The Spences: The family that plays together stays together
MELBOURNE, Fla. — It鈥檚 a beautiful spring Sunday in Florida, the temperatures are perfect for a game of tennis in the Space Coast Tennis League. The racquet is twirled to see who will serve first. Rob and Sandy Spence win and will serve first. They are ready for their match against Curtis and Julie Flajole, weekend tennis friends for the past few years. Shoes are checked one last time to make sure they are tied and they are eyeing where the best place is to serve the ball. Will Curtis or Julie be able to return the serve or will it be a point for Rob and Sandy?
Residents of Suntree for the last 22 years, Rob and Sandy Spence took up tennis three years ago when they became empty nesters. Their children grew up in Suntree and are graduates of Viera High School. Sports are not new to the family as the children played soccer, softball, ran track, and swam. However, Rob and Sandy wanted to find something to do together that was healthy and to stay in shape. Thanks to ideal weather in Florida most of the year and the availability of tennis courts in Brevard, this has been a great activity for the two of them.
Sandy, an educator in Brevard for the last 15 years and a Real Estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty, and Rob, a Physical Therapist at Holmes Regional Medical Center, contacted Coach Michael with USTA for lessons. The next stop was joining the USTA Social League that plays on Saturdays at the new Titan Tennis Center on Eastern Florida State College鈥檚 Melbourne campus. When they aren鈥檛 playing there, you can catch them at Viera Recreation Center, Jimmy Moore Tennis Park, Cocoa Beach Recreation, Desoto Tennis Center in Satellite Beach, or their neighborhood courts.
The Spence children saw how much fun their parents were having and wanted to join in. The family took lessons together a few months ago and now they all compete together in the sport. Sandy loves the time the family spends together in this healthy activity. Newly married daughter Taylor, a UCF graduate and 3rd grade teacher at Viera Elementary School plays on a doubles team with Sandy with USTA. Taylor鈥檚 husband, Evan, also a UCF graduate and a Clinical Sales Representative with AbbVie Pharmaceuticals, plays with Taylor and the family as often as time allows and he enjoys the competition. Rob also enjoys the competition and plays on a competitive men鈥檚 team in USTA. The Spence鈥檚 son, Grant, is a student at UCF studying Mechanical Engineering and joins in the fun when he comes home for a weekend from school.
The family really loves the time they get to spend together, and they make it as affordable as possible. There are many ways to learn how to play tennis, and the local USTA league offers programs for beginners. Some of the local recreational parks offer tennis programs, and Desoto Tennis Park offers weekly clinics for people to learn the game. It is not necessary to have the latest and greatest equipment to play tennis. This helps keep it a friendly and affordable way to play.
The Spence鈥檚 think about possibly coaching one day as they know there are a lot of high school programs but not a lot of coaches to coach them. The schools are always looking for good people to lead our athletic youth.
When the family isn鈥檛 playing tennis, they find other ways to stay in shape and be together. They have always supported each other in a variety of different sports such as running together and they have done many local road races. One of those is a family tradition, the Turkey Trot 5K every Thanksgiving.
When they are not playing tennis, Evan plays basketball, and Taylor has played on the Teacher softball team for the last 3 years and recently competed in the Cocoa Beach Triathlon. Rob was a college swimmer, so he has swam with the local master鈥檚 club. Grant has been swimming with the UCF Swim Club for the last 3 years and made the National Championship team. He was able to travel to Ohio State, and Georgia Tech to swim in the National College Finals. Sandy loves bike riding but has yet to convince the family to bike together.
The Spence family will continue to play tennis and other activities together. Next time you go by the tennis courts, take a look, you may see many of the Spence family members playing or more people who decided to join in the fun.
“Family is so important so making time to play together may take some effort. A sport like tennis is a fun, easy, and affordable way for all family members to play together. We hope that other families will play tennis together and enjoy it as a non-stressful, healthy time to hang together.” – The Spence Family
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.