ATLANTA – May 23, 2018 – New Orleans’ Kerri Becker has been named as a United State Tennis Association (USTA) Southern local leader liaison for her home city.

Becker’s goal will be to work with USTA Southern, USTA Louisiana and the New Orleans Metropolitan Area Tennis Association (NOMATA) to expand tennis in metro New Orleans. A competitive tennis player for 15 years, she is currently employed as an event supervisor.

Named as the 2016 Charles Turner Volunteer of the Year by USTA Louisiana, Becker is currently serving as a NOMATA board member. She has served as president and board member on a local country club for over a decade. Becker has been playing competitive tennis for nearly 15 years in the New Orleans metro area with many trips to USTA League state and sectional championships, as well as two trips to compete in the USTA League championships. Additionally, she has organized local junior tennis teams at the elementary level and expanded into captaining a USTA Junior Team Tennis team which were state champions and went to sectional championships several times. She has served as site director and/or chairman for several state, sectionals and other local tennis tournaments and has been extremely active in local fundraising events for tennis and other interests. 

USTA Southern, which covers nine Southern states and represents nearly 25 percent of the national members, has tasked Becker with serving as a conduit between the various USTA organizations and acting as the liaison between local tennis organizations to increase tennis participation. Another responsibility is to advocate for construction or repair of municipal tennis courts and to reach out to residents or groups with little or no experience in the sport.

USTA Vice President and LLL Task Force Co-chair Randy Jackson said, “The purpose of the pilot is to increase tennis participation in specific target areas. These individuals will be ambassadors for tennis who will enhance the awareness of tennis as a great sport for all ages with the goal of increasing participation.  Each of our new local leader liaisons have impressive credentials, positive attitudes and are already making good things happen in their areas.”

Another co-chair of the task force, USTA Director at Large John Cox, added, “With these pilot programs, I really think that USTA Southern has a unique opportunity not only to have boots on the ground at the grassroots level, but also to have a direct connection to our local tennis communities. There is nothing better than an energetic and inspired leader to motivate a group, and I think that we have been able to find three of those persons for our pilot programs.”

Becker is one of three local leader liaisons contracted by Southern. The other two are Rivers Humber, of Clarksdale, Miss., and Pat Malone, of Jonesboro, Ark.

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Media Contact:
Ron Cioffi
USTA Southern (US Tennis Association) Director of Communications
cioffi@sta.usta.com
O: 770-368-8200 x112; M: 770-378-7856