The United States Tennis Association's Eastern Section (USTA/Eastern) honored Locust Valley resident Eileen Leonard on Saturday evening, Jan. 23, as USTA/Eastern Tennis Woman of the Year for her contributions to Eastern tennis, before a crowd of nearly 300 tennis enthusiasts at the annual Eastern Tennis Awards Dinner, held at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, NY.

Eileen Leonard started her umpiring career over 25 years ago. She has served as an on-court tennis official at several US and International tournaments including the US Open, Wimbledon and Davis Cup and Fed Cup matches. For the past several years she has been the chief umpire for the WTA Championship at Madison Square Garden as well as the chief umpire at many WCT and WTA tournaments.

Among her Eastern assignments are serving as referee for USTA Men's Satellite events, the Eastern Master's Circuit, the USTA Boys and Girls 14 Zone Team Championships and the Lichtenburg Wheelchair Classic. Eileen serves the USTA/Eastern Long Island Regional Board as its Area Training Center Coordinator and has also served as president of the Eastern Tennis Umpires Tennis Association and currently holds the positions of treasurer and chairman of training.

Internationally renowned sports science guru Dr. Jack L. Groppel, executive vice president of LGE Performance Systems of Orlando, FL, kicked off with the weekend-long Eastern Tennis Seminar and Awards Dinner on Jan. 22 with Eastern's third annual Sport Science Conference, which included several eye-opening seminars ranging from A Sport Science Approach to Teaching Tennis to the behind-the scenes 1998 US Open: Player Illness & Injury Summary.

Those who attended Saturday's Eastern Tennis Seminar chose from a vast well of cutting-edge and unique sessions including Mental Toughness Training for Players and Coaches with Dr. Groppel; Top Marketing Ideas with Joe Dinnofer, Backboards to the Future with USPTR CEO Dan Santorum and USA Tennis Pathway - A to Z led by USTA/Eastern staffers.

The USTA/Eastern Section's annual meeting capped off the day, followed by Eastern's annual Awards Dinner where honors such as Tennis Family of the Year, Volunteers of the Year and Junior Sportsmanship Awards were presented to Easterners from Long Island to Buffalo for their integral role in growing the game of tennis in 1998. With dinner speaker Donald Dell, chairman & CEO of ProServ, mired in the Washington DC fog at Dulles International Airport, Dr. Jack Groppel once again stepped into the cleanup role, hitting a grand slam with his animated talk on health, fitness and exercise in the lives of Americans.