When Tennis Players Give Back

Summary

Mary Edmond, Director of Community Programs for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), and Rianne Potkey of TennisRecruiting.net (TRN) describe their concurrent community service initiatives for college tennis programs and junior players respectively. The ITA launched its first Community Service Month in October 2017, incentivizing college teams to log community service hours against a public leaderboard — the “Leaminar Hours Challenge” — with prizes including a $1,000 grant and a free coaches convention registration. By the second weekend, 30 teams had submitted entries totaling as many as 40+ hours per team. The episode frames community service not as charity but as strategic brand-building for players, programs, and the sport.

Guest Background

Mary Edmond is Director of Community Programs for the ITA, the organization representing college tennis coaches. She played Division III tennis at Colorado College and worked briefly for the US Olympic Committee before joining the ITA. Her role encompasses membership programs, academic awards, All-Americans, coaching education webinars, and the newly launched community service initiative.

Rianne Potkey represents TennisRecruiting.net (TRN), which simultaneously launched a parallel community service initiative for junior players. TRN is a leading college tennis recruiting information platform.

Key Findings

1. Community Service as Brand Infrastructure for College Players

The ITA’s framing of community service month is explicitly about player and program visibility, not just civic virtue. Edmond describes the goal as “engaging local communities in the college tennis program and hopefully building a bigger fan base for the team” and getting “team members’ names out there, which will hopefully help them with jobs and networking as they begin to get ready to graduate.” This is brand strategy dressed in community service language — and the ITA’s CEO Tim Russell designed it as such.

2. The “Leaminar Hours Challenge” as Gamified Public Accountability

The ITA created an interactive leaderboard (the “Leaminar Hours Challenge”) separating schools by division and gender, using logo sizing scaled to hours contributed. Teams could see themselves rise in real time — updating nightly. This gamification of community service produced rapid uptake: 30 teams submitted within two weeks of launch. The winning team (most combined hours in October) received a $1,000 grant to their program; two $500 grants went to top social media buzz generators via Indie.com.

3. October Timing Is Strategic, Not Coincidental

October was chosen because it accommodates the broadest range of programs across all NCAA divisions — small colleges have different fall schedules than D1 programs. By selecting a month all programs could participate in, the ITA maximized coverage rather than optimizing for D1 participation alone. This inclusivity framing (all divisions, all sizes) is a stated goal.

4. Team Activities Ranged Widely — Suggesting No Prescriptive Model Needed

Community service submissions included: play days with middle schools, Aces for Autism events, campus cleanup, hurricane relief work, and hybrid tennis/community events. The breadth of participation — across geography, demographics, and service type — suggests that when given a platform and incentive, college programs naturally engage with their local communities in ways that authentically reflect their specific context. There is no need for a prescribed model.

5. ITA Also Runs Coaching Education Webinars — A Parallel Development Track

Edmond mentions that the ITA began coaching education webinars the prior year — free for members, recorded and available on the website — that connect coaches with industry experts for professional development. These webinars have been popular. This parallel initiative (player community service + coach professional development) suggests the ITA is positioning itself as a full-ecosystem development organization, not just an awards body.

6. The TRN Parallel Initiative Extends the Model to Junior Players

TennisRecruiting.net simultaneously launched a community service initiative for junior players. The parallel launch signals that the concept of tennis players as civic contributors is being institutionalized across the college and junior pipeline simultaneously — a coordinated expansion of the sport’s community identity.

7. Non-Playing Career Paths in Tennis Are Underrepresented in Discourse

Edmond’s own career trajectory — college player to USOC to ITA administrator — is highlighted by Lisa Stone as a useful example for young players who will not turn professional but can build careers in the tennis ecosystem. This pathway (player → administrator/director/coach/event manager) is underexplored in junior tennis family discourse.

Actionable Advice for Families

• College programs that engage in community service are building their players’ networks and local visibility — a factor worth considering when evaluating recruiting visits, as it signals a program culture beyond wins and losses
• Junior players should document and publicize their own community service activities through TRN’s initiative — this creates a narrative thread that college coaches can see and that distinguishes an applicant beyond rankings
• Parents should investigate whether prospective college tennis programs have coaches who invest in professional development through ITA webinars and continuing education — coaching quality correlates with coach investment in growth

INTENNSE Relevance

• Community engagement model: The ITA’s gamified, leaderboard-driven community service format is directly applicable to INTENNSE team programming. An INTENNSE community hours challenge — with teams competing for community impact recognition — would build local Atlanta and franchise-city identity while generating positive media
• Fan base development logic: The ITA’s explicit framing of community service as fan base development (“engaging local communities, building a bigger fan base”) validates INTENNSE’s interest in community engagement not as philanthropy but as sustainable business development
• College-to-INTENNSE pipeline: College players who have been culturally conditioned through the ITA model to see community service as brand-building will be natural fits for INTENNSE’s vision of players as community figures, not just athletes
• Broadcast/visibility integration: The Indie.com “buzz” prize — awarding $500 to the program generating the most social media engagement around their community service — is a simple and effective model for INTENNSE to adapt: track which team community events generate the most social media reach and reward that behavior
• Non-playing career development: Edmond’s trajectory (player → ITA director) is the kind of post-playing career that INTENNSE should consciously develop pipelines for — connecting retired or transitioning players to roles in league administration, community programming, and coaching education

Notable Quotes

“I think this is so brilliant on the part of the ITA because it’s a way to engage the local communities in the college tennis program and hopefully build a bigger fan base for the team, get the team members’ names out there, which will hopefully help them with jobs and networking.”

“We felt like if we just promoted it as a singular month, the info we get from schools would be awesome.”

“Tim Russell had a meeting and expressed that he wanted to focus on community service. We all know that our teams do so much within their towns and their communities, and he thought that we needed a way to showcase that.”

“I never really thought that there was a path in college tennis. I just never connected the ITA with a job opportunity, and so I couldn’t ask to be anywhere else right now.”