TENNIS
Veteran USTA Umpire Champions Diversity

Sande French's 22-year long career as a USTA umpire started on a dare. "I was at the Virginia Slims Championships in Oakland with a former college teammate and thought the umpire was less than stellar. My friend said, 'If you think you can do better, then do it!'. So I went to a NorCal clinic," she explains. "Four months later, I was officiating throughout Northern California; I even worked on court in the finals of my first pro tournament."

But the experience that got Sande hooked as an umpire was working at the Transamerica Open, formerly held annually at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. "I never looked back after that tournament. Usually I will master something and get bored but not with this job, there's always something new going on," she said.

Sande's first encounter with tennis also came about by chance. She was flipping through TV channels the summer before she started high school and happened to turn to a tennis match, with Billie Jean King playing, and instantly fell in love with the sport. The next day she bought an $8 dollar racquet.

At the forefront of diversity even back then, Sande would have to wait until her senior year at Richmond High School — when Title IV took effect — to play on a school team. With no coach and practices before classes at 8 a.m. (so the boys team could have the courts after school), Sande persevered, ending up not only coaching the team but also playing in the no. 1 spot.

Conditions in college at Humboldt State were not much better; playing in the same division as UC Berkeley and UC Davis can be tough when your tennis coach normally teaches archery.

A real coach would have to wait until after college, when once again fate stepped in and Sande met Louis Preston at Nicholl Park in Richmond. She says, "I told him I wanted to be a pro and he said, 'we have a lot of work to do.' He completely changed my game. He has an amazing tennis mind." A herniated disk suffered during a work injury halted Sande's pro tennis dreams, but enthusiastically she says, "At least I got to play again!"

Sande has kept those early lessons in equality close to her heart and today is a leader in diversifying USTA officials. Her continual passion and love of the game keeps a smile on her face as she explains, "I love being an umpire because it changes all the time; each week we are in a different city — or country — and each day the matches and atmosphere are different and we get to see the best tennis players in the world. As umpires we are a part of history, we are there on the court when records are broken and for those epic matches that are talked about for years to come."

For Sande some of those epic matches included calling the lines at the 2007 Davis Cup Final, officiating in the quarterfinals on Centre Court at Wimbledon when Boris Becker played Michael Stitch and working as the chair umpire for the US Open women's final in 1993 when Steffi Graf defeated Helena Sukova.

Steve Leube, executive director, USTA Northern California says warmly of Sande, "I've known Sande for seven or eight years now. She is one of the most professional, knowledgeable and fair referees that I've ever worked with. Sande doesn't only want to help diversify the USTA officials and referees; she wants to reach out to all diverse groups and include them in the game of tennis, as officials, players, volunteers and fans."

Sande says wholeheartedly, "I'm proud to say I'm from NorCal and thankful for the numerous clinics, opportunities and training that we've received over the years. The best officiating for many years has come out of NorCal and more umpires from NorCal than any other USTA section officiate at the US Open."