Yale University Women's Tennis Team (New Haven, CT)
Goal: Promote Yale tennis and collegiate tennis in general
Leader/Advocation Organization: Yale University Women’s Tennis Team
Introduction: Pop quiz: When you hear the words Yale University, what immediately springs to mind? Superior academics. Glorious buildings wrapped in ivy. A storied school that’s produced more than a dozen Nobel laureates, 20-plus Pulitzer Prize winners, and five U.S. Presidents. Yes, Yale is without question one of America’s—indeed, one of the world’s—most prestigious institution of higher learning. But what about the University’s sports programs? You probably haven’t given them much thought, right?
Well, a group of intelligent, athletically gifted young women are looking to change that. Meet the Yale Women’s Tennis Team, winner of the 2008 Ivy League Title. The Bulldogs went undefeated (7-0) in league play, earning their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Tournament. They fell in the first round to the No. 2 seed Georgia, but the loss did little to sour their irrepressible spirit. If anything, it made them stronger.
Truth is, while the Bulldogs love to win, records and statistics don’t define this remarkable group. What does? Three things: their collective heart, their unwavering love of tennis, and their desire to share this passion with those around them. It’s no wonder the Bulldogs are winning over new fans every day. Just ask their biggest supporter, who also happens to be their coach, Danielle Lund McNamara.
McNamara, a former University of Michigan standout who played No. 1 singles and doubles for most of her collegiate career, joined the Yale women’s tennis team in 2006 as an assistant coach. She was promoted to head coach the following year, when the Bulldogs won their first Ivy League title since 1989. "It was such a great feeling to win the Ivy League," says McNamara. "The girls worked incredibly hard and stayed focused the entire year. The discipline and the enthusiasm they have are really inspiring. It’s an honor to coach them."
The Start of Something Big: Ever the perfectionist, Daniel Lund McNamara is always searching for strategies and techniques that will make her a better coach and, as a result, make her team stronger. In December 2008, her thirst for knowledge led her to the annual Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Coaches Convention in Naples, Florida. The event included, among other things, a workshop led by University of Virginia men’s tennis coach Brian Boland on how to better promote your tennis program to the general public. At first, McNamara admits, this was the workshop "I was least looking forward to." She attended anyway—and it’s a good thing she did.
"Honestly, that workshop was life-changing," says McNamara. "Brian has coached two programs, and at the beginning, both had two things in common: neither were very good when he took over and nobody ever came to their matches. So he started working on improving his team and also recruited volunteers to help create a marketing plan that would get people interested in following the team. Slowly but steadily, more people started to hear about the team and come to their matches. Today, they draw as many as 1,200 fans to their home matches, which is unheard of in college tennis. I was blown away and decided then and there that I wanted to bring this kind of electric atmosphere back to Yale."
Before the convention even ended, McNamara started scribbling down thoughts for promoting her team. She spoke with Boland and other coaches, listening intently and adding their ideas to her own. By the time she was back on campus, her marketing plan was fully developed. Now she just needed one thing—people to help bring her plan to life.
The first thing she did was meet with Yale’s marketing and public relations department, which was thrilled with McNamara’s initiative and enthusiasm but admitted it didn’t have the manpower to execute such an ambitious plan. Undaunted, McNamara then decided to tap Yale’s greatest resource—it’s students. She reached out to two former players, Silia Defilippis and Karolina Grygierowska, and told them of her grand vision, which included three primary objectives:
- Encourage the community—including Yale students, local tennis enthusiasts, and families living in and around New Haven—to attend the team’s matches
- Make the matches interactive, more fan-friendly
- Promote not just Yale tennis but also collegiate tennis in general
Within minutes, Defilippis and Grygierowska were contributing ideas and marketing strategies of their own. The plan was starting to take shape.
"What I love about Danielle [McNamara] is that she’s a visionary; she always has ideas and is always enthusiastic," says Defilippis, a sophomore from New Jersey who is studying pre-med. "When she told us about her plan, we got really excited and starting adding things like, ’Hey, let’s do a Facebook page for our team, let’s put together a fan club, let’s make it easy for people to find out when we are playing and how we’re doing.’ We started running with these ideas pretty quickly."
Next up: McNamara wanted to organize a group of well-connected, adult tennis enthusiasts who could help promote the Yale women’s tennis team to the local community. Immediately she thought of Marcy Rubenstein, a long-time tennis advocate with deep roots in New Haven’s fertile tennis community. The two women first met as instructors at the Yale University Summer Tennis Camp, a long-running program that teaches the game to local youths, including those from underserved populations. Rubenstein loved McNamara’s ideas to promote the Bulldogs and gave her a list of people to contact and recruit to the cause.
"Danielle is so passionate and had a good plan, but she lacked contacts, people who could help stir interest in the team," says Rubenstein, a delegate at large for USTA who sits on the board of directors for both USTA New England and USTA Connecticut. "That’s where I came in. I run a local tennis academy, I’m deeply involved with the USTA, and I know this community and who would be willing to help promote the Yale program. It was a nice fit."
