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For the past 26 years Jodi Appelbaum-Steinbauer has guided the Junior Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships from its embryonic stages to a world stage where aspiring young pros begin their paths to the sport’s pinnacle.
Steinbauer’s contributions to junior tennis in Florida place her on the sport’s “Mount Rushmore” alongside the late, great Eddie Herr and legendary Bobby Curtis, creators of the state’s most prestigious junior tournaments.
Now 67 and wanting to travel and spend more time with her family, Steinbauer has announced her retirement as tournament director of the Junior Orange Bowl event. She can’t wait to celebrate on an Alaska cruise with husband J.R., longtime director of the Junior Orange Bowl Golf Tournament, as well as their daughter, Erika, and daughter, Julie, and her husband, Jordan.
When Jodi took over the reins as tournament director in 1996, the 12s division had laid dormant since Chanda Rubin and BJ Stearns were crowned champions in the boys’ and girls’ brackets in 1988.
However, Steinbauer and Junior OB tennis chair George Carless fought for its return in 1998 and both the 12s and 14s divisions have flourished ever since, crowning youngsters such as Andy Murray, Madison Keys and Coco Gauff years before they became elite pros.
At one point, the popular tournament in which college recruiters, coaches and agents come to check out future clients and scholarship recipients, had more than 1,400 players in the qualifying and 128-player main draws of the four divisions.
For logistics sake the numbers have been cut in half simply because there weren’t enough courts at the William Kerdyk Biltmore Tennis Center, Salvadore Park and Crandon Park Tennis Center, former site of the Miami Open.
Jodi made up draws consisting of the sports’ greatest stars, including Murray, Gauff, Andy Roddick, Juan Martin Del Potro, Justine Henin and more recently Sofia Kenin, Bianca Andreescu, Emma Raducanu, Leyla Fernandez, and Frances Tiafoe.
Steinbauer, a native of Miami, played in the Junior Orange Bowl event before becoming a two-time Florida state champion at Miami Beach High and four-time All-American player at the University of Miami where she won a national collegiate doubles title at UM and was on the state’s championship team in 1976. Jodi is a proud member of the UM’s Sports Hall of Fame and Museum where she served as president from 2007 to 2009.
Jodi was a bronze medalist in singles and silver medalist in doubles for the U.S. at the prestigious Maccabiah Games in Israel in 1977. Steinbauer played professionally for a few years and defeated Liz Smylie (once ranked 20th) in the first round at the 1981 U.S. Open. She also has a win over Kathy May Fritz, a former Top 10 player and mother of current Top 10 star Taylor Fritz.
This doesn’t mean she’s putting her rackets in mothballs, as she will continue to smash overheads in USTA leagues. Jodi has been a teaching pro for decades as well as a substitute teacher in Miami-Dade Public Schools.
She will continue her philanthropic endeavors with the City of Doral and its PP4K program, which works with the police to organize recreational activities for at-risk children. Jodi will still volunteer to assist in several other Junior Orange Bowl events, unrelated to tennis, such as golf and creative writing.
No doubt, Steinbauer’s quarter of a century experience of communicating with the International Tennis Federations, the USTA, coaches, parents and players will be sorely missed and tough sneakers to fill.
“It’s all about the players, watching and helping them succeed at the next level, while making sure their experience was the best it could be,” Jodi said. “My years as tournament director combined with my passion for children and growing the game of tennis. I’m thrilled to follow the careers past players like Coco, Andy, Frances, and Emma succeed as pros.”
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