CINCINNATI – Four legendary high school tennis coaches will be honored as the first class of inductees into the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association (GCTCA) Hall of Fame in a ceremony Sept. 9 at The Original Montgomery Inn.
Being inducted in the inaugural class are former St. Xavier and St. Ursula head coach Russ King, former Sycamore head coaches Tom Bohmer and Maxine Hoyle-Yates (who also coached at Wyoming) and former Western Brown head coach Tom Ball.
King, who retired from St. Xavier in 2019 after 36 years of coaching, was one of the co-founding members of the GCTCA in 1989 and served as its president for 15 years. He amassed 861 career wins, won four OTCA state championships and coached several singles and doubles state champions.
Hoyle-Yates coached at both Sycamore and Wyoming during her illustrious career. She was inducted into the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association (OTCA) Hall of Fame in 2008 and spent many years officiating the OHSAA state tournament after retirement.
Bohmer coached at Sycamore for 28 seasons from 1960 to 1987. A former president of the Greater Cincinnati Tennis Association (GCTA), he was inducted into the OTCA Hall of Fame in 1991. His Sycamore Invitational eventually became the GCTCA Coaches Classic.
Ball was the first head coach of the Western Brown boys tennis team when the program started in 1981. He coached for 38 years, winning 401 matches for the Broncos and seven league championships in the Clermont County League, which became the Southern Buckeye Conference in 1987.
The hall of fame induction ceremony will begin with a social hour at 6 p.m. Sept. 9, at The Original Montgomery Inn, 9440 Montgomery Road. Dinner will follow. Tickets are $40, which includes dinner and one drink. Soft drinks will be free. There will be a cash bar available.
For information about the event or to purchase tickets, contact Mike Teets, president of the GCTCA, at [email protected]. The deadline to purchase tickets is Aug. 26.
The Greater Cincinnati Tennis Coaches Association is a non-profit organization that supports high school tennis in Southwestern Ohio. The organization honors dozens of local athletes annually and stages two of the largest high school tennis tournaments in the country. This fall’s GCTCA Girls Coaches Classic will be Saturday, Sept. 23, at high schools around Greater Cincinnati.
