Founded in 1956, the ITA serves as the governing body for college tennis from all of the collegiate sports associations; NCAA Division 1, 2, and 3, NAIA, and NJCAA. Today, the ITA works with about 1200 schools, 1700 programs, 3000 coaches, 19000 student-athletes, and 1500 officials. And for the last five years of Dr. Russell’s leadership, the ITA had a net gain of 28 college tennis programs.
Although the world is currently pausing and going through changes due to the global pandemic, it doesn’t stop us to innovate to continue helping student-athletes around the world. Recently, we created our first Virtual Showcase — an opportunity for junior players to have a live interaction with over 100 college coaches virtually, right in the comfort of their homes. The Virtual Showcase went live online on September 12-13, 2020.
With over 100 participants, it wasn’t only college coaches' interaction that they benefit, but also the College Tennis Conference that educated, enlightened, and prepared the participants towards the college tennis admission. The conferences featured many insightful conferences from an assortment of many wonderful minds in the world of tennis. Our founder, Thomas Anderson, spoke and moderated some of the conferences through the computer screen. It was unlike most conferences it used to be done with a live audience, but it was still as successful as it could be live, especially the platform allowed the live audience to post their questions which were answered by the guest speakers.
One of the outstanding conferences was featuring Dr. Timothy Russell, the CEO of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
For 26 years, Thomas has been involved in the college tennis recruitment industry. This led Thomas’ knowing Dr. Russell for a very long time since. So it was an honor to speak with and moderate the conference featured Dr. Russell.
For the moment this world is currently facing, Dr. Russell gave educational insights into the intercollegiate tennis industry that not only enlightened the players, but also the parents, coaches, and the tennis community. In addition to that, he also shared briefly about his leadership role at the ITA, which included the plans to strengthen the tennis ecosystem, tournament management systems, and partnership-building to create careers for the college athletes in the tennis industry after they graduate. His knowledge and love for the sport radiated throughout the conference that brought out positive energy to the audience. Whether it’s the pros of competing or junior players competing, he loves watching tennis and supporting the tennis community.
Founded in 1956, the ITA serves as the governing body for college tennis from all of the collegiate sports associations; NCAA Division 1, 2, and 3, NAIA, and NJCAA. Today, the ITA works with about 1200 schools, 1700 programs, 3000 coaches, 19000 student-athletes, and 1500 officials. And for the last five years of Dr. Russell’s leadership, the ITA had a net gain of 28 college tennis programs.
This proved that college tennis is an opportunity that is not only treasured by the players, but also the coaches, institutions, officials, and tennis communities. “It’s never a good day to lose a college tennis program,” Dr. Russell said in response to the unfortunate fact that several college tennis programs were recently cut from the institutions. “[...] and I hope nobody uses this pandemic as an excuse to cut a college sports program.”
Dr. Russell wrote an article on the ITA website where he talked at greater length about ways and why collegiate sports should be incorporated in institutions regardless of the financial revenues. Following this topic, Dr. Russell advised the college coaches and college tennis programs to be strongly embedded on their campus and community so that neither the athletic director, college president, or board of trustees would ever think about cutting the program. “At the ITA, we’re trying to be what I like to call ‘architect upstream’ so we don’t have to be a ‘plumber downstream’,” said Dr. Russell, as the ITA is working very hard to solidify tennis programs on their campuses and communities.
Usually, the ITA runs a series of 88 regional tournaments in the fall semester across all divisions. But there are some changes made to follow the new health protocol, which canceled out many tournaments. However, Dr. Russell gave insights that turned out to be hopeful, especially for the incoming players entering college in 2021.
In recognizing the high demand to compete, the ITA instituted a new ITA Tour series, which will enable junior players, college players, and young professionals to compete. This plan was made following the ITA Summer Circuit that turned out to be successful and safe. “We’re trying to make sure that we’re putting on events that are very safe. We’re always concerned about the health and safety welfare of student-athletes. We’re making sure that we’re complying with the local state-federal health guidelines,” said Dr. Russell. The key highlight from this topic is that Dr. Russell stated that the ITA is trying to demonstrate that one, college tennis is strong and two, tennis is a safe social distancing sport.
Aside from the insights of the ITA and collegiate tennis industry, Dr. Russell gave valuable advice to the junior players who are looking to play college tennis. “Forget about coronavirus, just keep getting better. I would suggest that you use this as an opportunity to build your game,” he said. This included doing the appropriate conditioning to stay in shape. “Figure out how to tell your story that’s better than everybody else’s.” There are ways junior players can do to get recognized and communicate with college coaches without meeting in person.
As equally important to the athletic aspect, Dr. Russell encouraged the junior players to keep up with the academic studies. “Our coaches are not only looking for good players and good students, they’re looking for leaders, people who have the passion to play and want to compete. It’s not just about the scholarship, it’s about loving tennis as a sport of a lifetime.”
Above all of the insights and valuable advice, Dr. Russell sent a significant message to the audience as sportsmen can take on; sport teaches us to be resilient that could bring hope to get through challenging times. And it is Dr. Russell’s dream to see the sport continue to grow and thrive to be played by all ages across different levels. Thank you, Dr. Russell!
About the guest speaker
Dr. Timothy Russell has spent over three decades in the education industry as a professor at the Ohio State University, University of Rochester, and Arizona State University. In July 2015, Dr. Russell was appointed by the ITA Board of Directors to serve as the new CEO of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
Before his leadership role at the ITA, Dr. Russell served as the USTA Collegiate Varsity Chair from 2007 to 2012, and as the USTA Junior Competition Chair in 2011 until 2012. During his role at the USTA, he had significant work in creating a model that would lead more American junior players for college coaches to recruit. In addition to his work in the tennis industry, he has high academic achievements and had a leadership role in the development of renowned American non-profit institutions.
Dr. Russell has previously been inducted into the ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame and the USTA Southwest and Central Arizona Hall of Fame.