"*Banquet update* Please remember to buy your tickets for the tennis club banquet for Saturday, December 8th, on-line at either Gilroy or Morgan Hill’s tennis club sites. Cost is $30 per person. There will be music, food and a “hosted” bar. Also, if you were a captain for GTC in 2018, we will be honoring you so please plan on attending. *Upcoming events* For your planning purposes we have two tournaments scheduled and two USTA tournaments that will be forthcoming. Mark your calendar for our Cinco de Mayo tournament on May 3rd and our Halloween tournament on October 25th. The banquet for next year will be hosted by us and will be on November 16th at Old City Hall. There will be a summer event that we will start working on beginning of 2019. If you have any specific suggestions for this summer event, please let us know. *Facility Improvements* Courts 5 and 6 were re-surfaced a couple of months ago costing $9300. I need to start leaning on the City of Gilroy to do those fence repairs they have promised us for over eight months. We discussed about getting a cover to go over the bleachers and table to eliminate the sap dirtying both up. Also, we still would like to pursue the possibility of bench canopies like Morgan Hill’s to help our players during the summer heat. If you have any suggestions for other projects, please let us know. (Yes, yes, we do know the soccer players are still playing on the courts.) *Upcoming season* The 40+ adult and 55 mixed seasons are starting in January. Team registration ends December 10th. Please make sure you have committed players for your team before you register it. Remember 40+ has 2 single and 3 doubles and the team fee is $150. These matches can start at noon on the weekends or weeknights. The 55 mixed has 3 doubles and the team fee is $90 and can start at 9:00 on the weekends or weeknights. Please let Paul Nguyen (paulinium@gmail.com), our new court scheduler, know when you would like your matches played. Team fees must be paid before any home matches are scheduled. *2019 Club Membership* Dues are $50 for an individual and $25 for a spouse. Senior rates for 65 and over are: $40 for an individual and $20 for a spouse. 2019 memberships can be paid on-line beginning January 1st . Your dues and team fees go to facility improvements. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and remember to “Gobble until you wobble.” Carol

"**Tennis banquet** Please remember to save December 8th for the club banquet. Morgan Hill is hosting at the Community Center on Dunne Ave. As soon as I get the details, I will pass them on to you. **Halloween tournament** Look in your inbox for the flier for the tennis mixer on October 26th. It will be mixed doubles but depending on the number of entries, there might be some men and women’s doubles also. There is a “no host” dinner at Old City Hall afterwards where the prizes will be given out. The mixer runs from 5:30-8:00. (5:30 is warm-up) **Chili cook-off** Everyone present had a nice time eating chili, drinking wine and dancing to the DJ. I thought we would need extra food, however, the eight chefs brought plenty and no one went away hungry or thirsty. Marc Hanson won best chili, Lucy Grisetti won people’s choice and Stephanie Dunkle won best decorated table. A big thank you to all who entered. We had some very unique table set-ups and delicious chili to experience. We are entertaining new ideas for next year’s event just to keep it fresh for everyone and hopefully draw a large crowd. **2019 events** Speaking of events, we have decided to host three tournaments, a summer club social event and it is our turn to host the banquet. We are planning a March mixer, Cinco de Mayo mixer in May and our Halloween mixer in October. Since our fall social event is close to our banquet, we would like to plan a summer evening at one of the wineries with a special theme. We agreed Old City Hall was a great place to host our banquet last year so we are looking at that venue once again. We chose November 16 , 2019 as the date. If anyone has other ideas of where and when to host the banquet, e-mail us back and we will consider it. Please check your calendar and plan on joining us on October 26th for a “spooktacular” time at the Halloween mixer. Wear a costume!!

