Dallas, TX

Dallas Wheelchair Tennis Club among national grant winners

Published

5 months ago

May 26, 2025

Dallas Wheelchair Tennis Club among national grant winners

Tennis is considered the world’s healthiest sport, and something good happened on the tennis courts in Coppell.

Players competed in the 45th Texas Open Wheelchair Championships earlier this month. The Dallas Wheelchair Tennis Club (DWTC) hosted the event at the Wagon Wheel Tennis and Pickleball Center in Coppell. The championship tournament was started in 1981 and is the oldest, continuously held tournament in the history of wheelchair tennis.

The U.S. Tennis Association backs the Dallas club and recently awarded it a $3,500 grant to help further the program. The USTA distributed $100,000 in grants to 56 wheelchair tennis programs nationwide.

“They’ve been stalwarts in the wheelchair tennis world for so many years. Dallas has been an incredible city for wheelchair tennis for the better part of three or four decades,” said Jason Harnett, the director of wheelchair tennis at Florida-based USTA.

Wheelchair Tennis was founded in 1976 when Brad Parks first hit a tennis ball from a wheelchair and realized the potential of this new sport. Wheelchair tennis became a full medal sport at the Paralympics in 1992. Since 2007, wheelchair tennis has been played at all four Grand Slams.

“Paralympic sport is so compelling. The back stories of the athletes and how they got there, and then of course, just the athleticism and the professionalism are at the top level,” Harnett said. “And I’ve worked both sides of the fence, professional, able-bodied, and Paralympic, and to me the Paralympic side is more compelling and in some ways, because of again, the adversity to get to where they’re at is, is remarkable,” Harnett said.

The mayor of Coppell presented DWTC club president Charles (Carlos) Turic with a proclamation declaring May as National Tennis Month. The city councils in Keller and Midlothian passed proclamations as well.

The DWTC has partnerships with the City of Coppell (Wagon Wheel Tennis & Pickleball Center) and SMU Tennis (Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex), where we host our weekly tennis clinics. The Dallas Wheelchair Tennis Club can be contacted at 972-317-7972 or DWTCPresident@aol.com.

The USTA says:
• Tennis participation in the U.S. has surged to a new high of 25.7 million players following five consecutive years of growth. The nearly two million player increase from 2023 (up 1.9 million from 23.8 million) marks a significant acceleration in excess of eight percent growth.
• One in every 12 Americans played tennis in 2024 – the highest proportion on record. This exceeds the five-year average ratio of one in 16 Americans.
• The game is increasingly more diverse, with 26 percent growth in Black / African American participation, representing a 662,000-player increase, and Hispanic players up 15.4 percent, to 4.54 million players over 2023. Senior players, too, are on the rise with a 17 percent increase in growth to 302K participants.
• Tennis is also increasingly attracting a younger player base as players under 35 powered tennis’s expansion in 2024, contributing nearly two-thirds of all growth (+1.2 million players). The youth influence is especially clear among those under 25, who drove 45 percent of total gains.

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Dallas, TX

Mailbag: Why waste offensive talent?

Published

6 hours ago

October 30, 2025

Press Room

(Editor’s Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in ‘Mailbag’ presented by Miller Lite.)

Is it more valuable for the Cowboys to hold their draft capital rather than use it to trade for a difference maker to create pressure and sacks? Why waist the offensive talent you have this year and hold on to the draft picks when it’s clear that Dallas has half a super bowl contending team? – Will Epler/Colorado Springs, CO

Patrik: I’ve made it no secret about where I stand on this topic: trade for one or two players to not waste this window of elite offensive play. You simply don’t know if Dak Prescott will equal or better this form in the years to come and, oh by the way, he’s already in his early 30s, and not in his mid-20s. Additionally, you can’t predict if George Pickens sticks around to keep the same level of weaponry surrounding Prescott, so forth and so on. Having shiny extra draft picks to use is fun, because of imagination. You get to imagine what might be and who they might select and, maybe, just maybe, that the pick turns out to be a Hall of Famer every … single … time. In reality, though, even for a team that drafts well, like the Cowboys, it’s still a crapshoot every … single … time. More picks are great fuel for draft show talks and mock drafts, but ask Dak Prescott if he gives an iota of a crap about any of that. Win now, while you have the quarterback and offense to do it, and stop pretending you have time to waste.

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Dallas, TX

Cowboys-Cardinals announcer assignment draws Dallas legend in Week 9

Published

1 day ago

October 29, 2025

Press Room

Cowboys-Cardinals announcer assignment draws Dallas legend in Week 9

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talks with former quarterback Troy Aikman before a game against the Los Angeles Chargers / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott reacts after losing to the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. — Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talks with former quarterback Troy Aikman before a game against the Los Angeles Chargers / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Dallas, TX

Dallas Stars nearing extension with defenseman Thomas Harley, reports say

Published

2 days ago

October 28, 2025

Press Room

Dallas Stars nearing extension with defenseman Thomas Harley, reports say

The Dallas Stars are nearing a deal to lock in another key member of the franchise’s core moving forward.

The Stars are finalizing talks with defenseman Thomas Harley on an eight-year deal worth in the ballpark of $10.5 million annually, according to multiple media reports Tuesday. The contract would keep Harley in Dallas through the 2031-32 season.

Harley is currently in the second year of a two-year bridge contract he signed ahead of the 2024-25 season worth $4 million annually, but as one of the rising stars at his position, he’s due for a significant raise.

The Stars drafted the defenseman in the first round of the 2019 NHL draft and have developed him in their system since. So far in his fifth season in Dallas, he’s recorded eight points (one goal and seven assists) in nine games.

Harley became one of the Stars’ top defensemen last season when he recorded 50 points in 78 games and averaged over 23 minutes of ice time. Following an injury to Miro Heiskanen, Harley stepped into a larger role and caught the attention of the league when he was a late addition to Team Canada in last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off.

Harley’s rise to becoming one of Dallas’ top defensemen came after a winding journey where he was sent down to the AHL for most of the 2022-23 season to develop his defensive game. Harley has always had strong offensive instincts — but has returned to Dallas a far more skilled defensive player.

The Stars saw that and wanted to lock him down long-term. But with the hefty $96 million deal they gave Mikko Rantanen last season and Jason Robertson’s ongoing contract negotiations, it wouldn’t be easy.

Nevertheless, Harley was a top priority — and Dallas appears to be paying up accordingly.

The deal would make Harley the second-highest paid player on the Stars, trailing only Rantanen. The two players share an agent. He would be the highest-paid defenseman, passing Heiskanen’s $8.45 million AAV, which extends through the 2028-29 season.

It would put Harley at the fourth-highest AAV among defensemen in the league, trailing only Pittsburgh’s Erik Karlsson ($11.5 million), Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin ($11 million) and Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty ($11 million).