Chair Training At Highland Park

Highland Park High School is host to a dynamic officials training program.

Officials are given on-court training at each HP home match.

There are times when UIL high school programs rise up to assist the USTA--and Highland Park High School in Dallas is one of those schools. Highland Park High School is the host site for the only officials on-court training program in the nation and is certainly to be commended for their generosity and vision for officiating in America.

Under the guidance of their head coach, Dan Holden, HPHS has chair officials for all of their home matches and the officials have a great opportunity for on-court training by a certified official. The program was begun two years ago and now features on-court officiating in ten home matches. In an average home match each official will get to chair 2-3 matches so it is a great opportunity for training.

Under the direction of Randy McDonald and Dan Holden, the training program has grown to a full slate of officials this year. Randy states, "The experience that an official can gain by doing at least 20-30 chairs with a supervisor is fantastic. This experience enables them to move into the collegiate officiating ranks with no difficulties. Thanks to Highland Park for giving us this opportunity to train our new officials."

The training program at Highland Park is a great springboard for officials to move up the officiating ladder. Since most ITA coordinators require an official to have "experience" before being hired, this is a great beginning for that level of experience. Each official has classroom instruction before ever taking the court and then has an experienced instructor observing each of their matches.

If you are interested in being part of this exciting program, contact Randy McDonald at 214 796 7402 or rmtennis@yahoo.com