Leach Knows the Legacy of The Ojai

For 37 years now, Dick Leach has tasted the orange juice, taken the tea, walked through the valley and reveled in the simple truth that shades this setting as much as the towering oak and eucalyptus trees.

Old tennis players never die, they just keep coming back to Ojai.

Since 1953, Leach has been involved in the Ojai Valley tennis tournament as either a player, coach or spectator, which makes him a good source of reference, unless you’re interested in the first 54 years.

At 91, The Ojai is the oldest amateur tennis tournament in the United States. It is also the largest--still drawing between 1,200 and 1,500 entrants in its 30 divisions--as well as the most traditional. Harry Maiden, a long-time chair judge at Ojai, once described it as the only civilized tournament left aside from Wimbledon.

A trip to The Ojai is a trip to another time, when tennis existed as a garden sport, to be sampled under the shade along with a cup of tea, which is still poured, daily, at 4 p.m. Creeks and horse trails still weave their way around the asphalt courts. Players still lunch with spectators. Freshly squeezed orange juice--The Ojai’s answer to the Wimbledon strawberry--is still served in a courtside tent, free of charge.

It has been this way for decades, since Leach was an up-and-comer in the 13-and-under division, long before he became men’s tennis coach at USC and father to the past and present heart of the Laguna Beach High School tennis program, Rick and Jonathan Leach.

“It’s hard to explain to people who’ve never been here,” Leach says. “My new assistant coach, Carl Neufeld, hadn’t seen Ojai and I told him about it. When he finally got here, he was just shaking his head.

“He said it reminded him of Switzerland, set in these beautiful hills and valleys. He can’t believe this tournament. He told me he’s never seen anything like it.”

Leach has seen enough Ojais to have seen some changes, though.

“The trains don’t run anymore,” he says. “There used to be an old railroad (depot) in the back of the park. Some people would come up by train to see the tennis. When I played in the juniors, the trains went by in the back and you’d have to play through the noise.”

They also took down the stone wall next to Leach’s old favorite court, located at the nearby William Thatcher private school, which took away a favorite ploy.

“I used to play doubles against (UCLA tennis coach) Glen Bassett on that court,” Leach says with a grin, “and I had a partner, Jim Buck, who had a tremendous kick serve. The court was about three feet from the stone wall and when he hit one of those serves into the ad court, there was no way you could get to it. It was an automatic point.

“We asked for that court every match.”

Leach played in every Ojai division available to him--13s, 15s, intercollegiate and open. And at The Ojai, the open division never closes. All ages are invited and Leach, 50, continued to bang around in the doubles field as late as 1988.

“I’d like to keep going, but because the tournament is condensed into four days, you’re playing at least two matches a day,” Leach says. “I’d just get too tired.”

Now, Leach relegates himself to coaching Trojans and watching younger Leaches. Rick, his eldest son, won the Ojai 18s championship twice before moving on to USC and Davis Cup doubles competition. Jonathan, now a junior at Laguna Beach High, lost Saturday’s 18s final to Brett Hansen-Dent of Newport Harbor, but already owns one 14s championship and two 16s.

Until recently, Ojai tennis was a year-round interest in the Leach home. Leach helped build the Ojai Valley Racquet Club in 1975 and served as co-owner of the facility until last month, when he sold out to partner Carl Pope. The club is one of several sites utilized by the Ojai tournament and Leach remembers it being barely able to accommodate the crowd crush for The Ojai’s biggest-ever draw--Tracy Austin’s debut at 13.

“Unbelievable,” Leach says with a laugh. “The landscaping was still pretty young then. I remember we ran out of toilet paper.”

Leach remains amazed at how the town closes down for the four-day tournament. Volunteers seed the players, schedule the matches, officiate the play, pour the tea--and players are offered free room and board in private homes.

“Our team could stay in a hotel, but it’s more fun this way,” Leach says. “It saves us a lot of money we don’t have and it gets the players involved in the community.

“The town really opens its arms and its doors to the kids.”

The tennis isn’t bad, either.

“This tournament is amateur tennis at its finest,” Leach says. “These kids are fighting, giving everything they have for a medal. That’s all they get, a medal..”

And a cup of tea.