Volunteers are vital to PTR Wheelchair Championships on Hilton Head Island
The pattern is usually the same at the PTR Wheelchair Championships on Hilton Head Island.
Get them to the event, show them a good time on the island and they'll be back for more the next year. Not the competitors, of course: The volunteers.
The four-day tournament, which concludes Sunday morning, features over 100 players of varying ages and range of skills. It's a high-stakes, high-level competition boasting participants who are among the sport's best. But the tournament would not run anywhere near as smoothly as it does, 25 years on, were it not for the help of a dedicated cadre of volunteers.
Each year, generous people from on the island and elsewhere in South Carolina -- one couple traveled from Charleston just for this weekend to help -- donate their mornings and afternoons to ensure that the event's competitors are well-accommodated and the matches efficient.
According to Janet Turley, who is in her first year of supervising the volunteers after several years of offering her services, these Good Samaritans have a few set tasks, but they could be asked to do any number of small favors for the competitors. It's all part of being flexible and at the ready, whatever need arises.
"Most tournaments don't have food brought in (like here), and it's homemade food," Turley said of one of the unique aspects of her work. "And it's because most of these guys can't jump in the car and go to McDonalds."
Filling bottles and arranging food service is just part of the job. Most importantly, spotters are placed at each court, assigned with retrieving wayward tennis balls and flipping the scoreboard, things many able-bodied players take for granted, but which are much more difficult for wheelchair competitors.
It's not always easy work, says Phil Cheaney, a regular at Chaplin Park. It's hot and the shifts are long, he said, but the chance to meet new people and see familiar faces keeps bringing him back.
"You know, they appreciate you," Cheaney said of the participants. "And their attitude is so positive. You come out here and you watch them play, and they're just regular tennis players. But I enjoy helping."
Janet Turley and her husband, John, are avid tennis players themselves, and used to come out and watch when they lived in Akron, Ohio, and were on Hilton Head part of the year. Now they're here full time, and wanted to continue offering their support to the tournament.
"We decided we'd like to try to help out with it," John Turley said. "It's such an amazing event."
This story was originally published September 14, 2014 at 2:14 AM with the headline "Volunteers are vital to PTR Wheelchair Championships on Hilton Head Island."