THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM (07/24/05)

THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM

Soyuzivka's Tennis Camp: a snapshot of a rainy day's activities

by Oksana Trytjak
UNA National Organizer

KERHONKSON, N.Y. - On Wednesday, June 29, the weather at Soyuzivka was hot and muggy, and it was raining cats and dogs. I walked into the Main House of Soyuzivka to find more than 30 Tennis Camp participants, between the ages of 10 and 18, huddled in front of the television, immersed in the tennis playoffs.

Lying next to them on the floor and scattered around on the chairs were their racquets and a couple of stray lime green tennis balls that had managed to make it to safety underneath the couches. Under better weather conditions, these campers would have had their racquets in hand and would have occupied every available inch of Soyuzivka's six tennis courts.

For a second it reminded me of the last time I had come up to Soyuzivka when my own children attended camp. The first time they had ever played tennis was on the courts at Soyuzivka and when I came up for the weekend to check on their progress and make sure they still had all their little fingers and toes intact, I was very impressed with the scene. There they were on the courts, listening carefully to the advice of their coaches and only occasionally acting up with their friends or serving balls to invisible players in the trees.

I reminded myself that the tennis campers watching television that day were probably taking a much-needed break from a fun but challenging athletic regimen headed by none other than the coach himself, George Sawchak. Mr. Sawchak, who was one of the founding organizers of Soyuzivka's Tennis Camp back in the 1960s along with the late Zenon Snylyk, encourages, challenges and coaches our young players to this very day.

Over the past 38 years close to 2,000 tennis players have received tennis coaching at Soyuzivka and have benefited from Mr. Sawchak's dedication to the sport and his enjoyment of working with Ukrainian youth.

Petrusia Sawchak, his wife and the camp coordinator, spends most of her time during the busy summer season promoting and managing the camp.

And then there's Olya Czerkas, or "General Mon" as she is so lovingly called by most of the campers, who flies in from St. Petersburg, Fla. For many years Ms. Czerkas supervised many other Soyuzivka summer camps, but now she is concentrating on helping the tennis camp.

Tennis camp, like many other Suzy-Q summer camps, has had a long history and enjoys a loyal following as many of its attendees return year after year. This year, several former campers returned as camp counselors, including Tanya Skvirska, Christopher Benoit, John Puhalla and Marco Czerkas.

Yuri Kucina, a professional tennis instructor from Los Angeles, spent hours with the campers helping to improve their skills and tweak their game.

So what are counselors to do with more than 30 anxious campers with only tennis on their minds? As I continued to watch the campers enjoying tennis on television, the counselors walked in and started to chant what was apparently a familiar phrase "one-two-three and a one-two-three." All of a sudden, music came on over the loudspeakers and the campers were instructed to find their partners.

What I assumed was going to be some tennis-related activity, turned out to be nothing of the kind. By the looks on their faces and the riotous laughter, I could tell that the tennis partners were ready to trade their racquets for dancing shoes and dance the night away!

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