Club Closing / Fall Clean Up
October 27, 2025
Hi everyone,
It's that time again! We're hosting Closing Day on Saturday, November 1, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. We'll have coffee and pastries to keep everyone fueled while we button up the club for winter.
Volunteers needed:
If you can spare an hour (or more), please come out and help. Light tasks include tidying the grounds, storing windscreens/nets, organizing the shed, and general cleanup. Bring work gloves if you have them-everything else will be on site.
End-of-Year Survey (due Nov 1):
If you haven't completed the survey yet, please take a minute to do it by Nov 1. So far about 20% of members have responded-thank you!
Even if you didn't participate in club activities this season, it's still very helpful to hear from you (you can simply indicate that in the survey). Your feedback guides planning for next year.
You can access the survey link provided in the previous e-blasts sent to your email account.
Thanks and hope to see you Saturday!
Warmly,
York Old Mill Tennis Club Board
Club Championships & BBQ
September 29, 2025
Dear Members,
We are excited to invite you to our Club Championships Finals Day this Saturday, October 4th. Come cheer on your fellow members as they compete for the club titles in Women's Singles, Women's Doubles, Men's Doubles, and Mixed Doubles. (Please note: the Men's Singles Final will be scheduled on another day due to player availability.)
And of course, stay for lunch and enjoy the great community spirit that makes our club so special!
Date: Saturday, October 4, 2025
Start Time: 10:00 AM
Location: York Old Mill Tennis Club
Schedule Highlights
10:00 AM - Women's Singles Final & Men's Doubles Final
12:00 PM - Lunch Break - Burgers & Hot Dogs on the BBQ!
12:45 PM - Mixed Doubles Final & Women's Doubles Final
Awards after each match near Court 1.
Come for the tennis, stay for some lunch and great company! Help us celebrate another great season together.
We hope to see you there!
Your Board of Directors
Fall Tennis Update
September 4, 2025
Hi YOMTC Community,
With the fall season kicking in, we're updating our clubhouse hours and we're excited to introduce our new Court Attendant team members.
Fall Clubhouse Hours (effective Sept 01)
Monday-Thursday: 4pm - 10pm
Friday: 8am -10pm
Saturday & Sunday: 10am - 6pm
Courts remain open outside clubhouse hours for members with advance bookings as usual.
Round Robins will continue on Wednesday and Friday until the Thanksgiving weekend. Guests of members will be permitted to attend provided not all spots are taking up by members. Payment of the guest fee as well as completion of the waiver will still be required.
Meet Your Court Attendants
With the start of the fall season and many of our attendants returning to university, we have just hired some new court attendants. Please say hello and introduce yourselves when you see them around the courts!
Leia
Maeve
Colin
Damian
Ian
They'll be helping us to keep things running smoothly during this fall season and hopefully into next year. Also feel free to check in with the attendant before play during staffed hours.
Questions or for last minute updates on court booking please reach us at 416 763-3088 during club hours.
See you on court,
York Old Mill Tennis Club
New Membership Director @ YOMTC
August 6th, 2025
Dear members,
After a formal Board process to review expressions of interest, Bernadette Testani has joined the Board as Membership Director.
Bernadette has already offered some great ideas in her capacity as incoming Director and we appreciate the business savvy, passion, and energy she brings to the role. Consistent with Club by-laws and in-season Board appointments, the Membership Director is a voting member and the role will be competed at the next Annual General Meeting in winter 2026. Please join me in welcoming Bernadette, and see a note from Bernadette below which she asked to share.
Your YOMTC Board of Directors
--- A note from Bernadette:
Hi everyone! I am honored to be named your new Membership Director. I'm a big tennis enthusiast and have loved being part of the York Old Mill Tennis Club community. Over the years, I've had the chance to serve on the St. Joe's Hospital board for seven years and organize fun local events like the Toronto West Halloween Fest. When I'm not on the court, I'm busy running day cares located in High Park and the Annex, which keep me on my toes - and moving my feet. A skill that should transfer to the court quite readily but sadly, does not! I'm really excited to step into this role and work with our fantastic board to build on all the great work done by them.
