About Us

Club Mission- Promote tennis in the Washington community by providing an affordable setting for families/players of all capabilities to enjoy themselves and each other and have fun

Staff Mission: Work as a team to serve the members, the community and the staff to create a club everyone loves

Court usage is for :
Those members who have paid their Tennis Section dues and their guests
Eligible Gunnery faculty and staff
Honorary members
Non members for eligible events that pay the non-member fee

Season:
June 2nd – September 6th

Hours:
Pro shop open 8am- 6pm Monday – Sunday
There are 8 tennis courts available 24/7.
There are lights For nighttime play available at a cost of $.50/half hour. Quarters only.

Attire:
Proper tennis attire and tennis shoes are required on courts;
No running shoes permitted.
Running shorts or cutoff jeans.

Types of Membership

Junior Member (Age 12-22)

This type of membership is available to children who are governing the participation of Junior Members part of a Family Membership in a situation where the family does not belong to a particular Section that the child wishes to be active in. Each Section has a special fee structure and rules in its activities.

Intermediate Member (Age 23-29)

This type of membership is available to individuals who were formerly part of a Family Membership but who no longer qualify as children or Junior Members and who wish to remain active in the particular Section(s) in which they were a Family of Junior Member. Should an additional Section(s) be requested the Intermediate may be subject to a wait list.

Solo Junior Member (Age 12-22)

As part of the Club’s desire to encourage local youngsters who demonstrate talent in golf or tennis to develop their skills, a limited number of Solo Junior Memberships are made available to children of parents who are not members of the Club. Consideration for this type of membership shall be given first to children of Washington residents. The Golf and Tennis sections have special fee structures and rules governing the participation of Solo Junior Members in their activities. Solo Junior Members must be single.

Staff Leadership Team

Manager -Jay Przygocki

A father of three, Jay has been teaching at Rumsey Hall School in Washington, CT for 35 years and has been their Athletic director for 29 of those years. Jay got involved in tennis while watching his children, Ania and Sawyer, play for Shepaug High School. His oldest son, Tucker, has been a staff member at the Washington Club for the last five years. Jay has been the manager of the tennis section for the past three seasons. His interests outside of the Club include traveling, skiing, and cycling.

Head Pro- Patric Westoo

Patric has worked as a tennis teaching professional since 1994. He was Head Pro at Westchester Country Club in Rye, NY and the Director of Tennis at Larchmont Shore Club in Larchmont, NY. As a college coach, Patric has coached the men's team at Columbia University to 4 Ivy League Championships. Patric was a highly ranked junior player in his home country, Sweden. During his collegiate career in the United States, he earned junior college All American honors in both singles and doubles. He went on to play at West Virginia University where he earned a Division 1 ranking of #38 in the nation as the Mountaineers number one singles player.

Assistant Pro- Lauren MacKay

Lauren MacKay is a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she played four years of division I college tennis for the Minutewomen. Lauren captained her senior year along with achieving Academic All-American honors. Lauren is a three year All-State Connecticut high school player, originally from Redding, CT. She is certified USTAPTR tennis instructor and has taught at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wilton, CT and Chatham Bars Inn in Chatham, Massachusetts. Lauren studied Kinesiology in her undergrad and worked as a strength and conditioning intern at Stanford University.

Tennis Board Leadership Team

Chairman David Dougherty - 4synergy@optonline.net
Juniors’ Team Ashley Goodale - ashley.goodale@gmail.com
Women’s Team Kathy Kehoe - kskehoe1@aol.com
Men’s Team Steve Cornell - scornell@ironbank.com
Harold Tittmann - harold@tittmann.com
All Club Events David Dougherty - 4synergy@optonline.net
Tournaments Team CJ Muse - christopher.muse@barclayscapital.com
Facilities Team Steve Cornell - scornell@ironbank.com
Finance Team Sal Sorce - salvatore.sorce@credit-suisse.com
Staffing Team David Dougherty - 4synergy@optonline.net
Gunnery Liaison Jim Graham - GrahamJ@gunnery.org

Sections Rules

Membership- Court usage is limited to those individuals and families who have paid their Tennis Section dues, and to their guests. In addition, eligible faculty members and staff of the Gunnery who abide by these tennis rules are entitled equal access to the courts.

