A shout out to the volunteers that make these tournaments so profitable.
The anecdote about Steffi and Claudia just goes to show that it wasn't always steely glares and cold shoulders.
VOLUNTEER APPROACH MAKES SLIMS WORK
Sun-Sentinel
Tuesday, February 24, 1987
By JUDE CAMILLONE, Staff Writer
No one person could have made the 1987 Virginia Slims of Florida tournament a success.
It took about 250 persons (excluding outside contractors) to make the event work last week at The Polo Club Boca Raton, which was hosting the tournament for the first time.
The tournament lasted seven days, but the planning lasted 365.
''Planning takes a full year,'' said Polo Club project director Craig Perna.
The primary groups behind the event were Virginia Slims of Florida, promoter Liddun International, The Polo Club and a slew of volunteers.
Polo Club tennis director Jean Mills coordinated 156 volunteers (not including ball boys and girls) to work the weeklong event.
Kathy Doring of Boynton Beach, herself a volunteer, was the assistant coordinator. ''She was my right arm for the last three months,'' Mills said of Doring.
Three months, and then some.
''I sat down with (Mills) in September and she already had a stack of people who wanted to volunteer,'' Doring said.
Mills originally wanted 125 volunteers, but had to raise that number because of the response. She said 172 aspiring volunteers had to be turned away. Another 17 volunteers worked as heads of 10 committees.
The devotion of the volunteers bordered on the fanatical.
''They've even taken paper to the Port-O-Lets,'' Mills said.
''I get here at 8 a.m. and feel like I should be here all day,'' Doring said on a particularly busy day last week. ''I feel guilty if I take a break to watch part of a match. Jean has to throw me out and tell me to go watch some tennis.''
If they had chosen not to work so long and hard, the volunteers would have had more time to watch their favorite sport.
''We all love tennis,'' said Doring, whose son Mark was a ball boy, ''but it's not just the watching of the tennis that brought us here. It's the feeling you get knowing you're part of the tournament.''
''It's knowing you helped pull everything together,'' said Vicki Stanley of Boynton Beach, a co-chairperson of the floaters committee.
Floaters, Stanley said, do just that. They float and do whatever is needed. They were among the busiest volunters at the event.
A more specific task was given to Boca Raton's Joan Bond, who was in charge of about 100 ball persons, including her son and daughter.
The number also included varsity tennis players from Pope John Paul II and Boca Raton high schools. Bond said the average age was 14.
One of the more celebrated ball kids was Natalie Gold, 13, of Portsmith, England.
Gold is the No. 2 girls' under-14 player in England's Southern Region.
''My parents live in Boca West and I come here every Easter, summer and winter to play the tournaments,'' Gold said. ''I like the players. I'm friendly with Hana Mandlikova. She lives in Boca West as well.
''The next time you interview me, I hope I'll be the winner of this tournament and not just the ball kid.''
Professional aspirations aside, Gold said she enjoyed every moment working last week's matches.
''I wouldn't have the opportunity to do this at Wimbledon,'' Gold said. ''They used to choose just orphans to work Wimbledon. Now they choose children who live in Wimbledon, and I don't live there. So this is the only chance I'd have to do something like this. . . watch the players and watch some exciting matches.''
Arlene Gould of Deerfield and Roslyn Scholar of Delray were co-chairpersons of the ushers committee. They say there's more to being an usher at a major tournament then most people could imagine.
''The spectators can only leave when the players switch sides (during the 90- second changeover after odd games),'' Scholar said, ''and the ushers have to keep it running smoothly. They have to control traffic flow.''
''And,'' Gould said, ''if someone in the audience gets sick, they have to help them out of there with as little disruption as possible. And they have to be there to help if someone gets locked in the jiffy john on the changeover.''
Pat Snyder of Highland Beach was chairperson for the Players' Center volunteers.
''We try to keep the players as comfortable and happy as possible,'' Snyder said. ''We keep games in the players' center for them. They played Trivial Pursuit and did crossword puzzles during the rain delays. And some watched All My Children.
''And I noticed a great camaraderie among the girls. Like (Claudia) Kohde-Kilsch and (Steffi) Graf. Right before their match they paired together and were chatting. You'd think the rivalry would be so great they'd be apart right before a match to get psyched.''
Like the other volunteers, Snyder was at The Polo Club to be close to the players.
''Of course, you have to be a tennis fan,'' Snyder said. ''It's fun when a little person like myself can be with the players, rubbing elbows. It's play, not work. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't a pleasure.''
Bob and Jane Lotito of Boca Raton were in charge of the volunteer hostesses working the VIP section.
Bob says he plans his vacations around events like the Virginia Slims.
''I enjoy taking the week off to sit in the sun,'' he said. ''It's the perfect vacation. It's peaceful. It's not like you have to pack up the kids and go some place.''
Diane Leininger of Boca Raton was the office committee chairperson. One of her jobs was getting phone messages to the players.
''I got a call for Chris (Evert) just before she got on the court,'' Leninger said, ''and we didn't know whether to give it to her or not, because she doesn't like to be bothered before her match. I took it out and handed it to her. She was very pleasant. She said thanks, you can tear the message up, I know the number.
''And we've handled requests for players. We got clean towels to Pam Shriver on the practice court.''
Leninger's role was recognized by the other volunteers.
Said Doring, ''If Jean says I was her right hand, then Diane was her left hand.''
''I was here from the start,'' Leninger said. ''Since late October, early November.''
The chairpersons grew as one in that time.
''There's a family atmosphere among the volunteers,'' Doring said. ''When the tournament is over and you don't have to be here at 8 in the morning, you miss it.''
''We're ready to sit down and talk about next year's tournament,'' Stanley said.
Jack Bailey, an IBM data analyst, was in charge of the technical/aesthetic volunteer committee.
''He put together our sponsor booth,'' Mills said, ''he's been out here examining signage and lights. . . and he put together two videos.''
One of the videos, a two-hour documentary taken from five hours of footage, captured the tournament from start to finish, from the building of the bleachers and the erection of the tents to the final day of competition.
About the only thing the film didn't capture was the bulldozer.
''I call (the tournament court) a convertible court,'' Perna said. ''For 11 1/2 months, it's clay. For this tournament, we made it into a deco surface -- an asphalt base with a rubberized coating, the same composition as the U.S. Open courts. When the tournament is over, we go in with a bulldozer and pull the asphalt up.''
While Mills worked with the volunteers, Perna and tournament project director Sonia Jacobsen worked with The Polo Club's salaried staff and arranged for plenty of outside help.
''Under Sonia's direction, we hired a company to set up tents and chairs,'' Perna said. ''We hired professional concessions people, a professional catering crew. And the gentleman who did the bleachers does most of the bleacher work in this country. He's an expert.''