See you on the courts!
President's Summer Update
July 10, 2025
Wow time flies and we are almost half way through July. We are excited to see everyone at this weekend's BBQ on July 12. The weather looks great, and we should have a respite from some of the heat warning days we have been managing through over the last several weeks. A few programming updates below.
SUMMER CAMPS With school out, our summer camps are in full swing this year. To make the camps viable for our members (sufficient registrations to run), a decision was made way back in January of this year by the Board to allow non-members to register in camps, and camp registrations were opened on a preferential basis to children of members, before a general release to non-members.
A decision was made in the offseason to run mostly half-day camps, and full-day camps only when there is demand. For this reason the pro was allowed the use of a third court in the morning. The early part of the summer is characterized by families that are still in town, and have not embarked on summer vacations, trips and weekends to cottage, and other activities. For this reason there have been full day camps these first couple weeks of summer. I am working with our coaching staff to find creative ways to release another court in the afternoon hours for regular play. As a reminder, 12-1pm remains open on camp days for regular play and bookings.
Three safety notes regarding camps. One, on extremely high heat days such as today, in the clear sun on hard courts in the early afternoon, you could literally cook an egg. (I tried once, story later.) Children need time to hydrate and recover in the shade on these days, and sometimes this means they will be off court 15-20 minutes at a time for this purpose.
Two, children in 'red ball' camps must be kept separate from kids in orange and regular ball camps. They do not self regulate as well as older children and are at greater risk of straying into a backswing or other hazards from children more than twice their size. For this reason, they generally occupy court 3 on camp days.
Three, we would ask that members and guests refrain from taking pictures of other's children while camp is running.
FRIDAY ROUND ROBIN: RESUMES IN SEPTEMBER
As in past seasons the Friday round robin will NOT run in July and August. In the past this has been done for a number of reasons including (a) to protect courts for general and fair booking while camps are running and (b) lesser observed demand over the summer period. We appreciate that we created confusion by not updating the club member launch page. The page has been updated to clarify when the round robin resumes. We apologize for confusion created in this regard on Friday July 4.
There will be no round robin tomorrow (July 11). If you wish to express your interest in a Friday morning round robin, please write to info@oldmilltennis.com and if there is sufficient demand the Board is willing to reconsider past practice.
COMPETITIVE AND OTHER ORGANIZED SOCIAL TENNIS The club hosted its junior girls under 14 tournament this past weekend. We advised in advance we would release courts with good weather, and gave back two courts after 2pm, and all the courts after 5pm Saturday. We also released more than 50% of the blocked off courts on Sunday. We appreciate your understanding that we must hold the courts in case of inclement weather to make a tournament viable. Participants rave about our club in the wake of the tournament, and this keeps us a strong club in the eyes of the public and with governing tennis bodies.
ICTA: I have seen exceptional spirit, and community from both the B and C teams competing in their respective divisions this year. The teams love to have spectators on home nights. We will pick a night and provide some food and beverages to entice out more supporters. Keep an eye out. I want to provide more opportunities for ladder matches as well.
LADDER: lots of matches being completed, and working to release more courts for arranging matches.
CHARITY EVENT: SEPTEMBER 13, 2025 We will be establishing an organizing sub-committee for a charity tennis event benefitting Philpott Children's Tennis this fall: https://philpottchildrenstennis.org/. This is a great opportunity to raise money for a good cause, while dressing up and teaming up with members of all ages for a not-so-serious tournament with music and lots of prizes.
Think you have great ideas and a few hours to spare? Please email me at president@oldmilltennis.com if you would like to join other volunteers and Board members in planning this event.
THE LAST WORD(s) Speaking for the Board, I am really encouraged not only by the RSVP and response to the Club BBQ invite this year, but by the number of volunteers that have STEPPED UP to help on the day. If you missed that opportunity to volunteer please reach out to Heather, or info@oldmilltennis.com, or ask a court attendant.
