Elizabeth Barnhill

New Board member, Anne Frautschi, would fit well with the description of an all-around sports woman. From a young age, her mother encouraged her to be active in sports; she participated in swim team, gymnastics, and little league football, baseball and basketball with the boys.  (Being pre-Title IX, there were no such teams for girls.)  At age 13, her mother “steered her towards something more ladylike” and she was introduced to tennis. 

Title IX was passed as Anne was beginning high school and she remembers the disparity between the men’s and women’s teams in most sports.  For example, the women’s basketball team had off-campus practice at 6 a.m., did their own laundry, and had older uniforms and equipment.  But she said they didn’t mind because they were thrilled just to be able to play!

By senior year, she had earned a scholarship to UNC for either tennis or basketball. She played varsity tennis at Carolina for one year, but soon burned out and wound up taking a 20-year hiatus from playing tennis.

Following graduate school in Oregon, she tried her hand at coaching tennis for five years. She had success but was not passionate about it.  Eventually she wound up in start-up/small business operations roles, and that would be her professional niche for the next thirty years until she retired.  

Always active, as a young adult she took up golf and softball and played a variety of other team sports in her spare time. She also has hiked the Grand Canyon (twice), explored other National Parks, and canoed the Boundary Waters in Upper Minnesota.  More recently, she has taken up rockhounding for agates.  Her volunteer interests include animals, the elderly, and food insecurity. 

For the years from 2007-2020, Anne’s life often centered on caring for multiple family members with health issues where she was the primary care-giver, executor, etc., making tennis an afterthought.  Now recently retired and looking ahead, tennis is a big part of her retirement plan.  Whether teaching tennis skills to beginning players at the Hollow Rock Club or practicing with her tournament-playing friends in the Raleigh-Durham area, she values the many friends she has made through tennis.

Anne says she loves the tennis tree analogy and wants to “see that tree grow and grow with wider and deeper roots and more blooms at the top, too.”  She is a firm believer that tournament play helps you improve faster than League play, so she hopes the NWTO will continue to encourage more USTA League players to try tournament play.  Anne feels encouraging more 4.0 level players to enter events will help them improve by playing against 4.5 and 5.0 women.  Many League players just need to be reminded that they do not need to qualify to play a tournament.  Regarding 4.0s, she says “I wonder if offering 40+ women 7.0 or 7.5 Combo doubles events at some of our age group tournaments might seem more familiar and less intimidating?  She also encourages former college players she meets through League play to give tournaments a try.  It seems she is always looking for ways to entice more players to try a tournament, because “once they get a taste, hopefully they will all want to become part of the tree!”

Giving back to tennis seems to be in Anne’s blood.  She joined the NWTO Board in March and is an active member of the Auction and Amenities/Membership teams.  She is also working to help start a new clay court tennis circuit called the Grand Belles of the Carolinas. This circuit includes Daniel Island in March, Asheville in July, Seabrook Island in October, Kiawah Island and Carolina Country Club in Raleigh, both in November. 

NWTO is lucky to have Anne’s energy on the Board.  Her immediate reaction to retirement was “more tennis, less responsibility,” but we know she will continue sharing her giving nature with more groups and teams in the future.