We've had a bad week here at the club. Long-time and well-liked member, Leo Poverman, died last Saturday after a long battle with illness. As far as we know, there is no date set for a memorial service. Leo was a true gentleman and a good sport and he will be truly missed.
Staff member and friend, Tom Wassner, died on Tuesday after a long battle with illness. There is no date set for a memorial service for Tom. When we learn anything about memorial services, we'll post the info immediately.
Tom Wassner
Tom worked here at the Tennis Club and the Skating Club for a few years now and we knew him well. He played music and sang and wrote songs. He was working up his act to appear at open mike night at a club in Harvard Sq. He was always a good worker, especially during the spring opening. He was a good guy and we'll all miss him.
The really amazing thing about Tom was how he handled being sick. He was never down. He never complained. He never even wanted to talk about it. Right up until the end, he kidded around, he talked sports, he said he'd be back. He was coming back.
-Bill Crusco
Maybe Tom was right, maybe Bill Belichick was the greatest pro football coach of all times, maybe Tom Brady was the best quarterback, even better than Joe Montana.
Tom was the center of sports talk at the club. All sports, every season.
Sometimes we hesitated to argue about sports with Tom because Tom had all the stats at his fingertips, he watched every game, he read every analysis. (He remembered that player in a college game, a playoff in, say, 1992.) Before Tom came to work at the club, he worked for years and years as a camera man for a cable sports network. He had stories. He had anecdotes. He was there for the games and he was there after the games, in the locker room, for the post-game interviews.
Tom skated and was learning to play tennis. He played lots of softball. He was in several leagues at once, a twilight league, a frost league. He and his pal, Sam, won championships. Tom umpired softball. In one year he umpired over a hundred games.
Tom thought that he knew sports, that he saw into the secret heart of sports. He wasn't dismissive, though, he liked to debate, to analyze, to appreciate.
Well, we can't ask Tom about Larry Bird or Roger Clemens any more. But we'll remember some of Tom's stories, some of his verdicts. And we'll remember Tom rendering them.
Tom never wanted to talk about his sickness. A lot of us just didn't know about it for a long time. If you asked how he was doing, he'd say fine, what with the Patriots' draft going so well. That Belichick.
Tom, tell us again the story about Bird on the exercycle.
We'll miss you, Tom. We already miss you.
-Joe DeBassio
| The next round robin is scheduled for Wednesday, July 19. The meal will be catered, the weather will be sparkling, the company scintillating. Remember that rained out (catered) round robins still take place, or rather, the meal is still served and members are charged for it. Tennis begins at 6:00 |
| What about our tounaments? So far they have been ill-fated: washed out, indifferenced out. Lenny Singer is determined to have some. He is indefatigable. Check with Len about the plan. |
The club book is back from the printer and should be in your hands now. Meanwhile, much of the book's information is now available on the website. (Thanks to Sheila and Ann for getting the info to us in a timely fashion.) Events, Rules, Governors and Committees are all updated, as is the New Members List. When is the next Round Robin?
The website has a long overdue new feature: a Champions Page (recently updated). Check it out.
The website has another new and important feature, the President's Corner. Check it out.
And we've added new info on themembership process. Check out MEMBERSHIP.
We still have the tournament draws (from 2001 to 2004) available on-line (including all of the results), thanks to the Java Kid. We are re-locating the links, however.
"On the court, tennis players exchange not only ground strokes but lots of information. It's a richly interactive sport, both verbally and non-verbally. If players communicate clearly, simply, and consistently, the game will proceed more quickly, and with less fuss and misunderstanding. Here are a few guidelines that can make the game more fun, friendly, and fair for all...."
We've had some requests to run Craig Lambert's piece, sampled above, on Tennis Communication. (We'd better leave this link up on the newspage permanently.)
Some useful links:
And here's a link to the espn site, with pro ranking.
And a club member (let's call him Sol) suggested a link to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. The site is rich.
Website note: The website does have all of the information available in the club book on-line.
'Timelines' is for adepts.
Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2005. From there you can see the whole of the Persistent Archive of last year's news.
Website Note: The time and temperature icon below is a link to a Boston weather site.
Joe DeBassio, Webmaster
Website Note II: The honey-comb icon is also a link. It takes the clicker to an archive of all the past news pages so that you can read the news pages for the whole year (2006). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take you to the previous issue of this year's newspage.
This version is archived at: https://www.cambridgetennisclub.com/News/News2006.24.en.html
