Greiner shines outside the lines

shines outside the

Greiner

■ For the past 20 years, Barb Greiner has made certain that the Ann Arbor City Tennis Tournament goes off without a hitch.

By ANTOINE PITTS

NEWS SPORTS REPORTER

► Sunday’s tourney reporting times, B2

In the last 20 years Barb Greiner has seen all there is to see in the Ann Arbor City Tennis Tournament, The annual event begins this morning at Pioneer and Huron High Schools and Burns Park.

Greiner has been associated with the tournament since 1976 when she began to work at the Parks and Recreation Department.

Greiner has always handled the behind-the-scenes work of the event, leaving the tournament director time to actually conduct the event. Gordon Boettcher is now in his third year of running the tournament,

and he credits Greiner with its continued success.

“She really has spearheaded this tournament,” Boettcher said. “She’s been the glue that has kept this whole thing together. I marvel at her consistency and her doggedness.” Finding a good tournament director hasn’t always been easy. In the early 1980s Greiner had a hard time keeping anyone around for more than a year.

“It was hard to find someone because it really engulfs you for three weeks,” Greiner said. “I went through a stretch where we

had someone one year who wouldn’t do it the next year.”

Having a new person eveiy year meant Greiner had to annually reteach everything about the tournament.

“The first year you need a lot of training to be able to do it,” Greiner said. “So I was training someone new eyery year, and I thought I might as well rim it myself.”

But her husband, Dale, came forward in the mid-80s to run it, which meant Barb wouldn’t have to add running the tournament to her already demanding schedule.

Her husband wound up running the tournament for nine years.

“Once I had someone like Dale running it, I felt it was in good hands,” Greiner said. “My role then became more of a support and publicity person.”

Without that extra worry, Greiner committed her time to the tournament advisory committee. The committee gets together early in the year to discuss possible

changes that can be made to help the tournament remain successful.

One thing the committee has focused on is the decreasing number of competitors.

“I think tennis popularity has gone down as a whole as there are lots of other things to do,” Greiner said.

Three years ago the previously closed city event was opened to other residents in Washtenaw County. Organizers were wary at first that this could take away spots from Ann Arbor residents, but the lower amount of entries from the city made it possible.

“As the tournament declined in numbers we thought we could handle more people from outside Ann Arbor,” Greiner said. “It definitely has been a positive.”

Another change is that more divisions have been added to help provide more equal play. Men’s singles players have four levels of play to chose from and women have two levels. On the doubles side, there are five divisions for men and three for

GREINER

lines women.

With more divisions of play, the really outstanding players can be separated from the lower-skilled competitors who ordinarily wouldn't want to enter at all.

Its value to the community is one reason why Greiner believes the tournament needs to stay strong.

“It’s always been an important local event,” Greiner said. “For a lot of people it’s the only tournament they play all year.'’'

She can be found working many late hours in order to finish the job.

“Sometimes she wears so many different hats,” Boettcher said. “She is inundated with all kinds of responsibilities but somehow she manages to get everything dorie:"

As coordinator of recreation services for the city, the tennis tournament is just one of many projects that crosses Greiner’s desk.

“When I came on in 1976, little did I know how this job was going to grow and grow and grow," Greiner said.