(warm music) - Will you consider this?

You like to get out the racket and bat it around and everything, and then somewhere along the line, it drifts off.

But Kevin Miller, he is a renaissance man, and you have helped to bring tennis back to the area through the Tri-County Tennis- - Organization.

- Organization Inc.

Right, okay.

- Exactly.

- All right, so, but let's first hear about Kevin Miller.

When did you first pick up a racket?

- Oh, let's see.

When I was in high school, some kids played, I went to high school and grew up in Metamora.

- [Christine] Okay.

- At that time, we didn't have any tennis courts.

It's a nice tennis powerhouse now, but back then, there were no tennis courts at all.

So I only- - And that was last century.

- (chuckles) Yes, it was.

(Christine laughs) - No, I'm just kidding.

No, that was a mean thing to say, so I apologize, but it was last century.

- Right.

- It was in 19-something.

- But as I went to college, I took a little bit of graduation money, bought a tennis racket, and started playing when I was in college.

- [Christine] Now, where did you go to college?

- Goshen College, Northern Indiana.

- Okay.

Yeah, I know exactly where that is.

Blueberry country up there, too, I think.

- Oh, sure, yeah.

- Plymouth.

Yeah.

Okay, so, and what reason?

You picked up a racket 'cause you saw other people playing up there or what?

- It's just addictive.

You hit that ball, and it goes across the net, and there's just a feeling of exhilaration that you get.

I suppose it's like teeing off in golf or hitting the pickleball.

Just something about moving that just resonated with me.

And I loved the game, so I started playing then.

- Okay.

- And I still play nowadays, probably three to four times a week all year long.

- So, yeah, and it's a good thing that, you know, there are more indoor places that you can get in some of your time.

All right, so you bought the rackets, so you know how technology has changed with the rackets and everything.

Did you participate in, it was the Journal Star Tennis Tournament every year?

Tri-County Tennis.

- Yes, 1969, the Journal Star started the Tri-County Tennis Tournament.

- Okay.

- Tennis was so big back then.

We had the American stars, like John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, who were making headlines.

- [Christine] And Chrissy Evert.

- And Tracy Austin, Chrissy Evert.

Yeah, and we all got caught up in that.

It's like tennis craze.

And then, you know, in the 70s, Prince Racket came out with the idea of making the tennis racket bigger.

- Yeah.

- To 110 square inches so that it got easier to play.

Then we had idea of, well, let's get away from wood and use aluminum.

Oh, and then they said, how about graphite?

- That's so much lighter.

Yeah.

- And so tennis became easier to play.

We had these stars, we had easier rackets, and tennis was king.

- Hm.

- The 60s and 70s.

So, the Journal Star started a tournament and ran the tournament for 35 years.

The Tri-County Tennis Tournament.

And basically anybody who was playing tennis in this area- - Could participate.

- Knew that tournament and would participate, right.

- Did it draw from a lot of other areas, too, or is it just Tri-County?

Or were they allowed?

- Yeah, that's a good question.

They called it the Tri-County Tennis Tournament because they wanted only people who lived currently in the Tri-County, worked, or were going to school in this area.

- Okay.

All right.

- And that defined who could enter the tournament.

- Mm-hmm.

So, that was the 60s and the 70s.

What happened that tennis kinda dropped off then, I guess, in the 80s?

- Maybe the 90s.

Golf.

- Okay.

- We saw a lot of tennis players, myself included, (Christine chuckles) you know, picking up the golf clubs, and golf was getting really popular.

Tennis kind of lost its popularity.

And as that was happening in 90s or 2000, we also saw fewer and fewer people entering the Tri-County Tennis Tournament.

There were just fewer people to choose from.

The tournament started to become a tournament not just for the everyday player in this area but for the more elite players.

Players who'd played in high school maybe, who had played in college, who were pretty accomplished.

And so while the level of the tournament was still high, the numbers were kind of dropping.

- Were low.

Yeah.

That's too bad.

- Then in 2005, the Journal Star gave that tournament to a local group called the Peoria Tennis Association.

It was a voluntary organization that had, oh, they had social events geared around tennis, they had tennis leagues in the summer, they had winter events indoors.

And so they took over the tennis tournament.

It was a good handoff, a good idea to hand it to them because they loved the tournament too.

- Right.

- And wanted to see it succeed.

- They kept it going.

So then what happened to it?

- [Kevin] Well- - COVID.

- Tennis numbers continued to decline, and then, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic really hit hard.

All the tennis tournaments were canceled for at least 2020.