In addition, Rubenstein urged Danielle to use resources—namely ball kids—from the local Pilot Penn tournament, an annual WTA event that draws the top professional women’s players and takes place the week before the U.S. Open. "I told Danielle, ’These are trained ball kids used to performing at a high level," says Rubenstein. ’Take advantage of them; they’ll add a championship-like feel to your home matches." McNamara agreed, and soon ball kids were working the Bulldogs’s home matches. Excitement was starting to build around the team, but the best was still to come.
Description Enter the Blue Aces Most college tennis programs toil in anonymity. They attract just a handful of fans, and nearly all of them are either friends or family of the players. But not the Yale women’s tennis team. In fact, they have their own fan club (members can sign up at matches or online), and the club is growing in size every day.The fan club—or the Blue Aces, as they’re more commonly known—is the brainchild of former Yale tennis players Silia Defilippis and Karolina Grygierowska. It started as a way to draw more kids and families to the matches, and so far it’s working. Joining the club is free and easy: Simply attend a home match and sign up at the Blue Aces registration desk, or sign up online at yaleblueaces.com. Besides receiving a personalized membership card (a huge hit with kids), members enjoy lots of great perks—including free food and drink at select home matches, occasional tailgate parties, and the opportunity to compete in tennis-related skills challenges scheduled between the singles and doubles matches.
Plus, every time a Blue Aces member attends a home match, he or she gets her membership card stamped. If you collect four stamps, you’re automatically entered to win a free Xbox video game system. The more matches you attend, the greater your odds of winning. "We basically created the fan club for the younger kids, so they feel like they’re part of something special," says Defilippis. "Between matches we get them on the court playing games for prizes. We try to make it very interactive, make them feel very connected to the team. After all, the more engaged they are, the more likely they’ll come back." In addition to connecting with kids, the Blue Aces also recruit parents, Yale Students, and other adults. They stay in touch with fans via weekly e-mail blasts, which include recaps from previous matches and reminders for upcoming matches. The e-mails also encourage fans to visit the official Blue Aces website (yaleblueaces.com) where they’ll find photos, a match schedule, and a list of events for Blue Aces members only—such as a pre-match tailgate party or a post-match kids tennis clinic. Fans can also connect with the Blue Aces through Facebook (just type "Blue Aces" into the search window). "We want the Blue Aces to be really accessible, something that encourages people to have fun and really enjoy themselves," says Defilippis. "With the kids, we admit that the chance to win a free Xbox is the hook. But we think the more matches they attend, the more they’ll start enjoying the game and the women who play it."
Results Achieved/Impact: So far these efforts are showing signs of success. More than 100 fans came to the Bulldogs’s home opener, a sizable jump from the 30 or so who attended the previous year. Most of these spectators also joined the Blue Aces, allowing the club to collect 80 e-mail addresses. Since then, attendance has grown steadily and the Blue Aces fan club now stands at more that 250 members. Itrsquo;s an encouraging start, one that McNamara hopes will lead to bigger things.
"The energy at our home matches has been great. The team really enjoys playing in front of people; it holds them to a higher standard and motivates them to play their best," says McNamara. "Truthfully, I think the crowds are going to keep getting bigger, especially with Youth Day coming up. (Youth Day is scheduled for April 17, 2009 when Yale takes on division rival Dartmouth. The event will include a one-hour clinic and autograph session with the team for all kids following the match). We’re just getting started with this, and I’m really excited about the future. I think it could be huge!"
And so do we.
Words of Wisdom:
From Danielle Lund McNamara, Head Coach of the Yale Women’s Tennis Team: "To best promote your collegiate program, you need to collect all of your ideas and then sit down, make sense of them, and come up with a rough plan. Once you have this, consult with others, talk to your fellow coaches, people at the college’s marketing department, and your players. You can never talk to enough people, never get enough feedback. Also, reach out to people in the community and start forming a network. One thing leads to another, and before you know it you’ve been introduced to lots of people who can and want to help you. It just takes time, effort and commitment."From Silia Defilippis, Yale University Sophomore and Co-founder of the Blue Aces Fan Club: "Sometimes a community can feel separated from the local college or university; I know that’s often the case with Yale and New Haven (Connecticut). With our team, we didn’t want the community to see us as exclusive, as something they couldn’t be a part of. We both have things to offer one another; we can support and inspire each other. It’s a relationship that’s strengthening every day."
Marcy Rubenstein, Delegate at Large for the United States Tennis Association (USTA): "Any college program can do what [the Yale women’s tennis team is] doing, and it doesn’t have to be a large Division I school with a large facility. You just have to keep working at it, keep promoting your team, and give people a reason to show up [to the matches]. An interactive atmosphere is particularly helpful, especially if you want to attract parents and kids. But don&rquo;’t stop promoting your team once the season’s over; keep people aware of who you are. Offer services like a clinic for kids in the off-season, or do some community service. Make sure people remember you, even if matches don’t start for another three months. The community will love this and want to support you."
Join the Blue Aces Fan Club!
For more information:
Official Website: yaleblueaces.com
E-mail: yaleblueaces@gmail.com
You can also find the Blue Aces on Facebook!
3/2009