Awards winners: Spirit-Cathy Greene, Tennis On Campus-Crawford Latham

01/21/23 • 23 min

The award-winning Cajun Classic Wheelchair Tennis Tournament, an international event with over 100 professional/recreational players and hundreds of spectators, does not happen without dedicated volunteers like Cathy Greene, of Lottie, Louisiana, She won the 2022 Marilyn Sherman Spirit Award. She always has a smile on her face and a positive attitude that lights up a room. Cathy also volunteers at the Hallowheel Tournament, working the tournament desk. Our second interview is with a leader who works the hard and achieves the most when no one is watching. She is University of South Carolina Club Tennis Vice President Crawford Latham. As winner of the 2022 Tennis On Campus Leader Award, she has made significant improvements to the team, including reorganizing all club tennis records and the club constitution. Along with the club president, she created plans to secure sponsorships. Our junior highlight is junior Lucy Lee, of Jackson, Miss. We also salute 2022 USTA Southern award winners: Adult Tournament of the Year, USTA Atlanta Combo Doubles (Atlanta, Ga., Maegan Kulich) and Jim Russell Junior Tournament of the Year, Southeastern Junior Team Championships (Auburn, Ala., Bret Peterson).

Previous Episode

Atlanta native Alycia Parks, USTA’s Martin Blackman talk Australian Open and 2023

Our Grand Slam correspondent – Martin Blackman of the USTA – previews American players heading into the Australian Open. With eight men aged 25 and younger in the ATP Tour top 50, Blackman sees a great 2023. Additionally, he says Atlanta native Ben Shelton, who past No. 100 in the world last year, is skyrocketing. He also discusses two top 10 women: former Atlantan Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula. We continue to focus on Atlanta as native Alycia Parks sits at No. 75 in the world. The confident 22-year-old, who won in Angers last year, has a big serve and delivers forthright comments on her 2023 goals. Host Sam Crenshaw remembers when he rallied with her years ago. Our junior highlight is Justin Martin of Collierville, Tenn. We honor two USTA Southern award winners Tennis On Campus Club Univ. of North Carolina/Chapel Hill and TOC Leader Crawford Latham of Univ. of South Carolina.

Next Episode

Black History Month with Rex Miller & Art Carrington

We celebrate Black History Month with leading voices in Black tennis. First up Rex Miller is the film director of Althea, about the legendary Althea Gibson. He also produced Citizen Ashe about Arthur Ashe that was shown last year on CNN. The 2015 film about Gibson was partially inspired by his mother’s 6-0, 6-1 loss to the International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee. Using a trove of historical photos, Miller was able to put together the leading film about the South Carolina native. He also mentions our next guest: Art Carrington. The author of Black Tennis: An Archival Collection 1890-1962, Carrington played one of the most notable tennis matches at that time between black athletes that was televised with commentary by Gibson and ITHOF inductee Bud Collins. This episode we feature Cave Springs, Arkansas’ Glennah Langford in our junior spotlight. We applaud two USTA Southern award winners: Paducah (Kentucky) Community Tennis Association and Bayou Bluff Tennis Club in Gulfport, Mississippi.