Member Spotlight: Sheila Weinstock
GINNY GRAYBIEL
“...The two of us, sitting on a curb eating ice cream to soothe our wounds. We had bought plane tickets we couldn’t change. We had to stay for a week.”
The midget baseball team of Lancaster, Pa., lost out big in 1952. And it wasn’t the boys’ fault. They wanted then-11-year-old Sheila Allison on their team. She practiced with them at the field across from her family’s home. She was their best pitcher. Unfortunately, the team’s board decided that if Sheila were on the team “the boys would consider it a sissy sport.”
“I was devastated,” Sheila recalled recently. So, she went hunting for another sport. Three years later, she heard about a tennis player in her town, and she asked her to teach her how to play. “She took me out to a public court and gave me a racquet,” Sheila said. “She told me how to hold the racquet and said, ‘Now what you wanna do is hit the ball as low over the net as you can and get it in the court.’” Sheila also found a couple of walls to practice against. Then in high school, a physical education teacher offered more instruction. She went on to Pennsylvania State University, majoring in physical education. But her progress was limited in those years before Title IX. “I never really got to compete because there were no teams for girls,” she said.
On the plus side, however, Belmar Gunderson, in whose honor the NWTO last month inaugurated a Leadership Award, was on the physical education staff, played with her and greatly improved her game. Belmar, who died last May, fought for parity in women’s sports for many years, a key factor in creating the Leadership Award in her name.
Sheila married Norm Weinstock in 1963, moved to Yonkers, NY, for a couple of years, then to the Boston area. Two children -- both boys -- soon followed, putting tennis on the back burner for a few years.
When the family settled in Framingham, Mass., Sheila finally had time to resume playing. She befriended a woman “who looked like she hit a good ball” at a nearby public court. Then she branched into other public venues, setting up the boys in a courtside playpen. Eventually, she joined the nearby Natick Racquet Club, an indoor facility that offered babysitting. “And so it was perfect,“ she said.
Tennis Corporation of America bought the Natick Racquet Club and set up a big instructional program. Sheila’s versatile game – both singles and doubles -- soared. She also began working at the club, eventually becoming manager/head pro, a job she held for 42 years. She retired only two years ago at the age of 80 but still teaches an occasional lesson at the club.
“She’s a good example. She sets a standard.”
Around 1978, Natick member Judy Smith, now 87, persuaded Sheila to partner in a highly competitive New England league, then to play in a few New England sanctioned tournaments, and finally to travel to the National Senior Women’s Clay Court Championships in Houston – their first national tournament. “I never knew any of this existed, but that’s how I started playing some national tournaments,” Sheila said.
The two newbies won three or four rounds in Houston. But ironically, Sheila’s main recollection is finding a dentist to replace a crown that broke off when they were playing in the first round. Judy’s lasting memory is “the two of us sitting on a curb eating ice cream to soothe our wounds. We had bought plane tickets we couldn’t change. We had to stay for a week.”
Sheila with Carol Wood
“It was sobering,” Judy said. “We were humbled for sure.”
Judy also encouraged Sheila to compete with her in the World Maccabiah Games, an international Jewish and Israeli event played quadrennially in Israel. In 1985, they ended up winning a bronze medal in the 35s. Also, six times, Sheila played in the ITF Senior World Team Championships for U.S. teams, traveling to Turkey twice, Croatia twice and U.S. sites two other times.
During a partnership of about a decade, Sheila, the stronger one, and Judy, the strategic one, won numerous titles. At the age of 52, Judy cut back on tennis to return to work (though she resumed playing at 75 and is still winning at 87). Sheila kept playing, winning many singles matches as well as doubles matches with new partners.In 2002, after holding top rankings for two decades, Sheila was inducted into the New England Tennis Hall of Fame. In 2012-2013, she served as president of the National Senior Women’s Tennis Association, the predecessor to the NWTO.
Today, playing several times a week, she remains the No. 1 player in New England in 80-and-over singles and No. 4 nationally in that age group. She’s also No. 1 in New England 80s doubles with Lida Lloyd. “I never thought that tennis would lead to where it did,” she said.
Sheila remains extremely grateful to Judy for setting her on a path that led to so much fierce competition. And just as Judy boosted Sheila, Sheila paid it forward to Davida Dinerman, who’s two decades younger and became another top-ranked New England player. “If you’re not known, you’ll stay unknown until someone advocates for you,” Davida said. “And Sheila advocated for me. I think she appreciated that Judy did that for her.”
For the past six years, Sheila and her husband have lived in a 69-unit complex with a single clay court in Weston, Mass. When she heard chatter about getting rid of the court, she began offering free clinics for residents of the complex. “I can’t tell you how much pleasure it gives me,” she said. “Most of the residents are between 60 and 75. They’re playing some tennis, having a ball, and meeting some of the people they don’t know who live here.”
Tennis-wise, not much has really changed for Sheila over the years. As The Boston Globe put it in 2008, she’s “the matriarch of the local tennis scene -- a queen with a killer drop shop.”
Sheila, Davida said, is the kind of player and person that so many younger players aspire to be. She’s smart, analytical, and competitive on the court. She’s quick. And she’s a nice person. Added Judy: “She’s an upbeat, friendly, positive person and a good friend, who likes to laugh and enjoy things.”
“She’s a good example,” Davida said. “She sets a standard.”