Alachua County’s Anne Koterba named USTA Florida Tennis Volunteer of the Month

For those who are parents, you know what it means to support your children and their dreams. For self-proclaimed tennis mom, Anne Koterba, watching her kids live their dreams was amazing, and she wanted to see other kids have the chance to live theirs out too. 

Anne has been named USTA Florida’s July Volunteer of the Month, as she has gone above and beyond for the Gainesville Area Community Tennis Association (GACTA), advocating for tennis growth in the area. 

Anne has been a great asset to the tennis community.

Her sons started playing tennis in the early 2000s, and by the mid 2000s, Anne started to get involved with GACTA. She heard that the group was pushing for the county to build a public tennis facility consisting of 14 clay courts at Jonesville Regional Park and knew it was something she wanted to be part of. 

“I’ve always believed in affordable community tennis programming, and throughout the years, I’ve worked to make tennis accessible to all, including youth of color living in under-resourced communities and persons with special abilities,” she said.  

Since the construction of the courts and helping advocate for them, Anne has been volunteering with GACTA in other ways. She was part of helping create full-service after school programs for low-income youth families. That project was renamed to Aces in Motion, which has seen tons of success in the state.   

She helped start Aces in Motion.

In 2013 GACTA became a chapter in the USTA Foundation’s National Junior Tennis and Learning Network and in 2015, Anne became president of the organization. Since then, she has helped start a number of initiatives and community partnerships. This includes the creation of an adaptive tennis and Special Olympics program, low to no cost middle school programming, and much more.  

They are now entering their eleventh year of middle school team tennis, where there are eight teams and over 165 players that get to compete. “It is very gratifying to see youth who picked up a racket for the first time in the middle school tennis program playing high school tennis a few years later.” 

GACTA also has hundreds of players that come out to their programming, which ranges from kids to seniors, and get to enjoy the game of tennis.  

Anne has a love for helping the tennis community grow.

“I’m really proud of all we have accomplished over the past 10 years and remain very grateful to the USTA Florida Section Foundation for providing the initial grant funding to make our program possible,” Anne said. 

USTA Florida thanks Anne and recognizes her as Volunteer of the Month. The state of Florida has many tennis opportunities thanks to the work of GACTA, Aces in Motion, and the work of Anne Koterba.  

Interested in volunteering in tennis? Visit www.USTAFlorida.com/Volunteers to learn more about available opportunities.