Guests- All guests must register at the Tennis Pro Shop. The member will be charged a $15.00 guest fee. During evening hours, an honor system of guest registration will be provided at the shop. Guests may only be invited 3 times in one season by the membership, unless they are house guests which may come up to five times. This also does not include member/guest tournaments.

Attire- Proper tennis attire (preferably white) and tennis shoes are required on courts; no running shoes permitted. Please, no running shorts or cutoff jeans.

Court Use
You must sign in and get a court assignment from the on duty staff.
Courts are available on a first-come basis. No court reservations are taken.
Length Court Time- Singles- 1 hour Doubles: 1 ½ hours
Adults, events, and tournaments have court priority.
Court Care- Players using the upper courts after the staff leaves and during the evening hours are requested to sweep the courts and brush the lines before leaving.

Court Etiquette
Members are expected to follow basic tennis etiquette:
Wait to enter or exit courts or to retrieve balls at a break in play.
Assist neighboring courts to retrieve balls that have rolled onto your court.
Remove all tennis cans and balls from the court after you finish playing. Dispose of all debris in appropriate waste baskets.
Keep noise to a minimum.
Spectators on the deck or in parking areas should also be respectful of players on the courts

Guidelines for Washington Club Members Play during Gunnery school year
Rule #1 and the only general rule: Gunnery students, faculty and other members of Gunnery Community shall have precedence over Washington Club members. (In reality though there are plenty of times which are convenient to members that do not interfere with Gunnery’s use.)
Gunnery blocked times: The Gunnery has three tennis teams: Boys Varsity and JV and Girls Varsity. These three teams have 44 student-athletes and 5 coaches. The main times they practice and should be avoided are:
Practice times: Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri- 3:00PM-6:00PM
Match times [If one team is away the other is likely to be home]
Wed afternoons: 12 noon until 6:00PM
Sat. afternoons: 12 noon until 6:00PM

There are also a number of kids who like to just go out and hit (often mixed up boy/girl matches). The most prevalent times are weeknights from 6:00PM-7:30PM and Sunday afternoons

Recommendations for Washington Tennis Club Members:
Weekdays and Saturday mornings are just fine. School is in session during these times and this occupies both students and faculty. Har-tru courts and hard courts should be wide open and this just happens to be the most desirable time for tennis members. There may be an occasional event (say a dorm vs. dorm tennis challenge on a special no-school Saturday) but these may happen 1-2 times, if at all, per year. If that happens, of course the Gunnery has the rights to take over all the courts.
Friday nights. After 7:30, the students go to study hall so if people want to play late or under the lights, fine. We might have an occasional Friday Night School tennis event but maybe 1 time every year or two.
Sunday mornings and afternoon. There should be plenty of courts available, especially Sunday mornings as teenagers tend to sleep in. Gunnery has a Sunday morning brunch at 10:30-11:30 and students don’t usually play before this.

Other general recommendations for WTC members:
Always leave at least one court open so Gunnery kids don't have to “request" that a Washington Club member stop play even though The Gunnery community has precedence. This is an informal but common rule at clubs where school/club courts turned over in summer- it prevents studens from being in the awkward position of having to exert their right to the courts. There is roughly a 0% chance of Washington Club members using all 8 courts during Gunnery time in reality. Also note that there could be an occasion when all 4 Har-tru courts are being used by WTC members and there would be 4 hard courts open. In this circumstance, if a member of The Gunnery Community wants to use a Har-tru court, they have the right to bump WTC players down to the hard courts. Again, this rarely happens.