For a few hours on Sunday afternoon, I took a trip back to the good old days of my childhood. People were packed under canopies all around the tennis courts. Fans had filled the chairs, were sitting on blankets, and standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the patio.

Matches weren’t taking place just on the two championship courts. Tennis courts all around the facility were occupied with people watching every court.

That’s the way tennis was back when I was growing up. The biggest difference was that this was taking place at The North Bossier Tennis Center. Yes, most of the names and faces have changed but the spirit of the sport shone just as brightly as it did back in the day at Querbes Park Tennis Center.

What really made the afternoon special was seeing some of those familiar faces from long ago and hearing some of the names from the past that will always take me back to the glory days of local tennis.

Franklin, Helene, and Karen McCarter; Andy Lloyd; Ann, Bill, and Bob Borders; Pat and Dan Sandifer; Lance Dreyer; Reese Baker; Phillip Campbell; Carol Weyman; Kay McDaniel; Karen and John Cotter. These are just the first names that come to mind when I think of hanging around Querbes watching matches long before I actually got on the court with hundreds of more names than I could list. (You can now see many of those on the mural wall at Querbes today.)

I can recall a Friday evening when my brother and Reese Baker were on the rubico courts at Querbes playing in a Captain Shreve match while bleachers full of their high school friends decked out in their finest clothes came by to watch before heading to a school dance. Those were the days when the Shreve-Byrd battles on the tennis courts meant just as much (or more) than the ones that took place on the football field.

Sadly, those days are gone. But the spirit of those days came back to me while watching The City Championships at The (beautiful) North Bossier Tennis Center over the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve seen so many people enjoying playing and watching tennis. Hats off to NBTC head pro Todd Killen, his staff, and all the volunteers for putting on another incredible event.

The tournament, voted the “Adult Tournament of the Year” for the entire Southern Section and the state of Louisiana in 2020, included 274 players competing in 23 events — that included father/son, grandfather/grandson, mother/daughter, father/daughter and mother/son, among others — over seven days. Prize money was awarded for first, second, and third place in men’s open singles and doubles as well as women’s open singles and doubles.

And, just like the old days at Querbes, I was sitting there watching the best junior and adult players that Shreveport and Bossier has to offer.

That in itself would have been enough. The absolute best part, however, was seeing some of the familiar faces from the past.

What made me tear up, however, was hearing the remarks read aloud to the crowd that legendary coach Lee Hedges had written to show his appreciation for being a 2022 inductee into The City Hall of Fame along with Lance Dreyer, a fixture on the local tennis scene for more than 50 years.

While neither Hedges nor Dreyer were able to attend the induction ceremony, their presence was felt in the audience.

If you didn’t make it out to this year’s tournament, you missed one of the best tennis events this area has to offer. Go ahead and plan to attend the 2023 City Championships or take a trip to Querbes Tennis Center in the meantime. There’s no telling who you might see.