NEWBERRY — Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) presented its annual awards this week during the PTR International Tennis Symposium. The event, which includes more than 40 educational presentations for tennis coaches, is underway February 11-15, on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Mark Gardiner, of Chapin, South Carolina, has been named PTR Member of the Year for the State. This award is presented to a member who has shown dedication and diligence in promoting and supporting tennis and PTR.

Gardiner enters his ninth academic year at Newberry College, having served as head men’s tennis coach since the 2010-11 season and head women’s coach since the 2011-12 season. In 2018, he coached his 225th collegiate win. Both his women’s and men’s teams finished with more than 20 wins each and were both ranked in the ITA national polls for the first time at end of the season. The men finished ranked at #21 and women at #31.

Gardiner and Newberry College teamed with the City of Newberry and opened the Oakland Tennis Complex in January of 2018. Gardiner serves as director of tennis at the new complex. In November, Oakland Tennis Center was honored with the Parks Excellence Award for the population category of 30,000 and under. The award was presented by the South Carolina Recreation and Parks Association. The complex started programming for local juniors and adults in 2018. A tennis apprentice program was introduced to the adults, and Net Generations is now being rolled out for the junior players. Gardiner has been heavily involved in the South Carolina tennis community all his life and has been teaching professionally since 1989.

PTR is the largest global organization of tennis teaching professionals with more than 16,500 members in 125 countries. It has the greatest percentage of multicultural and women members of any such organization. PTR is dedicated to educating, certifying and serving tennis teachers and coaches around the world in order to grow the game.

Gardiner
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/web1_19-Gardiner.jpgGardiner Courtesy photo

Staff Report