Since 2007, I’ve been making the trek to Charleston, South Carolina, to cover some of the top women in professional tennis. It’s a one-week tournament and one of the oldest women’s only events on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour, which is a Level 2 tournament behind the Grand Slams and some two-week events on the schedule.

I first made my way to Charleston at the request of Michael Saia, a Wyoming Area graduate and then communications director for the venue.

I was coming fresh off of cancer surgery when I received the phone call in late 2006 and I wasn’t quite sure if I was up to the task for April 2007.

I had been involved in tennis all of my adult life going from recreation tennis to tournament tennis to coaching tennis. I have been attending pro tennis matches for decades, but I had never been on the other side of the fence. This was my chance to be on the inside looking out.

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At that time, the tournament was called The Family Circle Cup, which originated at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. When I was coming up in tennis, I was always glued to the TV watching the likes of Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin and others, play on the green clay courts.

Besides the tennis, I was always jealous of the warm, sunny weather of South Carolina while our weather in Greater Pittston was, at best, iffy but mainly chilly. Besides, who could resist looking at palm trees when the buds on our trees were not even presenting themselves?

So when I was asked to work the same event that captured my attention so many years earlier, I decided, with great hesitation, to take the post as media center manager of The Family Circle tennis tournament.

Admittedly, when I arrived at Charleston for the first time, it was at 10 p.m. and was immediately whisked away to the venue to start work. I wasn’t quite prepared for that, so much for the glamor side of pro tennis.

I signed up to work 11 days and most of those days 12 to 14 hours per day with an occasional 18-hour day thrown in. It was brutal and an eye-opener, but I was exposed to working with the top women in the world of tennis like Venus and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.

I got to work side by side with some of the biggest names in tennis broadcasting and even one year, working with the late, great tennis journalist Bud Collins. That was a real treat and I was assigned to work with him exclusively for the entire tournament. To this day, I still keep up with his widow Anita Ruthling Klaussen, a word class photographer in her own right.

I made so many friends over the years, and that’s pretty amazing coming from a guy that wasn’t sure if I even wanted to be there the first time I arrived at Charleston.

The people of Charleston are very warm and welcoming and yes, they do say, “y’all” all the time. So much so, even in the few first days I was there, I started to say y’all – it was just natural. Well, like the saying goes, when in Rome, do what the Romans do, and I did.

Naturally, working for the event, we had our tournament clothing given to us and were fed three meals a day. It was the first time I had grits.

Over the years, I ran into several people from back home here in NEPA. That was always a blast when that happened.

The head groundskeeper for the venue, Jeff Church, grew up in Bloomsburg, John Nugent, a former sports director with WYOU worked at a Charleston station, and one of the volunteer’s husband was from Scranton and, of course, Mike Saia. So there was always a bit of home someplace around the grounds.

Last year, I ran into former Wyoming Area educator and local tennis legend, Don Cassetori, on the first day I arrived. It was by chance too. I walked out of the media center and there was Don resting up against one of the main stadium girders.

Don and his wife, Sherry, relocated to Charleston a few years ago to be closer to their daughter, Dr. Dominique, who is a practicing chiropractor.

From what I understand, it’s a move the lifelong Exeter resident hasn’t regretted. I don’t really blame them at all; it is lovely there with the ocean beaches, tons of public tennis and pickleball courts and, of course, golf courses.

I was all set to go this year and booked a hotel early, that was about the only thing I booked because I could cancel a few days before the event if necessary.

I applied for my media credentials and the request was granted so late, airfare and car rentals made it impossible to get there this year, sadly. So all I have been doing this week is watch match after match and take snap shots of photographer colleagues and sending the photo to them.

It’s been bittersweet and at times, painful to watch, but the emails, messages and acknowledgements from those working at the event sending me notes of sadness I’m not there this year has soften the blow.

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