STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK
PHOTOS BY MARIE GALLO
Tennis players from the Wood River Valley are headed to the Intermountain Sectional Championships in September after beating a strong field of tennis teams at the District Championships at the Boise Swim & Racquet Club this past weekend.
The Wood River Warriors will represent Idaho in the Sectionals Championships in Denver.
The team won in the 9.0 55+ league, which is the highest level of competitive tennis in the U.S. Tennis Association for those over 55 years of age. They played against teams with names like the Glamour Slammers and Hard Hitters, and it took a couple tiebreak matches to win.
“It was awesome to win. We worked really hard and practiced really hard to get to where we are, to be playing as well as we are,” said Hanna Bigelow, who co-captained the team with Alma Campanale Mills. “The Treasure Valley dominated in all the other brackets.”
The12-member Sun Valley team was formed last year to address a dearth of competitive tennis in the valley. They narrowly lost out on advancing to last year’s Sectional Championships, despite having just been formed.
The Wood River Warriors is a unique team because it’s made up of women from throughout the country—from Florida to California—many of whom come to Sun Valley just for the summer. That means most only begin playing with each other and forming teams after Fourth of July, said Alma Campanale Mills.
“One of the challenges coming together in a very short period of time is to get everybody to know each other and develop partnerships,” added Bigelow. “Other teams play together with each other throughout the year.”
Players on the roster of the Wood River Warriors 9.0 55+ team are Mills, Bigelow, Shannon Dilorenzo, Elise Orban, Carol Gullstad, Christine Maloney, Kristin Miller, Michelle Sabina, Mary Gustafson, Heidi Mickelson, Sue Hamilton, Karen Van Arsdale, Cindy Dodge, Bonnie Larsen and Sarah Halvorson.
Campanale Mills and Mickelson had played on an 8.0 55+ team that won District and Sectional before proving themselves the nation’s best in 2016. That team was comprised of Candy Ryan, Maria Francis Parkhill, Penny Brennan, Joanne Wetherell, Gayle Stevenson, Britt Palmedo, Mickelson and Campanale.
Mickelson and Campanale Mills were bumped up to the next level and are now winning at 9.0.
The players won 14 out of 18 matches, defeating two teams from Boise and a team made up of players from Utah and Idaho Falls.
“It was a fun weekend of tennis—we played super good teams, very nice people--and we are looking forward to representing Idaho in Intermountain Sectional Championships in September,” said Bigelow. “We have an amazing group of women playing on this team.”
Bigelow herself has been playing tennis since she was in high school. She did not compete in college but began playing competitive tennis on a USTA 4.0 team in New Jersey when she was about 30 and achieved a 4.5 USTA rating when she was 35.
“But I really feel that at 62 I am now playing better than when I was 35!” she added.
Players will compete at Sectionals against 9.0 55+ District winners from Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada. Some of the players on the Wood River Warriors team also compete in 40+ and 18+ 4.5 leagues and in Mixed Doubles.
One player not only played tennis to the top of her ability but she did it performing the amazing feat of going home the first evening to tend to a husband who had taken ill. Then she returned to the tournament the next day, leaving Sun Valley at 4 in the morning.
Should the women win at Denver, they will get a berth in the Nationals Championships in Orlando, Fla., at the end of October. For now, they’re savoring this win.
“And we have some strong players who will be turning 55 next year so we may be even stronger next year!” said Bigelow.