And the Tri-County Tennis Tournament was also canceled in 2021.

They didn't resurrect it yet.

- All right.

- So, that was really the low point, this tournament had been run for what?

I can't do the math in my head, 35, 40 years.

And all of a sudden, it didn't, it just wasn't going.

- Nobody picked up the banner and carried it on at that point.

- Well, that's the thing.

I was playing tennis one evening with some of the fellas who used to run the tournament from the Peoria Tennis Association.

And they were at the net, saying, "You know, what are we gonna do this summer?

Are we gonna have a tournament or not?"

I had just retired from the practice of law.

- That's what you said.

Yeah, you practiced law for 35 years around here.

- Right.

And I had some time on my hands.

And I thought, the Tri-County Tennis Tournament, that's a great community event.

I could put some time and donate some time, devote some time to that.

And so I said, I gave him this idea.

I was also coaching tennis at Morton High School at the time.

I was the assistant boys tennis coach for the freshman/sophomore team.

I said, "What if we bring the tournament to Morton, where I coach?

We've got eight beautiful tennis courts and a nice tennis facility."

- [Christine] And not very old.

- No, no.

They were six, seven years old at that point.

- Right.

Mm-hmm.

- And I've got like 35 boys to help me run the tournament.

- [Christine] Not a bad pool to choose from- - I can draft them, yeah.

- (laughs) Exactly.

- And so that was the idea, that the Peoria Tennis Association would work in conjunction with Morton Boys Tennis for one year and then hand the tournament off to us.

And so that's how we resurrected the tournament in 2022.

- So, according to some statistics that you emailed to us, you had three members in the beginning.

- In the fall of 2022 after the tournament, three members to Tri-County Tennis Incorporated.

- Well, that was nice.

You had three, and it's tri, so there you go, right?

(Kevin chuckles) Did you have one from each county?

- Nope, we were all three Mortonites.

- All right.

- I had watched the tournament that year, and I had seen two people who I thought if they were on board with me and I had some harebrained idea about running the tournament, they could say, "No, Kev.

No, that's not a good idea."

Or they could say, "Yeah, this is a good idea.

Let's move forward this way."

The other two were Tate Hohulin.

- [Christine] All right.

- He was a Morton tennis player.

A real star, a standout.

Oh, what a backhand he had.

I'm very jealous of his backhand.

(Christine laughs) But he took special interest in seeing the tournament revived.

The other was Jordan Nestrud.

Jordan has won the tournament nine times, and that's the men's open, so it's the most competitive bracket that the tournament had.

Nobody else has nine championship wins.

- Right.

- So the three of us got together, and we started a not-for-profit corporation organized under the, you know, Illinois not-for-profit laws and called it Tri-County Tennis Incorporated.

- So that's 501c3?

- And we got 501c3 status with the Internal Revenue Service.

- All right.

Well, it's a good thing that they had a lawyer to help 'em navigate that end, right?

- A former lawyer, but yeah.

- You had to do a lot of that.

- I could do the paperwork.

- Okay, all right, which hoops to jump through.

- Where to go, yes, exactly.

- Good for you.

All right, so- - [Kevin] We started with three members.

- Which is crazy, and that was just four years ago.

- Right.

- All right, so then, what happened the next year?

- Well, we got a website, tricountytennis.com.

(Christine chuckles) And with that website came a mailing list, an email capability.

And a Facebook page, we developed a Facebook page and had some people help us with that.

And started getting people who wanted our mailing list.

We went from, or not mailing list, but wanted our newsletter.

- [Christine] Okay.

- That we would put out occasionally.

And so we went from three members in 2022.

We currently have 560 signed up in just four years.

- That is just crazy.

- We are the tennis organization, if I could say so, the tennis organization in this area.

United States Tennis Association certifies certain groups as a CTA, a Community Tennis Association.

We are the only one in this area for the USTA.

- Wow.

And did we ever have it before then?

- The former Peoria Tennis Association was a CTA.

- Yeah, you did.

Okay.

- There was another smaller one, I think it was called Tennis For You or something like that, But those have since gone by the wayside.

And now it's Tri-County Tennis Incorporated.

- When is the tournament, then, this year, in 2026?

- 2026.

We have three weekends that we run the tournament.

What we tried to do with the juniors tournament, kids 18 and under, is that we give them their own weekend.

We put the tournament up in Metamora at the high school courts there.

They have courts now.

- Okay, yeah.

- Now that I'm gone.

Oh well, missed that opportunity.

- You planted that seed.