Hope to see you all on Saturday.
Vince
Court Booking Open & Social Calendar
April 27th, 2025
​Hi all,
First off - a huge thank you to our incoming Operations Director Tanya Schoen, and a small group of volunteers, court attendant staff (and others we may be forgetting at the moment for their help with Club clean up).
Thanks also to Heather McCourt (food, caffeine, and water), and Melissa Ogilvie-McKinley, Ahmed Moostofa, and Dhawal Goyal. A special shoutout to our dedicated members that spent copious hours up on ladders on Saturday, filling dozens of yard waste bags, or mowing the lawn.
**Thanks to this dedicated group, the courts are clean and available for club member bookings**
We see some member bookings in there already to take advantage of today's high of 17C. **Note: the club washrooms are not currently in service. We are waiting on the City to turn on the water mains after the normal winter shut-off. Please plan accordingly.**
If you missed the Club clean-up day this year -- don't worry! You can always volunteer for special events and socials throughout the year by contacting Heather McCourt.
Dear Diary dates (rain dates in brackets):
May 3(4) - Opening Day - round robin and prizes raffle, from 1030am
May 7 - First weekly Weds evening RR x4 courts, from 7pm **includes traditional pizza
May 9 - First weekly Friday morning RR x2 courts May 13 - First ICTA B Home Game @ YOMTC 7pm
May 22 - First ICTA C Home Game @ YOMTC 7pm
June 7(8) - French Open Finals Social July 5-6 - U12 Girls OTA tournament **subject to confirmation by OTA, early a.m. member courts are retained
July 12(13) - Annual Summer BBQ
August 30-31 - U12 Boys OTA tournament **subject to confirmation by OTA, early a.m. member courts are retained September 13 - Fun Charity Team Event benefitting Philpott Children's Tennis **details to follow regarding striking an organizing committee to name and run this event
Please keep an eye out at the bottom of future club emails, as well as on the website for summary social calendar. There will be additional socials (attached to round robins, etc.) and a few Saturday evenings events in the work as well.
**Extended hours on Saturdays** As reminder the club is now available for play from 8am-close on Saturdays. Public hours are now from 5pm-close on Sundays.
Thanks, Vince and your YOMTC Board of Directors.
2025 Season Welcome Update
March 19th, 2025
Dear Members,
Welcome (or welcome back!) to another sellout new season at the York Old Mill Tennis Club! Thank you for taking the time to digest important updates in this email. Read time is 2-3 minutes.
2025 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Your Board of Directors was recently elected at the March 5th Annual General Meeting, with the following composition:
Vince Cooney - President
Mark Benesh - IT Director
Brent Ross - Communications Director
Ahmed Moostofa - Membership Director
Heather McCourt - Social Director
Melissa Ogilvie-McKinley - Secretary
Dhawal Goyal - Treasurer
Tanya Schoen - Operations Director
Each of us is excited to get the new year started and we wanted to bring you up to date on a few important matters.
CLUB CLEAN UP DAY
We will hold the court clean up on the morning of Saturday April 26 (Sunday April 27 rain date). It's a great opportunity to come by the club, to catch up with friends, or for our new members -- to make a new one! Whatever time you can spare will be rewarded with the finest pastries, cookies, tea, coffee, and fizzy water that is available from local merchants, all cheerily delivered in part by Vince's seven-year old (who takes a Timbit commission). One and all are welcome, and it will be family friendly with no RSVP required. Mark your calendars and help us help each other make light work of it!
CLUB OPENING AND EVENT
Should all go to plan, courts will become available for advance booking with our 'soft opening' on April 28. We also plan to hold a social event and fun round robin welcoming members new and returning on Saturday May 3 (Sunday May 4 rain date). Light refreshments and partner matching rotating doubles play will be provided. All of this is contingent on receiving the operating permit from the city in a timely manner, which we do expect. Should anything change, we will let you know.
