Home
Tweet ThisBookmark and Share
Recent History of Madison, SD Tennis, 2000 - current

For the first time in 50 years of Madison tennis
Girls: Ella Graham finished fourth in both Flight 1 singles and flight 1 doubles
Boys: Kevin Shan finished second in flight 1 singles

Only time ever:
Class A size public school wins a trophy at state tournament, 6th place (fall 2016).   All six varsity players had a medal for making it to the quarterfinals (top 8).  
South Dakota tennis now has two divisions, so no other small South Dakota public school will match this achievement!

A quote from the late Kobe Bryant: "Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones".  Madison is a Great One!


Court History:
2004
Jeff Johnson, along with coach Doug Sims, and Coach Orlin Johnson, Madison Tennis Association lead the effort to build the North courts.   Many players think we have the nicest courts in the state, Since we have the two sets of courts, and a grass viewing area, maybe players and coaches think we have the nicest courts in the state.

2005
Due to the work on the courts, the Madison Tennis Association was voted the yearly award of top association in the Northern division.  We should thank Jeff Johnson, and the coaches Doug Sims and Orlin... for their help in creating those courts.

2007
Jane and RC Johnson donated funds to move 40 pine trees to block wind outside N fence.

2002- 2009
Jerry Johnson, with help from Doug Sims, operated the Madison Summer tennis tournament, which was one of the largest in the state.

2012
The ground on the SE corner was higher than the court, so the Robb Graham and the tennis association paid to have 4 vertical feet of dirt removed and graded the ground, as well as putting in the large drain.  We want to thank Michael Johnson construction for giving us a great value, it was $4k, but there were several truckloads of dirt, and the large drain is a full city water drain, which will not need any future maintenance.   That drain allowed water to run off the South courts, and water runoff was required before we could resurface.

2013
Robb Graham raised money for the tennis association.  MTA and the school split the cost of resurfacing both sets of the South courts.

Rob Graham, Roger Olson, and MTA upgraded the summer program to the different colored balls, and doubled the number of kids from 50 to over 100.

For high school tennis, Coach Graham of Madison provided the idea of creating the current online tracking system for high school tennis, so that stats and SDHSAA state tournament seeding could be viewed online.

2014
The school paid for the tennis shed and a lot of volunteers put in building time, including teachers Mr Swenson and Mr Bierschback, as well as Jeff Wray, Scott Staiger, Melinda Fedeler and Roger Olson and Dale Droge.  Coach Doug Sims painted the shed,  and many others put in a lot of time.

We worked with the scouts and had an Eagle scout project to add a new backboard to the courts.

2012- 2017

We operated the Madison One Day Classic for five years.   The USTA took note, and is now recommending one day tournaments.   One day tournaments allow players to get in and play, but not spend an entire weekend in travel.  The coach from Mitchell really wanted that weekend, so we allowed them to have the tournament on that day.

2014-2018

Madison spearheaded the idea of having two divisions for tennis, making tennis more inclusive.  More inclusive means more schools can have competitive tennis programs, hence growing the sport.

2018

We worked with the USTA to get half of the funding for the North court resurface, saving the school $10k.  The school was able to use that funding to upgrade the stage lighting for the arts: band, choir, and plays.

2019

We are working with several entities to improve line calls in tennis.

We are working to get the small school state tournament to be held in Madison, SD !