Yeah, just think of it that way.

- Sure.

(Christine chuckles) - But we give the juniors their own tournament because we want that to grow and flourish, and I think it's working.

So that's the last weekend in June.

The last two weekends in July, one of those weekends is our doubles tournament.

The other weekend is our singles tournament.

- Okay.

- And those this year will be run at Dunlap High School.

- So, there's a fee to enter these tournaments.

And then you use that money for renting the courts, I suppose.

- Well, the high schools have been very good to us.

Metamora High School, Morton, Dunlap, they've given us the use of the tennis courts for free.

- That's nice.

- But we do have some expenses to run the tournament.

- [Christine] Sure.

- I don't know if you realize this, but to run a tournament like ours, we need some 320 cans of tennis balls.

That's over a thousand- - [Christine] For each tournament?

- A thousand tennis balls for the three weekends.

- Oh my gosh.

- And- - And you don't have, you don't have Wilson or somebody, they don't help you out?

They don't- - Wilson does help us out.

- Okay.

(chuckles) - Exactly.

Yes.

But, you know, the Wilson tennis balls are made overseas, and we have tariffs now, so we've seen the price of tennis balls rise.

- Okay.

Hm.

- Quite a bit.

We have to purchase insurance.

We want to make sure that our tennis players have a great-looking T-shirt from us, so that goes into their bag too.

And also, for the entry fee, what we did this last year, and it was so much fun, (Christine laughs) we started something called Tennis Fest.

Our best tennis, or the highlight of the tournament, okay, are the men's and the women's finals the last Sunday of our singles tournament.

And typically in years past, a lot of people would come, and they'd wanna watch that match.

- Right.

- Well, we thought, let's make it a real event.

So what we did, we scheduled the matches for 6:30 PM, the two matches, the men's and women's finals.

At four o'clock, we have, under a big tent, a live band.

And last year we had two food trucks.

One for savory food and the other for ice cream.

And if you had entered the tournament and paid your entry fee and showed up for Tennis Fest, we gave you $15 back to use at the food trucks.

- What a great idea.

- We had a radar gun, a speed gun, so you could time your serve.

And kids and people, all of us were lined up to see how fast we were serving.

Our fastest serve, I think, was 116 miles an hour.

We had one player in this area who hit over 116 miles an hour.

- Oh my gosh.

(chuckles) - That's fast.

- I would not like to be hit by that, no, exactly.

- Major league baseball pitchers, you know, the best ones.

- They're like 106- - They can maybe clear a hundred, yeah.

- Yeah.

- But so this is faster than Major League Baseball.

- Holy cow.

- And then you put a little backspin on that.

(Kevin chuckles) - And then we also had, the Clubs at River City were very nice to us, they brought the newest Wilson rackets, the newest Head rackets.

So if you wanted to get on the tennis court and try those out, you could do that too.

So we had a great time with the music, the food, the on-court activities going on.

At six o'clock, we shut it all down and brought out people over to the tennis court, introduced our finalists, introduced our sponsors, because we had a lot of sponsors this last year and they really made things possible for us.

We had a ceremonial coin toss to see who would serve first.

And we like to get a local celebrity to do those coin tosses for us, that was fun.

And then we started the matches, had a great crowd for it.

We can't wait to do it again this year.

- What fun.

But that was in Morton.

So this year, they're redoing their courts?

Is that what you told me?

- You're right, yes.

They're resurfacing them.

- All right.

All right.

- And they're not guaranteeing that they can be done by July, so we are moving the tennis tournament, the adult tournament, to Dunlap High School.

- All right.

Where will the junior tournament be?

That'll be in Metamora?

- [Kevin] That'll still be in Metamora.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, so, you've just had fun incubating all these ideas and things, too, so will you try to do the same thing this year for your festival?

- We will.

And we're adding a few more things throughout the calendar year too.

In the past, we've had Monday nights in the wintertime, mixed doubles group that would play at Clubs at River City.

We provided the tennis balls for that and did all the GroupMe texting or whatever to get everybody together.

That's been a good success, and we're handing that off now to Clubs at River City.

They're gonna run that program.

We're starting our own doubles leagues this year.

We have not had those in the past.

But that's just being put together even as we sit here today, some people are working on it, trying to get it all organized and ready.

So we're looking forward to having men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles.

- [Christine] All right.

- We've done a number of other programs.

We help the high schools with fundraisers.

Those- - Yeah, how so?

How do you do that?

- Well, first of all, those thousand tennis balls.

- Right.

- We leave those.

