A welcome return: Courts call veterans back

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, July 12, 2006

When Bill and Carolyn McCurlloch retired and moved to Greenbank last year, one of their first tasks was to find a tennis court — and someone to play with.

It wasn’t long before they found the courts at South Whidbey High School. “Tennis players usually manage to find each other,” Carolyn McCurrloch noted.

“I was 16 when Bill first put a tennis racket in my hand,” she recalled. “We’ve been playing ever since, despite life’s usual interruptions.”

On Saturday they joined 40 others at a “Welcome Back to Tennis” event sponsored by South Whidbey Parks & Recreation. A prize was given for the oldest wooden racket, food was plentiful, the sun was bright and everyone had fun.

“We wanted to target the active 50-plus adult and reacquaint or introduce them to the wonderful lifetime sport of tennis,” said Teresa Wheeler, director of the park district’s tennis programs.

“And it worked, as you see,” she added, pointing to USTA professional Tom Fey as he brought the crowd up to speed on the latest equipment advances.

Fey hails from California’s Indian Wells Tennis Garden, host for the Pacific Life Open Championship Tennis Tournament. During his South Whidbey visit, he provided a big incentive to entice folks onto the courts: two box seat tickets to the Pacific Life Open next winter.

After noshing on bagels and bananas, the group took to the courts for some serious exercise.

OK, not too serious, as Fey’s constant banter kept everyone laughing, he gradually got players to loosen both their muscles and their inhibitions. Accompanied by a pooch named Elizabeth — and a song aptly called “Who Let the Dogs Out” — the crowd stretched and twisted long-unused tendons.

At one point, paired back-to-back, each person passed a tennis ball over their heads, then practiced moving their rackets clockwise without dropping them.

Then Fey laid brightly colored circles on the court and invited teams to compete by getting their balls as close as possible, thereby improving accuracy.

Some were better than others, but that’s the point — everyone tried hard and had a great time in the process.

“This is a terrific idea for the USTA,” said Brooke Shafter, Fey’s assistant. “There’s a lot of people who played in the past at some point in their lives and are discovering the joys of the game at a later age.”

Bill McCurlloch agreed.

“I suffered from asthma when I was younger and found the short steps used in tennis were perfect for me; it’s in the nature of the game that I didn’t get worn out so easily,” he said.

His wife Carolyn added that tennis is great for the heart. She should know; she worked as chief cardiac nurse for Everett General Hospital.

“Tennis is excellent for the entire vascular system. But the reality is you’re having so much fun, you don’t even think of it as exercise,” she said.

Wheeler was pleased to report that tennis classes for people of all ages are filling fast this summer.

“There’s still space, though” she said. For details, call the parks district at 221-5484.

Jeff VanDerford can be reached at 221-5300 or

e-mail jvanderford@southwhidbeyrecord.com.