A TRIBUTE TO TENNIS DADS

As you may know, we're pretty close to the junior tennis scene & that means we see A LOT of stuff. Unfortunately, too much of it is downright troubling --- I'm thinking of the father who screamed uncontrollably at his 12yo son that he spent "way too much blankety-blank money for you to play like that" while the child trembled & sobbed...or the terrified look on the 14yo boy's face as he sat in the supply section of a tournament site while the police interrogated his father after reports that he'd been physically abusing his son...or the father who lost his temper & yelled at his sad daughter <who'd had the sheer nerve to lose in the finals of a tournament> that they were LEAVING, to get in the car & get in the car RIGHT NOW!!! Those are unhappy memories FOR SURE & wish I could forget them - actually, wish the kids could forget them - but we know that's not likely. :(

However, today is FATHER'S DAY & we're not thinking about the bad ones... Instead, we're thinking about all the terrific fathers who do it RIGHT!

Tennis moms get all the credit bcuz they're normally the ones who travel with the juniors (since the majority of tennis moms don't work, which is a whole other story) while the dad works to pay the bills (!!!) but fortunately, we've been able to capture some super-sweet moments of tennis dads with their tennis kids... Can't stop thinking about a wonderful line by Barry Buss in a beautiful FB post & it went something like this: "[My dad] had no idea what he was doing other than just giving me a chance to be good at something."

Happy Father's Day to these & all the other tennis dads who make it happen!