From the classroom at FPDS to U.S. Open tennis tournament Kimball continued to teach.
Two northsiders were among the thousands of people who made their way to Flushing Meadows, N.Y., to attend one of the oldest tennis championships in the world.
But Carrie and David Kimball were not in the stands with the other fans. Instead they were on the courts as line judges at the 139th U.S. Open Tennis Championship, a Grand Slam tournament. They were the only Mississippians selected to serve as line judges at the annual tournament.
Carrie’s road to Flushing Meadows started when she met her husband, a tennis pro.
A sixth-grade Bible and history teacher at First Presbyterian Day School, Carrie holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and minor in piano from the University of Missouri at St. Louis and attended the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in missions. She has since added a master’s in education to her resume.
After that, she met her husband of 27 years, David, who is a tennis pro. His job has moved them all over the South.
The couple moved from Shreveport to the Jackson metro over the summer when David became director of tennis at the Club at Crossgates.
David has played tennis since he was a high school student in Shreveport. He went on to play at the college level at Belhaven University. Carrie had never picked up a racket before they met.
“On one of our first dates, he taught me a forehand,” she said. “So, he taught me how to hit a tennis ball.”
After the couple married, David gave her lessons off and on, but she never really played. When they moved to Shreveport, he was doing junior level tournaments.
“He said, ‘Carrie, why don’t you get certified as a tennis official, and that way you can be my referee for these tournaments?’” she said.
So, she became a certified official through the United States Tennis Association (USTA). She then went with a friend to New Orleans and learned to call lines.
“I ended up traveling quite a bit,” she said. “I started chair umpiring also. I was just bitten. I loved it. It was so much fun.”
In 2012, she earned her International Tennis Federation (ITF) white badge.
“David has such a good eye,” she said. “He’s on the court all the time, so I told him you need to call lines with me.”
She went over the basics of the technique for calling lines, and they went to a tournament together.
“No one knew he had never called lines in a tournament before,” she said.
Over the years, she said she worked really hard on her technique and getting better. Officials must apply and be selected for tournaments.
In 2010, Kimball was selected to work the U.S. Open for the first time as a line umpire.
“I worked that seven years in a row,” she said. Then, David was selected, and she was not in 2017.
This year they were both selected to go to the U.S. Open, which happened to begin shortly after the two moved to the Jackson metro and started their new jobs.
So, within a few weeks they closed on their house, moved, started new jobs and then flew to New York for the Open.
“I had to go and ask for two weeks off after teaching for six,” Carrie said. However, she said the Head of School Brian Smith was understanding and she was able to make the trip.
While she was gone, she still interacted with students and planned assignments around what she was doing while she was gone.
“Every day I sent a video about an aspect of NYC or the Open,” she said. “In these short videos, I gave them one or two facts to research and type on a Google Doc to be submitted after I returned. I was hoping to give them a glimpse of what we were doing and where we were in the world. I would post the videos on Google Classroom so they could watch again, if needed. Details like who is Arthur Ashe and why is the largest tennis stadium in the world named for him? What are the five boroughs of NYC? What is the Unisphere and why was it built?”
All of the officials stayed at one hotel in Manhattan, and each day they would take a bus to Flushing Meadows to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
“Matches start at 11 a.m., and you’re assigned to a court,” Kimball said. “You’re on an hour and off an hour.”
Sometimes the matches could go on until midnight or later.
“Experiencing a day of the maximum sets for men and women in each match, on one court, was a highlight,” she said.
“We never know what matches we’re going to get, and we never know how many matches,” Kimball added.
The couple was selected for the qualifying week and the first week of main draw.
“Working the U.S. Open is a time to work with some of the best line and chair umpires in the world,” she said. “Specifically, seeing international official friends and ‘catching up’ is one of the unique blessings of the Open.”
