The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Banachs ‘love’ playing at Yale
NEW HAVEN — Twenty-six years ago, on side-byside tennis courts at Yale University, a teenaged boy named Ed Banach met a young girl named Amy Laraway.
Together, they helped their hometown of Waterbury win the 1992 Governor’s Cup tennis championship.
Little did either of them realize that more than a quarter of a century later their tennis “love” story would become an old-fashioned love story.
And, in an even more romantic twist of fate, the two would return to the scene of their first meeting and claim another tennis championship on the same courts where they first met.
The Banachs were crowned champions during Thursday’s Connecticut Open Family Tennis championships, winning the husband-wife division title.
“To be here again, it’s just icing on the cake for us at this age,” said Banach, who is the athletic director at Cheshire Academy.
It’s been a long time since the two first became teammates on the Waterbury team that won the Grassroots-sponsored title.
“We met each other that day,” Banach said. “Eight years later, I was working at the Middlebury Racquet Club and she came in and we recognized each other. Now, 18 years later, here we are married. It’s surreal to think we’d be back here after 26 years.”
Being doubles partners went smoothly for the couple, who have three children — Luke (12), Matthew (10) and Molly (7).
“I think it comes easy,” Amy Banach said. “It’s like our date night.”
Ironically, the Banachs are not the only tennis players returning to New Haven. After they won the Governor’s Cup title, Banach said he remembers watching John McEnroe playing on the Stadium Court.
McEnroe is returning to New Haven again this summer to play an exhibition legends match, as well.
The Banach family had invited more than a handful of friends, family and coworkers to come see their title match. Their opponents, however, had to default the match away to give the Banachs the title and a Stadium Court appearance to receive their trophy.
Their family story, though, was just one of many to hit the courts on Thursday
For Alex Orbanowski and his son, Jake, both from Greenwich, playing tennis together is a longtime family tradition handed down from father to son.
“We thought it would be a good thing to play a father-son tournament,” said Orbanowski, whose parents Peter and Susi own the Old Greenwich Tennis Academy. “My dad and I used to play father-son with USTA, so I’m just taking it to the next generation.”
The Orbanowskis went up against another Fairfield County family father/son duo — the Amann’s of Norwalk.
Alex Amann and his dad, Martin, decided to play in the tournament after hearing about it from Alex’s coach.
“It was a great experience and we ended up in the finals,” said Martin Amann, who played for Yale when he was in college. “It was my like dad did to me.”
His son might be a tennis player, but his daughter isn’t quite following in his footsteps, however.
“Whatever makes the kids happy. As long as they’re happy, I’m happy,” Amann said.
The tournament also gives families that opportunity to play with one another, instead of just going out to the courts to hit with one another.
“We usually hit with each other, but never really played with each other,” said Zach Kaplan of Westport, who played in the Father/Child 18 Under division with his dad, David. “I was really for it. I wanted to play. I was surprised that we made the finals.”
Multiple families said they were impressed with the sportsmanship of the event, especially how the adults would take it easy when hitting to the younger generation while remaining competitive against one another.
The tournament featured nine different divisions.