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Show Cedar's tennis 'Comes of Age9 iiiitPil' : ; ... ... .ASCissEt X x i . V . C .. v N 1 N x Vv By LEE WARNICK Record Editor This year's Cedar City Parks and l'.ecreation tennis tournament demonstrated the growing interest with which this sport is being received in the area. About 145 entries, comprising 65-70 individuals, in-dividuals, competed in th 15-day event, called "the largest tennis tournament tour-nament in the history of Cedar City," By tournament tour-nament coordinator Frank Stobbe. Stobbe, who really is "Mr. Tennis"in this area, has to take a good deal of the credit for Iron County's up-and-coming tennis scene. A case in . point: when Stobbe and his family moved to Cedar City in 1974, that year's Iron County Fair Tennis Tournament had just eight participants. "They had just one single's and one double's competition, so it was possible for a 10-year-old girl to be matched against a 45-year-old man in single's competition," Stobbe recalls Now, four tournaments are conducted each year, one approximately corresponding to each month of the outdoor season. One is held in early June, one in early July, one, the City Parks and Recreation Tour- tennis professionally, and advocate, as City and School Board officials will attest, better tennis facilities. For instance, they have heavily pushed for the refurbishing of the courts at City Park and Cedar High School. The latter project has been a matter of particular controversy. At this time, Cedar has 12 public courts, four at Cedar High School, which Stobbe . contends are rapidly deteriorating and need refurbishing, six on the. Southern Utah State College : campus, and two at the City Park, where refurbishing is due by next Spring, Stobbe says. There are three additional private courts located in various parts of the city. The amount should increase by four by next spring, when courts are added at the Cedar Junior High School. Stobbe hopes to conduct some tournament tour-nament matches next summer on those courts. Some areas in Iron County's tennis still need work, Stobbe feels. "For one, we have a heck of a time getting girls to play in singles." For that reason, recent tourneys have featured boy's (under 18), but not girl's competition. Stobbe also feels the program at Cedar High School has been weak, "but we've been promisd there will be full-blown participation par-ticipation in Region Six tennis this year." Though Stobbe says it has been an "uphill fight" to upgrade some events, that was not evident in this year's Park's and Recreation Tourney, as nearly all of the 12 events were blessed with stiff competition. Even with that competition, com-petition, Terry Wilson, of Cedar City, took all three events he entered-the men's "A" doubles. Stobbe says of the feat, "It 'was highly unusual. Since tennis has become highly competitive in the area, Wilson is the only triple winner we've had." Wilson's accomplishment shines even more, for he had to play all three final's matches in the span of about five hours Saturday morning. Also unusual was the fact that all 12 Saturday finals were dispatched in two straight sets. All tournament matches here consist of a two-out-of-three set format. Results of the tournament tour-nament were: Wilson easily defeated arch-rival Rick Behrens 6-2, 6-2 in men's "A" singles; Sandy Taylor beat Peggy Osinski 6-4, 6-3 6-3 in women's "A" singles; Sandy Bryand and Susan Pedersen teamed to beat Lenore Hancock and Wallene Creamer, 6-4, 6-1, in women's "A" doubles; and Wilson and Phil Adams edged Bill Kringlin and Topher Mason 7-5, 64 in men's "A" doubles. In men's "B" singles competition, Lane Stobbe overcame Floyd Rigby, 7-5, 7-5, 6-2. Stobbe also took the boy's singles, 6-3, 7-5 over David Gregerson. Ms. Pedersen defeated Sharon Dalton 6-3, 6-2 in women's "B" singles. In the men's novice singles championship, Terry Hermansen beat Bernell Hofheins, 6-4, 6-4; Kathy Meredith defeated Clair Rigby in women's novice singles, 6-4, 6-4; and in women's novice doubles, Vickie Peterson and Ms. Meredith defeated Ms. Rigby and ' Chris Webster, 6-4, 6-3. In the mixed doubles championship, Wilson and Ms. Taylor edged Kringlin and Ms. Bryant, 6-4, 7-5. In the novice mixed doubles, the mother and son team of Janet and Robert Nakken fell t to Hermansen and Ms. Webster, 6-4, 6-3." Bill Kringlin serves in his match during Saturday morning's City Parks and Recreation Tournament Tour-nament Finals. He and partner Topher Mason dropped the match mat-ch to Terry Wilson and Phil Adams, 7-5,6-4. nament, in late July and early August, and early September. And virtally each tournament tops the prior year's one in number of entries. Not only are Stobbe and his wife, Rita, heavily involved in organizing and carrying out tournaments, tour-naments, they also teach |
