USTA COURTING Families FOR USA TENNIS MONTH.

Tennis is one of the few sports conducive to total family participation -- active participation -- allowing mom, dad, junior and sis to play together, side by side on the same court. With that in mind, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) has made "Courting Families" the theme for this month's USA Tennis Month celebration.

Throughout the month of May, at public parks and tennis clubs nationwide, special events are being held in celebration of tennis and the great American family. The kickoff event, May 8, at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, N.Y., is a family festival, emphasizing tennis and reading among the positive activities in which families can participate together.

"Tennis is a great way for parents and their children to stay in shape, spend quality time together and, most importantly, have fun," said actor Bradley Whitford, star of the television show "The West Wing" and USA Tennis Month spokesperson, with his wife Jane Kaczmarek, star of the show "Malcolm in the Middle."

But rather than rely solely on a celebrity endorsement of the family value of tennis, just ask the Hammels of Salt Lake City. Tennis has been their family sport for almost 50 years. They were honored as USTA Family of the Year last month during the USTA Annual Meeting in Tucson, Ariz.

Patriarch Lee Hammel, 80, and matriarch Ruby Hammel, 72, have been playing husband-wife events (among others) and organizing tournaments and tennis programs for the Utah Tennis Association and the public parks since the 1950s. Ruby, in fact, received the Salt Lake County Recreation Award for Service in 1998.

In 1967, Lee and his oldest son, Laury, were the No. 1-ranked father-son duo in the USTA Intermountain section, which includes Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Two years later, Lee and his youngest son, Brad, were Utah's No. 2-ranked fatherson team. Just last year, Lee and daughter Carolee, 50, won the consolation division of the USTA Senior Father-Daughter National Championships.

As adults, Brad, 47, and Laury, 52, have played in men's doubles events together, and Laury, a Massachusetts resident for almost 30 years, now competes with his daughter, Sara, in father-daughter events.

"Tennis means a lot to our family because we have all played most of our lives and are still playing," says Lee Hammel, who was inducted into the Utah Tennis Hall of Fame in 1995, one year after he organized the Hall into being and 45 years after building the first tennis court in Loa, Utah. "We love to watch each other's performance and improvement. We also enjoy the social aspects of the sport."

In observance of USA Tennis Month, the Hammels are the "celebrities" of an old-fashioned Family Day tennis picnic, May 4, at the Salt Lake City public courts at 11th Avenue and M Street.

The USTA, which has sanctioned family national championship events for more than 80 years, and the entire tennis industry have been encouraging family tennis participation since rolling out the $50 million USA Tennis Plan for Growth initiative in 1998. That's why USA Tennis Free-for-All events are festivals with a tennis theme, more so than strict beginner lesson events. It's also why USA Tennis 1-2-3, which has attracted 775,000 Americans to tennis in three years, is essentially the same for kids as it is for adults, giving parent and child the chance to practice together.

Families such as the Williamses, with Venus and Serena, the McEnroes, with John and Patrick, and the entire Austin and Evert clans have put tennis and families in the international spotlight for the past 30 years. However, it is families such as the Hammels and thousands more nationwide who bring the point home.

Says Lee Hammel, "It is a family inclusive sport that truly brings us all together."

For more information about Adopt-A-Court, contact Jennifer Cusano at the USTA: [e-mail] or [phone].

Andre Christopher is senior writer for the United States Tennis Association.