It’s time to start planning the 20th Chase Kepner Memorial Tennis Tournament, also known as the Sawyer Point Open Tennis Tournament (SPOTT)! The date will be Sat Aug 3, 2024 and hopefully we won’t need the rain date of Aug 4. SPOTT includes Tennis, the Courtside Party, and the SPOTTluck Dinner – something for everyone! The goal is for everyone to get to know your neighbors better, so please mark your calendar, plan to spend some time, and join the fun! This year, SPOTTluck will be hosted by the Davis family – you definitely won’t want to miss that party!
Please take a look through the information below and email me (Dave Jones, dajones@mgb.org) ASAP if you’d like to play tennis, volunteer, or host a future SPOTTluck.
TENNIS: Residents, family members, and special friends are all welcome. We have a wide range of player experience and a wide range of player ages. To keep things moving, it’s best if you can serve into the service square and return groundstrokes with reasonable consistency. I also ask that tennis players plan on participating the entire day – the format isn’t set up for people to come and go easily. If you have any questions about entering, just ask me and I’ll tell you more (I’ll probably tell you that you should enter!).
The tournament format is social doubles, with a big emphasis on the social part. It’s individual scoring, no teams, and we rotate every single game. You’ll hopefully get to play paired with every single other person. We do keep score, and we do have prizes, but the emphasis is on getting to know your neighbors and enjoying a day of tennis in a truly beautiful setting. In the morning, everybody plays with everybody else in a random rotation. In the afternoon, we split up into three Finals Rounds based on the morning scores, so you’ll be very likely in a group of people close to your experience level. Plan to take home a SPOTT Champion water bottle and maybe even one of the coveted SPOTT Cup awards!
COURTSIDE PARTY: Sweetnam Stadium will have tents, chairs, drinks and snacks all day long. Come out to meet your neighbors and cheer on the players. Try some cornhole. The tennis action heats up during the finals rounds, so definitely plan to come out at 2pm. The Roriston and Colangelo courts are absolutely beautiful places to watch tennis too, and there will be plenty of action on those courts from 9-12. Sweetnam Stadium is also the place to meet people for other fun activities, especially between 12-2 (see below).
SPOTTluck: This a great party. We’ll have food, drinks, SPOTT Cup awards, and other fun awards for the players. We’ll also award the Chase Kepner Memorial Players’ Cup to a person who has gone above and beyond to keep Chase’s spirit of fun and friendship alive. SPOTTluck, as the name suggests, has traditionally been a potluck. If you’d like to host a future SPOTTluck, please let Dave know. The past few years have seen some amazing extra-special events and weren’t actually potlucks due to things like Covid and a 50th anniversary celebration. These were tough acts to follow, and very generous hosts, but don’t be intimidated – if you’d like to host, a simple potluck is still just fine, and we can make it easy for you.
OTHER FUN: There is a gap in the tennis action from 12-2 while the tennis players eat lunch and take a break before the finals. That doesn’t mean there has to be a gap in the fun! It would be great to see more neighbors having even more fun. I’ll set up badminton nets at Sweetnam Stadium and there will be cornhole there too. It would be great to see some kids activities. The Popes have a new court and will be trying out some less-noisy versions of pickleball. This is not yet organized in detail, and you can help. I like to play tennis and need to eat lunch too, so I can’t be too much help during the 12-2 gap. The most important thing you can do is come out ready to play! If you’d like to help organize, please email me. The “other fun” doesn’t have to be limited to 12-2 pm!
SCHEDULE (subject to minor changes):
8-8:30 optional tennis warm-up, all courts;
8:35 Photo and player meeting at Sweetnam Stadium;
9-12 tennis matches and Courtside Party, all courts;
12-2 Other fun: Kid’s events, badminton, cornhole, POP tennis next door at Pope’s, and anything else we can think of
2-4:30 tennis finals rounds and Courtside Party at Sweetnam Stadium;
6 pm SPOTTluck Dinner
Volunteers needed! There are other ways to join the fun and get to know your neighbors. Please let me know if you can help out as part of the SPOTT Crew with scorekeeping, with moving tents, chairs, and tables, or with golf cart transportation. The Sweetnams, Roristons and Colangelos have been major contributors by providing the wonderful courts we use for play – please be sure to thank them!
See you soon!
Dave