USTA Southwest 96th Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet
Albuquerque, N.M. - Nov. 14-15
Marriott Hotel
The USTA Southwest Section has recently announced its 2008 Hall of Fame Class and the list of 2008 USTA Southwest annual award winners.
This year's Hall of Fame inductees will include Dick Johnson (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Bob Capron (Phoenix, Ariz.). Both men will be honored for their outstanding achievements and service to the game as part of the Section's 96th Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet, held at the Marriott Hotel in Albuquerque, N.M., Nov. 14-15. The Friday-Saturday event will be a celebration of USTA Southwest tennis, and a chance to recognize our past, present and future.
The USTA Southwest also selected 11 award winners in a variety of different categories, honoring the Section's best organizations, volunteers, players, and others who have represented or served the section well in 2008. These awards will also be presented at the Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, N.M.
Award winners names are listed below. Congratulations to each of our award winners and Hall of Fame inductees!
Read below to find out more about our newest inductees and our award winners by clicking on their names.
2008 USTA Southwest Award Winners
Community Tennis Volunteer of the Year: Faye Stokes (Roswell, NM)
Tournament Enrichment: Kurt Edelbrock (Taos, NM)
Junior Female Player of the Year: Mele Iongi (Mesa, AZ)
Junior Male Player of the Year: Andy Nguyen (Phoenix, Ariz.)
Junior Sportsmanship Award: Noelle Karp (Tucson, AZ)
Adult Player of the Year: Reggie Espinoza (El Paso, TX)
High School Coach of the Year: John Condes (Salpointe Catholic, Tucson, AZ)
Media Excellence Award: Toby Smith, Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM)
NJTL Chapter of the Year: Family & Community Teaming for Students (FACTS) - Flagstaff, AZ
Outstanding Organizational Member of the Year: Four Hills Country Club (Albuquerque, NM)
Tennis Family of the Year: The Fulgenzi Family (Las Vegas, NM)
Hall of Fame Class 2008
Richard Johnson
(Albuquerque, N.M.)
Born and raised in Albuquerque, Johnson has been a fixture in the city's tennis community ever since he first began playing in the early 1950's as a junior at the city's Beverly Park Tennis Courts. Rising up through the ranks as a junior, collegian, adult player, and tennis 'everyman', Johnson is one of the city's most identifiable and astute figures when it comes to the sport.
Johnson received a scholarship to play at the University of Albuquerque, and won the school's Athlete of the Year award in 1965-66. A USPTA certified teaching professional for more than 30 years and a past president of the USPTA Southwest, Johnson's life has been dedicated to teaching the sport. He's even worked at clubs owned by such tennis luminaries as Rod Laver and Roy Emerson.
But it's been at the grassroots level where Johnson's impact has been felt the most: Generations of young Albuquerqueans have learned to love the sport of tennis because of the man.
A true teacher at heart both in the classroom and on the court, Johnson is the originator of the New Mexico Grand Prix Junior Circuit, and one of the original coaches of the Northern New Mexico Tennis Association's Mid-School Tennis League, founded in 1996. A middle school coach for the last twelve years at Hoover High, Johnson has also been an extremely successful coach of both the boys and girls programs at La Cueva High School the past 18 years, racking up an impressive 204-40 record (.836) winning percentage. He has won two state titles as a head coach, both in the last two years with the boys program.
Johnson has been also been a staunch supporter and advocate of USTA programs, most notably Jr. Team Tennis. Johnson regularly fields multiple Jr. Team Tennis squads in Albuquerque each summer, often directing teams to USTA Southwest Section Championships and on to the USTA Jr. Team Tennis National Championships, including this year.
A past president of the Northern New Mexico Tennis Association, Johnson is also an active volunteer within the USTA Southwest who has served on several committees in the past, and currently works with the Jr. Team Tennis and Awards Committees. Johnson has been a recipient of a lengthy list of community service awards from the USPTA, NNMTA and USTA Southwest, including his most recent distinction as the USTA High School Coach of the Year Award in 2005.
Bob Capron
(Phoenix, Ariz.)
Bob Capron has spent the better part of the last 30 years as one of the more unsung yet important figures in the Phoenix area, tirelessly coordinating, scheduling, and overseeing the city's corps of USTA officials.
Capron has logged thousands of hours on the court himself as an official in tournaments ranging from the most local of local to NCAA events to the main show courts of ATP and WTA events, including the US Open. From teaching tournament directors how to conduct draws to line and chair training clinics, Capron has overseen the lion's share of duties when it's come to officiating. But Capron's main job has been making sure USTA tournaments have trained officials on site.
He helped create and institute the USTA Southwest's very first Code of Conduct form, and served as the Section's Officials Chairman from 1997-2005, the same years he also served on the USTA National Officials Committee. Since 1996, he has also served on the USTA Southwest Junior Council.
Capron has garnered a number of awards for his dedication and passion for officiating, including being named Arizona Interscholastic Association Official of the Year in 2000. He was a three-time winner of the USTA Southwest Official of the Year award (1997, '99, 2002), and was inducted into the USTA Phoenix Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005.