- Anything that you have left over?

- Oh yeah.

- You leave 'em there, okay.

- Yeah, we leave 'em there.

They're gently used tennis balls so that when the girls season starts in the fall in August, two of these high schools are gonna have a lot of good practice tennis balls to start out with.

- All right.

- Also, if the high schools send their high school players to us to help us set up our tents and set up everything, help us tear it all down, we make a donation to that school as well.

So that way they can raise funds without having to sell grapefruit or magazines.

You know, they can be involved in tennis that way.

- Exactly, yeah, which is where their heart is in many ways.

What is the life of a tennis ball?

Is there an average?

- Yeah, it depends on who you ask.

- (chuckles) Okay.

- And what level you play.

- [Christine] All right.

- Don't put 'em outside in the garage in the cold because they lose their compression.

But you can use a can of tennis balls for one match for somebody like me who's a average weekend avid player and maybe a second time.

So with our tennis tournament, every match starts with a brand new can of tennis balls.

- All right.

Well, that's interesting.

You can also save some of 'em for dog shelters, (chuckles) if they're really worn out.

Maybe the high schools after they're finished practicing, they'll do that, or college.

So, what do you like the most about your game?

- About my game?

- Yeah.

- About Tri-County Tennis or about Kevin Miller playing tennis?

- Let's hear about Kevin Miller first, then Tri-County.

- I love to play doubles.

- All right.

- I do, I like the camaraderie.

I like how a doubles partner and I work on the tennis court to cover the court, and it's the complexities of the shots.

The points are a lot quicker.

You're always looking for a way to end a point quickly and to find that winner.

Whereas singles, you gotta be patient, you gotta- - And you gotta cover a much larger area- - Yes, you do.

- By yourself.

(chuckles) - Right.

The tennis court in doubles is larger, but you've got a partner, so there's less area to cover.

- You can cover that area.

- But I do like, I like doubles a lot.

- And then, so then what about Tri-County?

What is your favorite part of all of this organizing and everything that you're doing and the growth that you're seeing from three members, maybe not only getting a newsletter, I mean, they were really involved in playing still, but the growth itself is just fabulous.

- Well, that's an easy question.

What I like best about Tri-County and the tournament is just seeing the tennis community.

I've got to know so many tennis players now.

And I love walking on the courts and, "Oh, I know the people on court two.

I know the people on court three.

Oh, I know the people on court four."

And it's just a great community.

We all share the same thing, and that's just hitting that little yellow ball.

- [Christine] The love of the game.

- The love of the game.

You're right.

And it's great to see people that you know doing the things that we all enjoy together.

That's what I like best about it.

- And then how about bringing up some of the younger kids?

So the high school kids, and you were coaching them, have they gone onto college to play also?

- Sure, some of them have.

- All right.

- Some of 'em are still playing.

I just quit coaching two years ago, two seasons ago.

So some of the boys that I coached and the girls that I volunteered with are still at the high-school level.

But that's very rewarding.

Now, coaching high school tennis, I don't miss standing on the tennis court in March when it's so cold and I'm just supposed to stand there while the boys are moving around, but I miss the fellas.

- I bet.

- I miss the boys.

I love seeing them develop and become stronger players.

And I always say if you can find yourself in tennis as a young person, you'll find yourself in something greater.

You know, if you succeed in tennis, you'll probably succeed in something else too.

- Right.

- It's a stepping stone to something better.

- Well, and I was telling you, so my son was playing basketball a lot, but then his senior year in high school, picked up a tennis racket for, you know, just a couple of months at the end.

And the coach said, "Why didn't he come to me earlier?"

And you said, "Give me an athlete, and we'll make him a tennis player."

- Right, that's, the head coach in Morton.

Justin Tilford, has always said that, "Just send us your athletes," to the basketball coach or the soccer coach.

"We'll turn 'em into tennis players."

But it's nice to start with athletes.

And, you know, the other thing, too, about tennis, you don't always have the star athletes playing.

Sometimes it's the young man or the young woman who maybe is not a star athlete.

- A practice player.

- But loves to play tennis.

And it's like anything, if you do it enough times, you might get pretty good at it.

- [Christine] And could flourish, yeah.

- Yeah, sure.

- But you also say get a tennis racket in their hand at an early age, maybe.

Do they have 'em at the right size, though?

Because yeah, the face is a lot bigger any more.

(chuckles) So, what age do you start somebody playing?

- Wow.

You know, I think, like, the professional tennis players, a lot of 'em start at age four or five.

- Really?

Wow.