"*August 2018 Club Membership* If you are playing on a fall team for the first time this year, our dues are half price since this is the last season for the year. Membership dues are the main contributing source of our treasury and provides the money needed to keep the courts up. *Chili Cook-off* September 15th at Sarah’s Vineyard from 6:00-9:00. Chefs need to arrive at 5:30 for set-up. DJ is Mike Malinao. Please bring a picnic since chili might not fill you up. The price is $20 per person which includes two glasses of wine, chili, and music at a gorgeous venue on a beautiful fall night. You are welcome to bring family and friends (over 21) to enjoy the occasion. We will close the event when we reach 100 people, so start purchasing your reservations on-line. *Facility Update* We plan on Saviano starting court re-surfacing on Monday, August 27th on courts five and six. Those courts will be closed for the week. We are still in the City of Gilroy’s queue to have the fence repairs and new wind screens. Hopefully by December we will see those improvements. The homeless numbers are starting to increase again at the park so if you see any questionable behavior, please call the police. The City wants to stay on top of this before the criminal behavior gets out of hand. *Fall Leagues* We have four combo teams and one mixed doubles team playing for GTC this season. Paula’s mixed doubles team will be playing out of Los Nogales. *Fall tournament* We have a Halloween tournament for GTC members on Friday, October 26th. More information in the September newsletter and upcoming flier. Speaking of tournaments—we just received a $450 check from USTA for hosting the June tournament which was run by USTA. It was a great tournament because they ran it, gave great prizes to the winners and all participants, had snacks and a filling lunch and best of all—I didn’t have to do anything. For our $20, we walked away with a great deal. I am going to look into a fall tournament for us to host for USTA. That’s it for now. -Carol

"*Cinco de Mayo Tournament* The Cinco de Mayo tournament was a success. We had twenty-four participants using all six courts with no byes. Congratulations to the winners: Angela Tamboura, Wendy Spohr, Ann Costa and Sylvia Lee for the women and Gilbert Dalit, Mike Vogel, and Dave Fisher for the men. Afterwards, around thirty-two people went to Old City Hall for dinner and karaoke. A good time was held by all. *Chili Cook-off* Save the date—Saturday, September 15th from 6:00-9:00 at Sarah’s Vineyard. We are looking for chefs to participate in our chili cook-off. In appreciation for cooking, the chef will get one free entry ticket and a gift bag. There will be awards/prizes for best chili and best decorated booth. We are hiring a DJ for your listening/dancing pleasure. Bring a picnic and come enjoy the evening. Your entry will get you, two glasses of wine, sampling of all the chili and music. More info to follow like price, etc… *June USTA Tournament* Speaking of tournaments, don’t forget to sign up for our June USTA tournament which is going to be held on Sunday, June 24th. There is only room for 32 participants so don’t be left out. You do not need a partner to sign up. Snacks and lunch are provided. Just follow the directions on the flier that I sent out to register for the tournament. (On-line registration only.) A new flier will be coming from USTA saying 4.0 rated players and lower are invited to participate. However, a 4.0 can still sign today. Also, Morgan Hill re-scheduled their tournament for the same date to July as to not conflict with us. Thank you, Morgan Hill, and I hope to see a lot of you down here that day. *USTA Teams* We have five teams out of Gilroy this season: Paul Nguyen’s 7.0 and 8.0 mixed “18 and over” teams, Sally Wrye’s 8.0 women’s “55 and over”, Judy McBrearty’s 7.0 “55 and over” women’s, and Jo Pak’s 6.0 “55 and over” women’s. You have until May 21st to register a team. Please remember that all of your players must be GTC members and do not play them until they are. *Facility Update* The City of Gilroy seems to be really working with us. The courts are cleaner (can’t do anything about the trees, though), the women’s bathroom has a new hand dryer, fence repairs should be coming up shortly, the locking of our courts so far has been a success, and the City is going to look into updating the bathrooms. So we will see. We kicked around the idea when things were looking pretty grim about moving the club to alternate facilities—Gavilan or the high schools. However, GUSD was very expensive and teams would have to pay a lot more to play one season. Gavilan seemed willing but we would have to maintain everything which again would force a team and membership increase. The Board came to a unanimous decision that as long as the City was working with us, we would stay at Las Animas. There are a lot of positives about using the park. We have beautiful shade around our table, the landscape is pretty to look at, we can indulge in certain beverages that the schools absolutely would not allow and the park has quieted down after our two meetings with Gilroy PD. (I will discuss Gilroy PD in a separate paragraph.) *Gilroy PD* Kim, Tim and I met with Corporal Delfino a couple of weeks ago to discuss concerns that members had about Las Animas. We impressed upon her that when one of us calls, it is a serious issue and we want a response. She said in return, when they are called we are to tell them who to contact for a follow-up to get better action. *Drop-in tennis* We are going to start drop-in tennis beginning Sunday, July 8th from 9-11 on courts 5 and 6. If you have no plans and would like to get some exercise, come out and join the fun. You do not need to be a club member to play so feel free to bring along some friends. *Weekend Matches* We have new times for weekend matches. On a trial basis, we now can start as early as 8:00 on both Saturday and Sundays. Since Parks and Rec uses courts 5 and 6 on Saturday morning, the City would like to keep two courts free for the public. So on Saturdays, captains would have to do a split time 2/1. However on Sundays, captains may start all three lines at the same time. If you should ever arrive at the courts and they are locked, please follow the instructions posted outside courts 5 and 6 and court 1. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact any one of us on the Board. Thanks for supporting Gilroy Tennis.

