yesterday while playing, our player who is diabetic felt his sugar levels dropping. Seong (aka Josh) offered a banana to our player. The match subsequently went to a tiebreak in the 3rd set in which Stillwater won. Had Seong not offered the fruit, the match could have easily gone the other way. Instead, he offered care and compassion which allowed a competitive match to follow. For this reason, we believe they are deserving of this award.
The Falls of Cherokee
Senior Mixed B1
Co-Captain: Angela Meyers
Nominated by: Eve Tubmanj, Captain at River Green
The away team went out of their way to get in our last match tonight. Our opponent, Angela Meyers, offered up her courts as ours were too wet and it was still misting. They went out and dried the court to get it ready for play. Although the court never dried fully, it was not slippery, and we were able to get the last line completed. We never would have gotten it done without Angela’s persistence. Great sportsmanship!
Hampton Hall
Mixed Doubles B4
Captain: Lori Howard
Nominated by: Greg Sgrosso, Co-Captain at Hanover West
We suggested to Hampton Hall to play on Saturday, as Sunday’s weather looked terrible. We had conflicts all through the day, and Lori Howard kept adjusting everything for us. She even scheduled her own line knowing she had a conflict. Luckily, she was able to rearrange her schedule and play (and deservedly beat us). It was a great call to move it up a day, but Lori and her team really worked hard to have all the lines play at different times scattered from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thank you, Lori.
