Amherst Tennis Camp - History

History

In 1968 renowned coach Nick Bollettieri opened his first tennis camp in the small Midwestern city of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

At the same time Reiny Maier, who grew up in the same community and had just graduated from Whitewater University where he played No. 1 singles and doubles for four years. Bollettieri contacted Reiny and thus the Amherst connection began.

After two very successful summers in Wisconsin, Bollettieri saw the chance for expansion into a bigger market in the east and with the help of a new York entrepreneur landed a major outdoor tennis facility at Amherst College.

In 1970 Nick sent Reiny to Amherst College as Program Director and hired world famous Australian coach, Harry Hopman as the first Director of the Amherst Tennis Camp. Mr. Hopman brought his reputation, vast teaching experience and several of the Australia’s top teaching pros and the junior camp had instantaneous success.

The Amherst Tennis Camp opened with 103 juniors and just kept growing. Bollettieri had the foresight to see the open era would bring great interest from the adult sector so the Amherst program introduced four adult weeks to end the summer season.

The four adult weeks were the first of its its kind on the east coast and a gigantic success. In 1971 Bollettieri struck a deal with one of America’s top tennis firms and was guaranteed the appearance weekly of one of America’s top teaching professional players.

The group consisted of Stan Smith, Charlie Pasarell, Dennis Ralston, Arthur Ashe and Bob Lutzard. One or more of these pros would appear each week to teach, hit with and socialize with our campers.

By the end of 1972, tennis had captured the hearts of most Americans with television carrying an event almost every week of the summer. Adults and juniors filled Amherst’s 36 courts and adults were signed up 9 months before camp even began.

Mr. Hopman opened a camp in Florida after the summer of 1972 and Reiny was named Director for the 1973 season.

With the adult market begging for instruction, juniors were moved off the Amherst campus and the adult program became a 10 week session with all programs lasting six days.

Amherst quickly gained the reputation as the “Cadillac” of the tennis industry. It was turning out 144 players per week for ten weeks. Not only did Amherst fill its 36 court with 144 campers each week, it also sent another 48 customers over to Hampshire college each week.

In 1975 Bollettieri decided he wanted to a year-round facility for juniors so he sold his interest in All American sports and also headed to Florida. His departure had little impact on Amherst’s success and from 1976-78 attendance still averaged 120 adult campers per week.

However, America’s trends were changing. Running, racquetball and bicycling were taking a greater share of the fitness business. Then too the beginner was finding tennis a very difficult sport to master with a wooden racquet.

Often times they spent more time picking up balls than hitting them and seldomly broke a sweat.

In 1980 finding that many participants were no longer interested in spending six days on the court, Amherst introduced mini-weeks where a camper spent only three days at camp and could use the other part of the week for another activity.

1980 was also special because it brought the current assistant director Maureen Rankine onto the Amherst scene. With the continued direction of the adult tennis market, juniors returned to the Amherst campus in 1982. Amherst was again using almost all of its 36 courts but it took a return of the juniors from Deerfield and the closing of Hampshire adult camp.

Two other significant occurrences beyond in 1982. One was the introduction of the oversized racquet by Prince and the other was the arrival of Errol Haynes. We have kept Amherst’s reputation as one of the top camps in America.

Reiny remembers making fun of the green metal oversized Prince racquet but today he realizes if that oversized racquet was introduced in 1970 another two million players still playing because the oversized racquet made it possible for the beginners to keep the ball in play.

The number of participants continued to decline although Amherst still averaged about fifty adults per week, but All American declared bankruptcy in 1989 ending its 19 year stay at Amherst.

The college then decided its reputation as one of the best camps in America would carry over into the 90’s if it kept Reiny as Director and Maureen and Errol as assistants.

From 1990-1994 the adult and junior camp numbers increased steadily and U.S. Sports approached the college in 1994 seeking ownership.

In 1995 Nike brought its name and major advertising knowledge to a professional outstanding program directed by Reiny and Maureen. In the past three seasons Amherst has been sited twice as one of the top three adult camps in America.

It lead the nation with a 45% return ratio and increased its customer base by 127 in 1998. Offering three half-hour privates and five hours of no-nonsense instruction, strategy sessions and evening round robin, add to that the personal attention and expertise of Director Reiny Maier and assistants Maureen Rankine and Errol Haynes with a total of sixty-five years at Amherst Tennis Camp. Amherst Tennis is on the upswing and again the “Cadillac” of Americas tennis camps.