November - December
1999 -- Vol. 10, No. 6

CHANGING TIMES
by Luke St. Onge

I was about to write the obligatory “new millennium column” (that everyone is compelled to do every 1,000 years) when a major breakthrough in our sport occurred to sidetrack me.

Since racquetball’s inception in the 60s, it has been clear that — aside from the fanfare and excitement of tournaments — for our sport to continue to develop and expand, a primary goal was to have a racquetball instructor/programmer in every court club.

Efforts have been made over the past thirty years to make this happen, but after multiple false starts, we really never got beyond first base with the program. Even though this should have been the highest priority of the entire industry, it never really took off and other, glitzy-er promotions took its place. There is no reason to go into why or who did what to whom, but suffice it to say that today it has become the number one priority of the industry.

Patterned after tennis’s highly-regarded USPTA instructional program, racquetball’s AmPRO is positioned to generate the certified programmers/instructors needed to accomplish this goal.

We had always thought that to make AmPRO successful that the entire industry had to take an active part, not only in supporting AmPRO financially, but using its vast player program to penetrate the clubs. We recently held a brainstorming meeting at USRA Headquarters with Tom Odishoo of Wilson, along with USRA staffers Jim Hiser, Gary Mazaroff, Linda Mojer and myself on how to take AmPRO to the next level within the industry. The results of the meeting established ...

• The main goal of AmPRO is to place a qualified AmPRO instructor/programmer in every racquetball club in the United States.
• Four thousand certified AmPRO instructors/programmers will be needed.
• Every major manufacturer should be actively involved and participate in this effort.
• The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association should help the program with a seed grant over four years.
• The industry’s Player Program of over 5,000 sponsored players must be involved.
• The initial target population is The International Health and Racquet Sports Association (IHRSA) which has 1,100 clubs with racquetball courts.

I would like to personally and publicly thank Tom Odishoo who put aside his own company’s marketing priorities to include the entire industry in this project by stating, “when we grow the market, Wilson will get its share.”

I will keep you informed of the manufacturers who come on board and the progress of this exciting grass roots program as it develops. I guess I’ll have to wait until 2999 to write the millennium column ...

doubles notebook ...

There were so many people who contributed to the success of this year’s national doubles event, including: Ektelon’s Jim Flesch, Sharlene Sones, Kelly McGann, and Herb Sweren ... Clarence Bishop of the Washington/Baltimore 2012 Coalition (U.S. Bid City for the Olympic Games), who helped by sponsoring the event hospitality ... Terry Dezzutti, CEO of the Merritt Athletic Clubs, of which the facility at Security is one of, if not the best, racquetball venues in the U.S ... Doug Ganim of Penn Racquet Sports for the company’s continued support of the USRA and its many events ... Larry Crone of Bedding Barn ... Laura Ranquist, Gatorade Regional Event Manager, for product support ... plus all those who participated in the Olympic Dream Auction, and supported the Junior Racquetball team by buying raffle tickets for the autographed Jeff Conine souvenir bat. It was also great to see top-ranked 35+ competitor Mitch Smith, who has been undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia at Johns Hopkins Hospital, make a special trip to the event this year. Thanks to everyone who helped in so many ways!