Norma Veal

Bryce Alderton

One of the reasons tennis appeals to Norma Veal so much is the game

affords her the opportunity to travel.

The director of an annual national senior father/son tennis

tournament at the Newport Beach Tennis Club will get that chance

again, but this time it will be on a more permanent basis.

Veal, a Newport Beach resident for the past nine years and

organizer of the United States Tennis Association doubles tennis

tournament at the NBTC, took a job as a tennis coordinator at the

Palm Desert Tennis Club and will move there in November to begin the

seasonal work that runs from October through May. She will coordinate

matches, assist in the pro shop and teach.

But Veal, 65, won’t sever ties with Newport just yet. She will

still mail entry forms, verify players and form the draws for the

10th annual father and son tournament next June.

“I like to see it continue at a good venue [NBTC] and the

participants appreciate what is done for them,” said Veal, a single

mother with two grown children and four grandchildren. “Of course I

will miss the ocean.”

Veal used to organize the national senior women’s 65s, 75s and 85s

championships when the tournament was held at NBTC. She remains an

active club member.

She has been teaching, mainly to groups, on and off since the

1970s, including instructing classes at UC Irvine.

From 1994 to 2001 she worked full time at NBTC. Before moving to

Newport Beach in 1994, Veal spent time in West Virginia, Washington

D.C. and Venezuela, the site of one of her most memorable tennis

accomplishments.

Veal won the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events in

Venezuela’s national championships.

In 1980 Veal, who has six senior national tournament titles in

doubles and mixed doubles, and her partner were concurrently ranked

No. 1 in U.S. doubles in the 35s and 40s age divisions.

This year Veal is currently ranked seventh in the 65s and has a

chance to improve on that mark. She has been chosen as an alternate

to play in the Godfrey Cup in Turkey at the end of October. Teams of

four play three singles and two doubles matches in the event, Veal

said.

Both doubles and singles offer Veal different experiences on the

court.

“I like them both,” she said. “It’s great playing doubles when you

get a good foursome with a lot of exchanges.

“I do like to work the point in singles and there is a

satisfaction in testing my abilities.”

Veal began playing tennis at age 15 in her hometown of Marblehead,

Mass. With the harsh winter weather all to common in the east, Veal

grew up playing indoor badminton and eventually became a national

champion in the sport.

Moving to California in 1970 suited Veal just fine because she

could play tennis year round.

She graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 1984 with a

bachelor’s degree in business administration and competed for two

years for the Lions’ tennis team.

A high school classmate of her daughter’s and a girl she coached

while at Los Angeles Harbor community college were two of Veal’s

teammates at LMU.

Two years prior to graduating from LMU, Veal and a small group of

tennis instructors visited China to give clinics to children there.

Last November Veal participated in the Friendship Cup in Japan, a

doubles invitational tournament represented by 12 countries from the

Pacific Rim.

“I enjoy the social and personal contacts a sport like tennis

affords,” Veal said. “You can do a lot of traveling and make friends

all over.”

And the journey continues.