In 2022-2023, a Task Force of the Board of the NWTO completed a 10-question survey of 16 of the 17 Sections of the USTA (all but the Caribbean). The newsletter will be publishing the results of the survey, one question at a time. Learn more about this initiative here.

QUESTION 6: What kind of support does the Section provide for the Women’s Intersectional Championships?

Florida: USTA Florida pays the registration fees for all players; travel and uniform support was discontinued after Covid budget cuts.

Midwest:  Not financially.  

Intermountain: The Section does not have funds to help out with Intersectional teams. I suggested having interstate, or interdistrict competitions, and that the Section could request funds from National to help with travel of Intersectional teams. At least the Section could help players make connections within the Section, from one District to another. 

Eastern: They used to. Would give a check to each captain to use as needed. Captain’s discretion.  They have also asked for Tax Returns to apply for a stipend.

Pacific Northwest: Having played lntersectionals for many years, we have not received any help, not hats, t-shirts, or money. We have asked. None of the women playing lntersectionals have received money from PNW.

Southern California: The Section provides shirts to all players, a stipend to each team player for travel, and a stipend for a team rental car. Additionally, one of the SoCal clubs contributes an additional small stipend for any of their member Intersectional players. The sign-up for Intersectionals is communicated through a Section email and players apply through the USTA tournament portal. There is an overall Section captain to manage the Section teams and there are team captains who select their teams from the applicants and coordinate their team's activities.

Texas: Designated POCs for recruiting team captains and formalized application/selection process for individual players. The Section pays the team entry fees, travel stipend provided to players, and USTA Texas team gift (jackets or something similar).

Southern: The men and women share a budget for their respective lntersectional events. The format of the men’s event is smaller than the women’s event so the men’s budget per player appears to be more generous than for the women, but the pot of money is equal for both. For the women, Southern pays the lntersectional entry fee for each player and a small stipend ($200-250) for which players need to have a receipt either for travel or lodging. (On this call l learned that our budget was cut for 2023 so the stipend will likely go down below $200)

New England:  TBD

Northern California: Typically, a $200 stipend plus a team jacket for each player.

Southwest: We discussed how the Section could support sending more teams to Intersectionals.  There were two in 2022, 55+ and 75+. At present, he tries to locate a captain for each age group and then the captain finds the teams, which is made more difficult when the captain may not know players who have a different NTRP rating than she has. I suggested that the Section could field more than just 2 teams. And that the Section could support competitions within the Section among players to earn a place on each team. He then mentioned that for the juniors, they have "Border Battles" in which the juniors compete on behalf of the Section against Texas or Southern California for fun. Why not do something like that for adult women as Cup teams or as a form of tryouts for the Intersectional teams?  He agreed.

Middle States: Yes. Travel stipends are provided to all Intersectional players, USTA leagues traveling to nationals and players competing in NTRP Championships.

Northern: Case of balls if requested  

Hawaii: There has not been any recent player interest in Women’s Intersectional Championships. In general, section-sponsored league teams are provided stipends of $450-$550 per team, depending on the number of lines in the league.

MidAtlantic: When feasible, player gifts for participating Mid-Atlantic teams. Ultimately, we would like to secure a sponsor to support this and develop a registration process so we can ensure consistent information. 

Missouri Valley: The Section does not support Intersectional Championships at this time, but Scott is interested in how that can be done. He is considering going to Phoenix this year as a volunteer to help with the tournament and learn more about it.

After reading the above, do you have any recommendations or suggestions on how Adult Competition is best handled?  Please provide your feedback to Info @NWTO.us. We encourage you to reach out to your Section contacts with concerns or feedback:

Eastern – Lynn Buffamonti  buffamonti@eastern.usta.com
Florida – Christine Ducey  ducey@ustaflorida.com
Hawaii – Sara Yoshinaga  yoshinaga@hawaii.usta.com
Intermountain – Monica Haller-Bradley  mhaller@ita.usta.com
Mid-Atlantic – Rachel Kros  kros@mas.usta.com
Middle States – Mary Wurtz  Wurtz@ms.usta.com
Midwest – Toby Gaynor  toby@midwest.usta.com
Missouri Valley – Scott Howes  howes@movalley.usta.com
New England – Shawna Fors   shawna.fors@newengland.usta.com
Northern – Taylor Heltne  taylor@northern.usta.com
Northern California – Joanna Broda-Schnuk jbroda-schunck@norcal.usta.com
Pacific Northwest – Matthew Warren  mwarren@pnw.usta.com
Southern – Milagros Sequera Huss  sequera@sta.usta.com
Southern California – Anthony Shirley    ashirley@scta.usta.com
Southwest – Matt Gleason  gleason@southwest.usta.com
Texas – Veronica Nicholls  nicholls@texas.usta.com
Caribbean – Angela Vargas  adults@cta.usta.com

Learn more about this initiative here.

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