Off the Screen, Issue 3

After a late-summer hiatus, OTS is back for the 2024-25 season!

It’s been a minute since our last issue. Late summer got busy and I was working on the story below for a while and then hit a wall. I didn’t feel like I had enough, but I also knew I could go on forever. Sometimes, that’s a curse of writing.

But now that the season is upon us, I think what I have is a good starting point.

The series have been assembled — though not without same late drama from the league — and teams have been formed. I’m writing this introduction section on Tuesday evening and the schedules just came out on the APTA Chicago website.

I’m going to email captains and pros this week for season previews. If you’d like to contribute, email me at jongreenberg78@gmail.com or send a message.

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Six years ago, paddle chairman Jason Ciaglo sent a letter to the players at the Westmoreland Country Club in Wilmette.

It wasn’t quite a Jerry Maguire manifesto, but it had the same spirit of radical transparency.  

Ciaglo wanted to explain how the club was going to organize the teams for the 2018 season.