‘We’re The Oldest Team Here’

GEORGIA TEAM’S AVERAGE AGE: 70.6

By Ron Cioffi/USTA Southern

From left to right: Marilyn Porter, 66; Jean Gomez, 74; Mary Apps, 81;
Norman Whitehead, 75; Shirley “Sam” Hanley, 68; Captain Mary Linder, 66;
Cecile Hester, 81 and Louise Keim-Loesch, 50. Not pictured: Nancy
Delettera, 78 and Bobbie Nassr, 75.

I was standing in a Wynfrey Hotel conference room at the second-half captain’s meeting when a white-haired lady declared, “We’re the oldest team here.”

“OK,” I joked, “Show me your birth certificates.” One team member replied, “Will you take a driver’s license?”

All kidding aside, the numbers don’t lie. The twelve members of the Senior Women’s 3.0 team from Georgia have a combined age of 847, giving them an amazing average of 70.6 years.

Dene Owen, USTA Southern’s Managing Director of Adult Events, confirmed, “No other team that we know of here has that much seniority.”

Mary Apps and Cecile Hester lead the charge at 81 years old. Five other players are in their 70s. The newest team member is the youngest; Louise Keim-Louesch just gets in under the wire at an infant-like 50.

Captain Mary Linder explained their secret weapon, “We run them around. We outsmart them.”

Obviously, that’s not the strategy you’d expect from an aging team but they’ve found that their snow-white hair has a benefit. When asked if their age made other teams take them lightly, an explosion of youthful energy burst forth with a one-word answer: “Yes!”

Apps said her goal is to “hit it where they ain’t,” a classic line used by baseball players. But, she doesn’t use the lob too often.

Other players have different ideas.. “Lobs are lots of fun,” chimed in Marilyn Porter, Norma Whitehead and Linder. Based out of the Martin’s Landing subdivision in Roswell, GA, the team boosts a 25-year history. All the older players didn’t take up the game until their 30s or later. “I started when I was 60,” Whitehead said.

“We’ve shared weddings, surgeries, deaths and divorces,” recollected Shirley “Sam” Hanley.

Hanley and Apps pulled out one racy anecdote. Apps said, “We call my husband [Bill] our athletic supporter. When I hit a good shot, he shouts, ‘That’s my wife! That’s my wife!’

Hanley jumps in, saying, “But Bill and I’ve got a thing going. When I’m playing, he’ll come up and I’ll give him a kiss through the fence. … I tell my opponents, ‘He’s not my husband; he’s my lover.’ ”

That brings of roars of laughter from the tight-knit team, including Bill’s beloved wife.