"*Cinco de Mayou Tournament* Our Cinco de Mayo tournament is almost filled. This is a mixed doubles mixer on Friday, May 4th from 6:00-8:00 with warm-up at 5:30. You do not need to sign up with a partner. Just go on-line and register under “event” at www.gilroytennisclub.com. Cost is just $10. There is a no-host dinner/karaoke event at Old City Hall right afterwards. Sign up today. *Facility update* Due to an on-going issue occurring after 11:00 PM, the tennis courts will be locked up starting May 1st. They will be opened at 7:30 AM and locked at 11:00 PM. Signs will be posted by the park staff saying whom to call if by chance the courts are still locked when you arrive in the morning. The locking of the courts will continue until November 1st. We know it is not an ideal situation, but we felt we had to do something to stop this behavior because it is a hygiene issue and we take the protecting of all tennis players seriously. Also, please feel free to contact any board member if there is ever anything going on around the courts that make you feel uncomfortable. We have been in touch with the City of Gilroy over a group of young men who have been hanging around the tennis table and bleachers smoking pot, drinking and heckling the players. Smoking of any substance in a public place is illegal according to state law, so the police can ticket the offenders. We don’t intend to go out of our way to call the police on everyone who is smoking in the park. However, if a group decides to start going out of their way to intimidate us, this behavior will not sit well with visiting USTA teams. We have worked very hard to try and make Las Animas a pleasant place to be. Let’s fight to keep it that way!!! *New teams* Registration for “55 and over” and “mixed 18 and over” is happening right now. A big welcome to Paul Nguyen who has registered a mixed 7.0 team. I really want to encourage many of you to think of captaining a team and playing out of the park. The more people we have playing and practicing there, the less chance of other groups moving in. I would love to see a mixed 6.0 and 8.0 team and some 55+ teams at different levels playing for the club at Las Animas. *Another tournament* USTA is going to be running a tournament on Sunday, June 24th from 9:00-1:00 at Las Animas. This is open to 2.5s-4.0s. I am going to send you the link and a flier advertising it, once our Cinco de Mayo tournament is done so no one gets confused. *Tennis Instructor* Parks and Rec have agreed to run tennis lessons for adults in the fall on Saturday mornings if we can get an instructor. Anyone interested or if you know of someone, please let me know. *Drop-in tennis anyone???* The Board is proposing drop-in tennis beginning in June or July for Sunday mornings. We want to start building our membership in the hopes of having more teams or just more people enjoying the game of tennis. If you have any thoughts or ideas about how to increase membership and teams, e-mail us.

