Bob Rhoades Tournament

Dana's Tennis Festival Night 2007

A HUGE Success!

Community Members Gather for Dana Ball Tennis Festival Night

Derry, N.H. – July 25, 2007 – Yesterday, over 80 people gathered at Pinkerton Academy for the first annual Dana'sTennis Festival Night, organized by John Pelkey (USPTA). AmberWave Systems, a leader in the research, development and licensing of advanced technologies for semiconductor manufacturing, sponsored the event.

Four other local tennis professionals, Courtney Gilman (USPTA), Gary Roberts (USPTA), Bob Rauseo (Simmons College Head Coach), and Dee Gaug (PTR), donated their time to teach two hours of lessons to players of all ages. The Festival Night fell in the middle of the 16th annual Dana Ball "Love" Tennis Tournament, which started on July 18 and ends on July 29. All of the night’s activities, including a Cardio Tennis session, were free. The festival was the first of several planned activities to activate a USTA Community Tennis Association. 

Other volunteers included members of the Algonquin Tennis Center's NH State Champion Men's 4.0 Team (David Rauseo, Todd Cuthbert, John Bernard, Rick Paquin, Chris McCallum, Peter Brooke, and Andrew Pelkey), as well as local high school standouts from Pinkerton (Laurel Salladay, Sean Kelly and Matt Romano) and from Londonderry (Kelly Murphy and Ali McKinney).

Welcome To Dana's Tourney 2007!

This year the Dana Ball "Love" Tennis Tournament promises to be one spectacular experience.  Besides great play from more that 150 capable tennis enthusiasts, Dana's will be filled with many other activities for all ages!  Among them will be the first ever DANA TENNIS FESTIVAL on July 25.  Details will follow soon.  Also the tournament will host several vendors and local sponsors' wares, food, tennis contests, and raffles!  Stop by this wonderful 9 day event for loads of fun and tennis!

Tourney History

This unique tennis experience began in 1991 after the loss of one of Derry, New Hampshire's finest young men, Dana Ball. Dana died that year from leukemia.

He didn't even know he had the deadly disease. Earlier in the spring he trained for only two weeks, and then he ran the Boston Marathon to completion with his wife who had been training all year! The week before his death, he captured the championship at the Derry Fest Men's Doubles Tennis Tournament with his brother, Darren. Then, he was gone.

Dana was an even tempered athlete who often volunteered his time to teach tennis to local youths; he also spent much time at Hood Pond helping out with summer recreation programs. He was and intense and talented competitor, yet a gentleman, and as his brother Doug wrote in a poem for Dana's funeral: "a great big teddy bear."

Because of Dana's never ending joy and involvement with life, the tournament was reorganized and expanded. In 1992, it was renamed in his honor and structured into a charity event. With the assistance of the town of Derry's Parks and Recreation Department, especially Mike Jesson and Eric Bodenrader, as well as the tireless efforts of the Derry Village Rotary Club, and tourney director, John Pelkey, USPTA, Dana's Tourney has become Southern New Hampshire's premier tennis event. In 2006, 153 players participated!

Every summer, tourney earnings are transferred to our charity partner organization, the Derry Village Rotary Club. Each year proceeds are earmarked for aid to leukemia or cancer research or victims of these tragedies. Monies are also applied to improve youth recreation endeavors in Derry, a noted Ball family interest. It should be emphasized that beyond the costs of running the event, which include tourney tees, awards, balls, and food for the cook-out, 100% of the net profits are given to charity. No one is paid for their volunteer efforts.

Please join us each summer for a wonderful tournament experience!

About Our 2007 Title Sponsor

Systems is at the forefront of research and development of advanced technologies for semiconductor manufacturing.

AmberWave Systems delves deep into the physical properties of silicon in order to find new uses and strives to meet tomorrow’s technology demands.

Realizing that research and development is the lifeblood of industry advancement, AmberWave Systems provides a bridge between promising research within universities around the world and commercialization of the results of that research.

To date, AmberWave Systems has more than 150 patents issued and pending for its technology developments.

Seventy percent of the company¹s 24 employees have technical backgrounds and are dedicated to technology research work primarily at the company's corporate headquarters facility in Salem, NH. The company¹s 30,000 square-foot facility includes a class-10 clean room, which incorporates state-of-the-art epitaxy and metrology equipment.

We are proud to have AmberWave Systems leading the way this year, and we are pleased to note that they will also sponsor the first Dana Tennis Festival Night on July 25th!