- Now, we can't all do that, but they do make smaller tennis rackets and low compression balls now for the youngsters.

(clears throat) Excuse me, as a matter of fact, Tri-County Tennis, just this last winter, donated, I don't remember how many rackets there were, but to Monroe Grade School in Bartonville, we gave them several boxes full of the smaller tennis rackets and the low compression balls.

Their athletic director at Monroe Grade School, Mr.

Hafner, Evan Haffner, sent me a nice video.

The kids had got the tennis rackets out, and they were chasing balls all over the gym floor, and it was great to see.

We really liked that we could be part of that and- - Exactly.

- You know, start planting that tennis seed, if you will.

- Yeah, it is.

So then, you said you get sponsors for your tournaments and things, like, what kind of sponsors do you find?

- Okay.

(chuckles) Better Banks has been our premier sponsor all the five years that I've had the tournament.

They took a special interest in it.

Some of our tennis players worked at the bank and had some connections, and, sure enough, they really were very good to us.

And so we call our tournament the 2026 Better Banks Tri-County Tennis Tournament.

- Well, they're the major sponsor.

That's what you need to.

- Right.

But other than that, we have different sponsorship levels.

Bakeries, window cleaners, my electrician and plumber, they both signed up.

I'm trying to think now.

Altogether last year, Christine, we had 45 sponsors.

- Really?

- So the back of our T-shirt was just, you know, all these logos.

- Really full.

Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah.

- Well, well, that's fun to get them involved.

And they get their name out there.

And who knows?

Their families are picking up rackets too or something like that.

- Yeah, I hope so.

Right.

Some of those are tennis players or tennis fans, and others just like to support community events.

- Mm-hmm.

Have you ever tried or have you ever gone to Wimbledon?

Or have you ever tried playing on grass?

Or do you like clay courts better?

Or what do you like?

- Oh, yeah, I played once on European clay when I was young, had no idea what that was, and I slid all over the place.

It was a memorable experience.

(Christine chuckles) But yeah, I've attended the US Open twice.

There was a tournament in Indianapolis that was a precursor to the US Open, and I went to that for many years.

Now there's a tournament in Cincinnati two weeks before the US Open.

And last year, I signed up as a volunteer to be an usher.

- [Christine] In Cincinnati.

- In Cincinnati.

- All right.

- For six days at the tournament.

Oh, what a great time.

(Christine chuckles) I mean, because as an usher, you are literally right there on the court.

- Exactly.

- The tennis pros are walking past you.

You're seeing it up close, which is not like watching it on TV.

- No, no, not at all.

And you don't have any instant replays or anything like that.

- Right.

(Christine chuckles) There was one usher, and this was not me, and I was so glad it was not me.

He did not recognize Venus Williams.

- Oh, wow.

- Venus is trying to make a comeback.

- Right.

- And she entered last year, and so she was trying to come with her entourage- - Entourage.

- Onto the tennis court, and he stopped her and asked her for identification.

- Oh gosh.

- She just kinda blew by him.

And the man who was carrying her tennis rackets with her just looked at this usher and said, "Yeah."

(both chuckling) We're all supposed to know Venus, and he was so embarrassed not to.

- Yeah, well, you know what?

I mean, sometimes you do have bad days.

Yeah.

So, okay.

So where does anybody try to find you right now if they want to be a participant in any of your tournaments, if they wanna get on your newsletter list so you grow your membership even more?

Where do they find you?

- Online.

Our address is tricountytennis.com.

No punctuation, no hyphens, just all one word, tricountytennis.com.

And if you scroll down there, you'll see some great photographs from the tournaments the last several years.

Justin Brown, a photographer in the Germantown/Metamora area, does great work, and he takes our photographs for free and lets us post 'em on our website.

That's very nice of him.

But you can also scroll down and sign up for our newsletter.

And when that comes out, periodically, you'll know when things are happening and where.

For example, we are doing a watch party for the Indian Wells Tournament, which is in March.

Indian Wells, California.

We're going to Buffalo Wild Wings, and we're paying for the wings and the pretzel bites and letting everyone else who attends buy their own drinks.

- [Christine] Okay.

- But things like that, when those happen, that'll be on our website.

And tournament entry also is on the website as well.

- Okay, great.

Kevin Miller, thanks for sharing your story and the story of Tri-County Tennis Inc.

- Yes, that's right.

- Okay.

- Christine, thanks for having me.

It was a pleasure to be here today.

- Okay, And thank you for joining us.

Until next time, be well.

Stay warm too.

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