"Hello, Everyone! Yes, I know this is April but this letter reflects what was discussed at the March Board meeting. Another newsletter will come out towards the end of April reflecting this month’s discussion. *Cinco de Mayo Tournament* We will be hosting our Cinco de Mayo tournament on Friday, May 4th at Las Animas Park. Cost is $10 per person and you do not need a partner. It will be followed by a “no host” dinner at Old City Hall. We will be seated in the patio area so we can partake in their karaoke while we dine. A flier will be coming out this week with all of the details. Based on last year’s numbers, we only reserved 35 seats for Old City Hall so please e-mail me if you are interested in joining us. *December Club Banquet* For your planning pleasure, please reserve December 8th on your calendars for our Gilroy/Morgan Hill tennis club banquet. Morgan Hill will be sending out the details as we get closer. *Try Team Tennis* At the beginning of March, we had a very successful tennis drill and competition amongst the 2.5 and 3.0 players from the area. Twelve men and women received a lesson from Marcus Hughes and then enjoyed putting what they learned to work. Great job by India Hoffman, USTA rep, who put this all together. India has suggested putting on a club tournament in June for everyone. I gave her two dates that none of our teams had matches being played. More information to follow. *Facility update* We do take seriously all of your suggestions that you give us for court improvements. It just takes a lot of time waiting for city approval since they are the owners of the courts (as they so kindly remind me every now and then.) If there is anyone out there who would like to assist us in getting some of these projects off the ground, please let me know. We welcome the help. *Soccer player update* Ernie Olivares stepped forward to help us deal with the young men who play soccer on our two back courts. We are in the process of trying to find if there is a contact person amongst them who the city could contact about a possible lit soccer field they could use. However, whenever we go out there, they are not present. I have high hopes that with nighttime matches starting, we will run into them and hopefully get this problem solved. *Locking of facility* Unfortunately, we have had to ask that our courts be locked up at night because of some problems that have been occurring. The city’s security team will lock them at night and the city will unlock them in the morning. The courts are supposed to be open by 7:30. Only five gates will now be open instead of the eight that we currently have. The locking of the courts will continue until November 1st. We are not happy about this new procedure because we know that this may become an inconvenience to you if you arrive on a weekend and find that the city has not opened the gates in time. To solve this problem if it should occur, two of the gates will have lock boxes so you can open those two gates to gain access to the courts. A more detailed message will be sent out once the gates have begun being locked. Please feel free to e-mail me your thoughts once this new system is put in place. *Captain membership and team fees* Some of you have asked if captains can automatically receive a free club membership due to all of the work that goes with captaining. We agree that captaining is not an easy job. However, if we were to do that, what incentive would the captain have to get his team players to join the club? Some of you have requested that team fees be suspended because they are so hard to collect or to have the Board collect them for you. After a discussion, the Board voted unanimously that the captain’s award will stay in place and the captain will continue to pay the team fee upfront and be reimbursed by the team. It is your dues and team fees that allow us to make the court improvements that we do. The Board also unanimously agreed to keep dues at $50 per person. (Pretty sweet deal considering what some of you are paying elsewhere.) That’s it for now. Good luck with your “18 and over” season. -Carol Marquest, Club President

"The “18 and over” registration is closing on March 5th. There is still time for you to get a group of people together and form a team out of Las Animas Park. So far we have Judy McBrearty’s 3.5 ladies, Lisa Cabassa’s 4.0 ladies, John Carroll’s 3.5 men’s and Nick Cabassa’s 4.0 men’s. There is plenty of room on our courts to accommodate more captains. We are sponsoring another Try Team Tennis for 2.5s and 3.0s on March 10th from 9:00-12:00. India Hoffman from USTA puts together a fun morning with Marcus Hughes teaching a brief lesson followed by a fun tournament with trophies. Snacks and lunch are provided. All of this for a mere $10. Click on the following link if you are interested in participating: REGISTER AT: http://www..ustanorcal.com/register ENTER KEY WORD: 1318 CLICK: Search now A couple of weeks ago, I (Carol) met with Girum Awoke who is the Public Works director in Gilroy. We walked around the courts looking at the fence. He and I both agreed that we do not need a brand new fence but it does need some repairs. He seemed to think that the City could straighten the south side of the fence (which was damaged from last winter’s storms), replace the gate panel on the north side of court one, fix the space at the bottom of the fence between courts 2-4 to prevent balls from rolling out (so we can remove our make shift fix of using garden hose) and new vented windscreens where needed. We also discussed locking our courts at night because of problems with the homeless and hygiene. If and when that happens, I will give you the particulars on how that will work. Lastly, Gabe Gonzalez, the City Manager of Gilroy, attended our last Board Meeting and has asked us to come up with a list of tennis/park improvements that we would like in a master plan. If you have any ideas, please e-mail me (Carol) back so I can add them to our list.