On the eve of the 26th annual Betty Blakeman Memorial tennis tournament, longtime director Don Atkinson tapped patiently and purposefully at the computer keyboard on the roll-top wooden desk nestled inside his second-story den, pecking out the names of more than 200 players from the handwritten sheets of paper he used to create a record nine brackets for this year’s event, the largest in the state.

“Every year, for the last three or four, he says this is the last year,” said his wife, Linda Atkinson.

Don Atkinson will spend this weekend directing the prestigious Betty Blakeman Memorial tennis tourney, as he’s done for so many events. Carl D. Walsh/Staff Photographer

But it won’t be. Heck, to many, it can’t be. With his clean brackets, color-coded markers and quick wit, Atkinson is Maine’s ambassador for tennis. He directs the high school singles and team tournaments. He directs the Maine Tennis Association’s biggest summer events.

He does it all with such levels of competency and class that many of the high school players are drawn to compete in the summer adult events.

“He cares so much for the Maine tennis community,” said three-time singles state champion Olivia Leavitt, a recent Falmouth High graduate scheduled to play mixed doubles with her dad, Larry, and women’s doubles with former Falmouth teammate Julia Brogan.

“He’s just so nice to everyone and so accommodating to everyone’s needs. He wants everyone to have a great time.”

During the three-day tournament held in conjunction with the Yarmouth Clam Festival, Atkinson will spend most of his time beneath a canopy tent alongside the courts at Yarmouth High, surrounded by brackets taped to folding table tops. He’ll record scores, introduce opponents, send matches to satellite sites in Falmouth, Cumberland or elsewhere in Yarmouth like an experienced air traffic controller.

“He just loves the tennis environment, loves the people,” said Eric Blakeman, who with his sister, Carrie Davenport, organizes the annual event in honor of their mother, who died of breast cancer in 1989. “There’s no monetary incentive for him to do it. It’s just a passion for him.”

Last year’s event raised roughly $24,000 for the Cancer Community Center of South Portland. This year’s event is likely to match or surpass that total, Blakeman said, bringing the total money raised over the life of the event to more than $200,000.

“It’s something the tennis community can be really proud of,” he said. “I know my mom would absolutely love hearing those numbers.”

The walls of Atkinson’s den – there’s a pillow proclaiming it his Man Cave – are not covered with photos of athletes lugging racquets, but of jockeys.

“I’m a huge horse fan,” he said. “I’m still watching reruns of the Belmont Stakes at least once a day.”

At 68 and with a pair of knee replacements, Atkinson no longer plays tennis. He was a standout at the University of Southern Maine, then called Gorham State when he graduated in 1969, and earned induction to the Husky Hall of Fame in 2002. He has won about 10 doubles and mixed doubles tournaments in Maine but never reached a singles final.

The first major tournament of summer, the A&J Open, began in 1970 and was named after Atkinson and Vinnie Johnson of Gorham. Linda Atkinson remembers making tuna sandwiches for the eight players that first year.

An English major at Gorham State, Atkinson wound up teaching math for 33 years at junior high schools in Portland, and coached high school basketball and tennis in Falmouth and Portland. His Deering High girls won two state tennis titles, in 1986 and 1990.

He also serves as public address announcer for high school tournament basketball games at Cross Insurance Arena, which prompted a double take by Cape Elizabeth senior Ethan Murphy after hearing instructions and introductions prior to the Class B state tennis final last month at Lewiston High.

“I hear your voice twice a week,” said Murphy, better known as the basketball co-captain who scored the buzzer-beating layup that lifted the Capers to the Class B basketball state title in February.

Like many of his teammates, Murphy cherishes his DVD copy of the game’s television broadcast.

Entries for this year’s Blakeman closed at 10 p.m. Wednesday, but Atkinson was up for another four hours, scratching and seeding before finally going to bed. Thursday meant more juggling, pulling numbers from hats, filling out brackets and marveling over an impressive mixed doubles field. The two new brackets this year, by popular request, are women’s 35-and-over singles and doubles. The men’s singles field numbers 80.

“I could say I don’t know how to stop,” Atkinson said of his long-running tenure. “But I guess my answer is that I just love it. Putting this puzzle together is just great fun for me.”

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