CLUB TEAMS, COMPETITIVE, AND SOCIAL PROGRAMMING IN 2025
The second important piece of news is that the Club will have two Intercounty teams for the 2025 season on a pilot basis: B-Mixed in the High Park Division commencing play on May 13 (alternating Tuesday evenings), and C-Mixed in the High Park Division commencing play on May 15 (alternating Thursday evenings).
Exact schedules will be shared on our website once available. The teams decision was arrived at by the Board after in depth discussion with a 7-1 vote in favour taking all factors into account, including the recent surveys, court utilization statistics presented at the AGM, assessment of demand necessary to field and manage teams, and a desire to provide broader access to competitive play opportunities at appropriate levels. It is anticipated that the impact on court availability will be minimal given several other clubs in the area of similar size have even more teams and continue to service their members well. We will be contacting those who have captained teams in the past or expressed an interest in the survey. You can reply to this email if you want to register your interest in captaining.
Information on established programs including the competitive ladder and other organized social play programs such as the Wednesday night and Friday morning round robins will follow closer to the season. The Club Championships will again take place at the end of summer. Information regarding junior tournament dates will be available in-season. The club expresses preferred dates, and indicates later in summer which tend to have lower member court utilization numbers.
ADULT CLINICS AND ADULT LESSONS
At the AGM, we noted early summer camp signup release, but there were questions about when adult programming would be available. Information related to adult clinics, junior programs, and summer camps have been posted at http://www.oldmilltennis.com. We will be following up shortly with more details from Coach Marta about all available coaching programs. To reach Marta and her staff about shaking the rust off or adding a shot to your game, please email: coaching@oldmilltennis.com.
CHANGE TO CLUB PUBLIC HOURS
Starting this season, public hours will be from 5pm to close on Sunday night, instead of the customary Saturday. We concluded this will allow the club greater flexibility, in particular the ability to host events, e.g. wine and cheese, movie nights, etc. on Saturday evenings at the club. It will also allow for less disruptive hosting of junior tournaments. (Longer member hours Saturday means we can protect more courts for members prime-time Saturday mornings from 8-10am before the sun beats down, instead of only 8am-9am on tournament days.) Thank you again for your ongoing support.
We look forward to seeing you at the courts!
Regards, Your Board of Directors
President's Mid-Winter Update
January 28, 2025
Hello YOMTC members,
With the snow-covered ground and cars creaking and squealing under the pressure of the cold, tennis is probably not on your mind. But whatever the season and conditions, your Board is always thinking tennis. With that, we have some important updates we wanted to share, especially for the planners in the family.
2025 CLUB PRO - Marta Chytchian
The Board voted unanimously in support of a return from our 2024 Club Pro, Marta Chytchian. Thank you to all members and parents who provided feedback. We are pleased to announce that Marta has accepted and we extend a warm welcome for the 2025 season. We are excited to build on last season, and to build on our tennis community leveraging additional communication channels.
JUNIOR SUMMER CAMPS
For community inclusion, participation, and growing the game of tennis, Junior Summer Camp spots are available to members AND non-members in 2025. Camp spot **reservations** are NOW AVAILABLE on the website to members and non-members at: https://www.oldmilltennis.com/summer-camps.
**Payment** for summer camps will be addressed following the member renewal and registration period. Non-members will pay a nominal additional fee per camp week. Non-members will be required to complete a waiver on our website.
Reservation of spots is being offered considerably earlier than prior years due to member feedback, to assist members in planning their summer activities, to be more competitive with other club and summer camp offerings, and to provide greater certainty for parents and guardians. We hope these are welcome changes, and please let other tennis families in your area know about these inclusive changes and chances to spend a couple weeks together on court chasing fuzzy yellow (or red, or orange) balls.
To provide ease in the registration process, the Board has discontinued the Junior "program membership" and fee which was required to register for camps. Registration for Adult Clinics and Junior after school programs will begin after the membership renewals process has concluded.
