“I have always loved the game of tennis,” Lois says. “My goal is to grow the game in Southwest Florida. I am a very outgoing person and I love to be involved with the public. I have the utmost respect for my students and take a very personal interest in each and every one of them. I have had a lot of tennis training, playing as well as teaching, and love sharing my knowledge to allow others to enjoy the game as much as I do.”

Lois has played tennis since she was in high school. She has competed for the last 20 years in both USTA and Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association leagues. In Georgia, she was ranked No. 4 in Women's A (5.0) doubles in 1995.

Lois has been a Florida resident since the end of 1995. She presently lives on Sanibel Island and has resided there for almost two years. She has participated in the Lee County Pro League for the last five years, the Women’s SCAT Team (4.5-5.0) and the women’s USTA 5.0 League.

Before moving to Florida, Lois taught tennis in Atlanta where she lived for more than 30 years. Atlanta is one of the biggest tennis cities in the nation. She was an active member of ALTA , which has a player base of over 90,000 people.

When she came to southwest Florida on vacation in 1995, she decided that she needed to spread some of Atlanta’s tennis enthusiasm southward where there there wasn’t much tennis action going on. At this time, Lois worked for Delta Airlines. She went back home, turned in her two-week notice, and moved the next week.

“It has been the most rewarding experience of my lifetime,” Lois says. “It feels so good to be able to teach people not only how to play tennis, but to teach them the values of exercising and socialization and, in essence, how much better they will feel physically as well as mentally.”

Lois pursued a degree in business administration from Georgia State University. She worked for 18 years with Norfolk Southern Railroad Corporation and for more than eight years with Delta Airlines and Worldspan Corporation. In her tenure with both Fortune 500 companies, she played in and directed company tennis tournaments that were system wide.

Lois taught full time in Ft. Myers and Cape Coral, Fla., until the end of 1999. During this time she worked for the Dunes Country Club on Sanibel Island and Lee County Parks & Recreation. While teaching tennis, she pursued her full-time real estate career with Coldwell Banker Real Estate on Sanibel Island.

Lois was the USPTA Lee County Schools coordinator where she organized tennis functions for the school system and directed many after-school tennis programs. Her program at Lee Middle School had more than 100 students twice a week for the entire school year. Lois was also involved with the intramural tennis tournaments at the end of the school year. Her two assistants for Lee Middle School, who were both P.E. teachers, also learned to play tennis in the after-school program with the kids. They both played in the new USTA adult beginner league in Lee County shortly thereafter. Lois is now employed part time with Beachview Country Club, a beautiful brand new tennis facility on Sanibel Island.

Lois’ forte is working with large groups of students and she has incredible organizational skills. She had 25 teams playing in one season, which included youth, adults and senior citizens. One USTA ralleyball site had 75 kids involved. Lois taught at Three Oaks Community Park, which had eight courts. She also taught at Hancock Park in Cape Coral, Fla., which had five courts. The programs at both of these sites were booming! She is well known for her work with kids and getting them involved in USTA leagues and middle school and high schools teams. Many of her students are now playing on high school teams. She awarded many kids scholarships in both middle school and high school by applying for grants through the USTA and Lee County CTA. These grants allowed many kids to play tennis that could not have afforded to do so otherwise.

Lois has been very involved with the USTA both as a volunteer and as USTA National Schools Clinician, where she went to schools and worked with students as well as teachers. Since she moved to Sanibel Island, tennis is now in the curriculum in all Lee County Schools.

Lois has been a USTA NTRP Verifier, the director of the multicultural clinic, which was held once a year for mentally challenged kids in the Lee County School System, secretary of the Lee County Tennis Association, account executive for The Latest Racquet magazine.

Lois has served hundreds of youths and adults in Lee County. She is very devoted to juniors and senior citizens in the county, and has gotten many people out playing the great game of tennis. She was very inspirational in helping to promote junior leagues, adult leagues and senior leagues and always had the highest number of players in each league.

When Lois taught one of her USTA programs for several years, she had the highest conversion rates (75-95 percent) in Lee County.

This USPTA pro has attended monthly district meetings, conventions and career development programs sponsored by USPTA.

Awards and certifications:

• 1998 USPTA Volunteer of the Year Award winner

• Runner-up for the 1998 USPTA National Industry Excellence Award for having the most grassroots tennis programs.

• Recognized by USTA as having one of 25 sites in Florida (Three Oaks Park) with the most USA Team Tennis participants in the state of Florida in 1999. Lois was director of tennis for Three Oaks Park for three-and-a-half years, as well as the director of Hancock Park for more than four years.

• Appointed to the 1996 Olympic Committee in Atlanta in 1995.

• Wrote articles that were published in The Latest Racquet, USPTA Florida Baselines newsletter, Florida Tennis magazine, News Press and Cape Coral Daily Breeze.

• USPTA and PTR certified.