Executive Director's Message
Aloha,
Happy New Year! I hope you and your families are doing well!
2023 was an excellent year for tennis in the Hawaii Pacific Section despite some very real challenges.
Tennis participation: tennis participation exceeded our pre-covid 2019 numbers and they exceeded our 2023 goals in all program areas. Our Play & Learn introductory Lesson Program at 18 locations, hit an all time record high of over 9,000 registrations.
Tennis facilities: With the addition of the Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch, we now manage 3 tennis facilities to include the Hawaii Prince Tennis Club in Ewa Beach, the Royal Kona Resort in Kona and the Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch on Maui.
Our agreement with the Royal Lahaina Resort started January 1, 2024 and we have been working hard to open up on January 23. The Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch has 11 hard courts, including a 3,500 stadium court, a pro shop and 2 of the courts have blended lines for pickleball. As a service to the Maui community, we will host the Lahaina Junior Tennis Club at the Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch free of charge because the tennis courts in Lahaina were ruined as a result of the fires.
You may ask, why should the USTA manage tennis facilities? The answer is because we have access to tennis courts to run USTA and other tennis programs.
The Campus: We haven’t made an official announcement yet, but we will build our own tennis facility on a 7 acre lot that we acquired from Gentry Homes. The facility will be called the USTA Hawaii Pacific Campus and it will be a world class facility consisting of a parking lot, a pro shop, offices, restrooms, storage and a meeting room. In addition there will be a small stadium court for professional tournaments and special events. An official announcement will be made in the near future.
Pickleball: pickleball is growing. Our official position on pickleball is that we are not opposed to pickleball, but we don’t want to lose courts to pickleball. We recognize that pickleball has similar benefits to tennis including socialization, exercise and fun. We don’t want to see courts as a result of tape or chalk that won’t come off. We also don’t want to see players fighting over courts.
Challenges: we have been challenged by the reduced access to courts because of pickleball and more customer demand.
We have also been challenged by the labor shortage and not being able to fill vacant positions. We are especially challenged by the lack of teaching pros or coaches here in Hawaii and we are starting to look at the mainland labor force to fill these positions.
Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank you for your support of tennis and being a USTA member.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Ron Romano