Camp Dates:
Week 1 (June 30, July 2 - July 4) *4 days
Week 2 (July 7 - July 11)
Week 3 (July 14 - July 18)
Week 4 (July 21 - July 25)
Week 5 (July 28 - August 1)
Week 6 (August 5 - August 8) *4 days
Week 7 (August 11 - August 15)
Week 8 (August 18 - August 22)
Week 9 (August 25 - August 29)
Weekly Camps
(Monday - Friday) 9-4 pm (Full-Day) $390+HST**
9-12 pm or 1 pm - 4 pm (Half Day) $270+HST**
4 day camp weeks have pro-rated fees.
**Camp rates for junior non-members will include a 5% surcharge.
Half Day participants have the option to stay for the supervised 12-1pm lunch break.
​
Complete details and forms available on our website:
https://www.oldmilltennis.com/summer-camps.
​
Please contact coaching@oldmilltennis.com with any questions about camp offerings.
AGM - MARCH 5, 2025 - SAVE THE DATE
The YOMTC Annual General Meeting will be held on March 5, 2025 in the evening at the Old Mill Hotel and Spa. This email is a save the date, and not official 'notice of meeting'.
The Notice of AGM and meeting package including Director reports will be provided in advance by Brent Ross, Communications Director (info@oldmilltennis.com) in coordination with Melissa Ogilvie-McKinley as part of the formal notice of Annual General Meeting, and consistent with club by-laws.
We received inquiries regarding production of the 2023 Audited Financial Statements (AFS) at the By-Laws Special Meeting in September 2024. 2023 AFS may be retrieved by any member by logging in to the member's portal and clicking through to the "AGM minutes" section. The 2024 AFS are being prepared by our auditors with documentation support from our Treasurer and Secretary.
The 2023 AFS were not approved at the annual meeting held on February 27, 2024. 2023 and 2024 financial statements will be included on the agenda for the March 5 meeting.
MEMBER RENEWALS
2024 members will be able to renew their membership from February 15 to March 8, 2025. This is the protected window members have to secure their spot for the 2025 season. After such time has elapsed, any available memberships will be offered to the waitlist. If you have not renewed your membership by March 8, 2025, you will need to join the waitlist to join YOMTC in the future. We encourage you to address your renewal(s) as promptly as possible as opposed to making this process more exciting or disappointing than necessary. Please note that the current waitlist is over 1000 people and member retention rates from past seasons have often exceeded 80%.
***Note: In previous years renewals have always occurred after the AGM. However, the AGM is scheduled a couple weeks later than usual this year, so we have decided to open renewals beforehand. Waitlist invitations will occur after this year's AGM so there will be no possibility of new members attending the AGM, which is only open to 2024 members.***
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COMPETITIVE PLAY
After a tough 2024 season featuring a lot of close contests, at present, YOMTC has been included for play in the Intercounty Tennis Association (ICTA) Thursday Evening "C" High Park Division. We wanted to advise of this planned change to competitive play to allow 2024 "B" team members to consider their options, and likewise to signal a different level of play which may provide intrigue to a broader set of YOMTC members that would not otherwise try out.
Please contact president@oldmilltennis.com with any questions about teams and divisions.
CONTRIBUTING TO A VIBRANT CLUB ATMOSPHERE
Our tennis community at YOMTC is truly what we decide to make of it. It is manifested through our individual and collective actions and intentions. I know we can rely on each and every one of you to do your part to contribute to positive club vibes and energy this coming season, and finding ways to contribute and socialize at the club before and after play and at social events. We are happy to receive new and interesting ideas for events, equipment, facilities, socials, or anything else that would enhance the member experience and our tight-knit tennis community by the river.
We look forward to welcoming you back to the club and seeing you on and around the courts in 2025.
Stay warm, and stay safe,
Vince Cooney, and your YOMTC Board of Directors
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