Amy Hatch

   By Brad Green

Twenty-three time Grand Slam Champion Serena Williams famously said, “Tennis is just a game, family is forever.”

 Amy Hatch of Kansas City, Mo., would probably agree with Serena’s words. 

 She becomes the fourth member of her family inducted into the South Dakota Tennis Hall of Fame. Amy joins her dad, Sherwood “Hatch” (Class of 2002), her aunt, Joan “Joanie” Griffin (Class of 2002) and her brother, Ripper (Class of 2022) as members of the hall.

Amy fondly recalled getting the call saying that she was selected and about shared the joy it brought her knowing she was joining her family in one of South Dakota’s sports fraternities.

 “It was a great honor to be called and be selected,” Amy said. “Jamie Volin called me and it was great to hear from him. Jamie was a really good friend of my Aunt Joan’s so we talked about Joanie a lot. She passed away right before my son was born about 16 years ago. There are so many people that have been involved in my life and through my tennis career who are in the Hall of Fame. It was surreal to think about it all.”

 Amy was born in Brookings to Sherwood and Virginia “Ginny” Hatch. Amy recalls Joanie’s love of the game that led to her Dad, Ripper, and her playing the game.

 “What’s really interesting is that Joanie is who taught my Dad how to play,” Amy said. “My dad met my mom at South Dakota State. My mom was a tennis player who also played at McKennan Park but Joanie was the one who took it really serious. Joanie would go to McKennan Park every day in the summer and Don Grebin taught her how to play and would work with her. Jamie Volin was there and they all played. Later, Dad taught himself how to play and would read articles. That’s when he decided to teach my brother and I how to play.”

 Amy learned the game at a familiar tennis scene from many greats that were involved in the sport.

“Dad ran the Hillcrest Tennis Courts for a number of years,” she said. “Looking back at that time, Brookings had such strong tennis. When I played in seventh grade, my coach was Lefty Johnson, who’s in the Hall of Fame. Then it was Jim Holwerda, who’s in the Hall of the Fame, then it was Lu Holwerda, who’s also in the Hall of Fame. That’s what Brookings tennis was. Dad had learned from all of them. He had a 45-year teaching career at Brookings High School and had a way of connecting with people.”

 Amy joined the Brookings Bobcats tennis team as a seventh-grader playing at Flight 1 singles in the fall of 1987 under Coach Lefty Johnson. Amy recalled Lefty said to leave her porch light on so he could pick her up and take her to the lone indoor court in Brookings at Larson Manufacturing where she could practice.

 Amy quickly established herself as a top player in both the Eastern South Dakota Conference and the state at large. A few years previously, she began traveling to Minneapolis as a young upstart in the Northern Section at just 10 years old.

As an eighth-grader, Amy faced off with eventual state champion Angie Louie from Sioux Falls Washington in the semifinals of the state tournament and lost. She remembers learning a lot from the match. Rebounding from the loss, Amy would earn her first state championship as she and teammate and good friend Eva Nsereko captured their first Flight 1 doubles championship.

 “We played so many doubles matches together and we were very compatible,” she said. “Eva was a great player. We were both so young, she was a ninth-grader and I was an eighth-grader. We didn’t have a lot of fear so we just went out and played our game.”

 At the end of Amy’s freshman year, she would face off with Sioux Falls Lincoln’s Carly Rise in the Flight 1 singles championship. Rise defeated Amy to take the title. She remembered it was a tough match but said she gained good experience from it. Later on in the tournament, Amy claimed her second straight Flight 1 doubles crown with Nsereko. As a team, Brookings earned their first state team championship.

 The fall of 1990 was a remarkable season for the Bobcats. Amy led the way for the defending champions as she earned her first Flight 1 singles title as she edged Rise and teamed with Nsereko to win three straight Flight 1 doubles crowns. Brookings claimed back-to-back team championships.

 Amy looked back on that Flight 1 singles championship re-match as a good battle involving her good friend.

“I was very nervous going into that match from what had happened the year before,” Amy said. “Carly was a very good tennis player. It felt very rewarding to be able to come out and perform and pull that one off.” 

 The next year, in 1991, history repeated itself with Amy beating Rise for the Flight 1 singles title before she teamed with Nsereko for their fourth consecutive Flight 1 doubles crown. The Bobcats earned their third straight team championship, joining just Sioux Falls O’Gorman as the only schools who had won at least three team titles up to that point.

 A year later, Amy earned her third straight Flight 1 singles crown defeating Mitchell’s Melanie Puetz and fifth straight Flight 1 doubles championship, this time teaming up with Jenny Kayongo. The title broke a tie that Amy had with Angie Breitag and Tonya Breitag for the most Flight 1 doubles crowns in as all had four championships. The Breitags are also members of the hall having been inducted together in 2020.

 During her six years playing for Brookings, Amy and the Bobcats finished with the aforementioned three state titles and three runner-up finishes (1987, 1988 and 1992). She also won six Eastern South Dakota Conference singles and six Eastern South Dakota Conference doubles championships during that timeframe.

 After finishing her Bobcats career with a remarkable 114-6 singles record and going undefeated in conference play, Amy followed in Ripper’s footsteps, heading east for college. Amy attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. and studied history and government.

 “When I saw him go to Princeton and play football, it set the standard for me,” she said. “I set a goal of trying to play Division I tennis at a really good academic school. Looking at the Ivy League made sense for me at the time. My parents could get a lot of financial aid so that the cost was effective. The tennis skills I had allowed me to get in so I took advantage of the opportunity.”

 Amy played one year of tennis for the Big Green before deciding to concentrate on her studies. While in Hanover, she even spent time as the sports editor of the daily student newspaper, “The Dartmouth.”

 Amy graduated from Dartmouth in 1997 and headed back to the Midwest. While deciding what she wanted to do with her life, she chose law school and found a home at The University of Iowa in Iowa City. After earning her juris doctorate degree in 2001, she moved to Kansas City and joined the law firm of Polsinelli PC. Twenty-five years later, Amy is a partner with the firm.

 She said she has found time to play and be involved in the game she loves so much. Amy even introduced it to her two children, Sydney and Max.

She is thrilled that they have followed her, their grandparents, their great-aunt and their uncle into the game. Sydney and Max are the current generation of the Hatch-Griffin tennis legacy.

 Sydney enters her sophomore year this fall at the United States Naval Academy where she plays tennis for the Midshipmen after a decorated high school career. Max just finished his sophomore year at North Kansas City High School where he played flight two singles for the Hornets.

 “Sydney’s personality is a lot like mine,” Amy said. “She’s worked really hard to get where she is, which is a lot like me. She decided that tennis was her game and is a really good player. Max played as a young kid. He chose to play this spring after being away from the game for a while. It was fun to see him out there again.”

 To this day, over 30 years after she graduated from Brookings High School, Amy’s five Flight 1 state doubles championships remain the most ever won by one player in the flight. She is also just one of eight South Dakota girls to win at least three Flight 1 state championships since the state tennis championships started in 1973.

 On behalf of the South Dakota Tennis Hall of Fame selection committee, we proudly welcome Amy Hatch into our ranks as a member of the Class of 2026. Congratulations to Amy!