Miami’s 30-Year Volunteer Boiko Named Nov. Florida Tennis Volunteer of the Month

For 30 years he has been an integral part of Florida recreational tennis, both in his home community of Miami and at the state level. Bruce Boiko’s volunteering career began when his daughter Paige began climbing the ranks of competitive junior tennis, and has continued long after her NCAA playing days came to an end.

The list of his awards, committee involvement and achievements would not fit on a volunteer award plaque — but two thing in particular stand out among his honor roll of service and accomplishments:

In 2007 as the U.S. economy was entering a downturn and a subsequent market crash in 2008, Boiko’s role on the section Investment Committee, resulted in the section juggling investments and coming out of the crash generally unscathed.

In 2016 and entering 2017, Boiko has volunteered countless hours of professional counsel in assisting the section’s headquarters move from Daytona Beach, where the section has rented office space, to Orlando where the section is building its own headquarters adjacent to the new USTA National Campus.

“Bruce Boiko is one of those rare volunteers who has made a real impact on tennis and our association over three decades in many different roles,” says USTA Florida Executive Director Doug Booth. “The one thing that stands out for me is Bruce as a past president and member of our Hall of Fame continues to make even more of an impact today in his community role growing tennis. He has also given countless hours as our volunteer legal counsel guiding the process to build our new office near the USTA National Campus in Orlando. He has been an invaluable part of our association over many years.”

As the president of Friends of Miami Tennis, an official USTA Florida Community Tennis Association, since 2007 Boiko has overseen the growth of grassroots-level tennis in Miami-Dade County, providing quality tennis programming particularly to the under-served segments of the community.

“Under his leadership, the management of Tamiami Tennis Center became the first facility in the country to have permanent 36-foot and 60-foot kids courts, with blended lines on the remaining full-size courts,” says USTA Florida Miami-area Tennis Program Coordinator Cathy Nordlund. “Friends of Miami Tennis now partners with the Miami-Dade County Parks to manage another facility, Ron Ehmann Tennis Center, and the City of Homestead’s JD Redd Tennis Center. These are all public facilities. Bruce does so much I really don’t know what to say.

“Besides all the volunteer hours he contributes at the Florida Section level, he never stops giving us time at a local level. Now he has Friends of Miami Tennis managing three facilities, which lets us control the delivery system and bring quality programing to so many kids and adults. Bruce is the man who never says no. He should be ‘Volunteer of the Century’ for what he has given back to tennis in his local community and to USTA Florida.”

In addition to his current positions, Boiko has over the years served for the Florida Section as District 9 director, Grievance Committee chair, Junior Rankings chair, Bylaws Committee chair, Budget & Finance Committee chair, Governance Task Force chair, on the Long Range Planning Committee, the Junior Competitive Tennis Council, the Facilities Assessment Task Force, and the Investment Committee. He is primarily responsible for drafting the organization’s current bylaws, grievance procedures, junior competitive point penalty procedures and residency rules, and was a primary motivator for launch of the organization’s charitable arm, the USTA Florida Section Foundation.

At the highest volunteer levels of the Florida Section he has served on the USTA Florida Board of Directors as a director-at-large, treasurer, president-elect, president, and as a delegate from Florida to the USTA national body. Bruce also served as chair of the USTA national Grievance Committee.

His high level of service continues almost 20 years after receiving two of the Florida Section’s highest honors — Tennis Family of the Year in 1996,the Merit Award in 2000, and Hall of Fame in 2008.

“It’s all about the people associated with the association,” Boiko says of his many years of service to tennis in Florida. “I like to volunteer in tennis because of the [fellow] volunteers and [USTA Florida] staff.”

USTA Florida thanks Bruce Boiko as the November 2016 Florida Tennis Volunteer of the Month for his almost immeasurable impact on Florida recreational tennis over the past 30 years.

ABOUT BRUCE

Birthplace: New York City, N.Y.
Hometown: Coconut Grove, Fla.
Family: Wendy, Kimberly, Blaire and Paige
Favorite Movie: “Any Quentin Tarantino movie”
Favorite Food: Cuban
Favorite Travel: Asheville, N.C.
Favorite Tennis Shot: Changeover

My earliest tennis memory was…”watching Paige playing junior tennis.”

If I could play tennis with three people, they would be…”Jett Coetzee, Blaire Molina and Slade Coetzee.”

When I am not playing tennis I am…”playing golf.”

My best tennis memory is…”traveling with Paige at junior tournaments.”