Joyce Albrecht holds prestigious title: Longest running volunteer

Joyce Albrecht, a Hilton Head resident, became a volunteer for the Volvo Car Open for the same reason most joined: a love of tennis. While she may have that in common with the majority of her fellow volunteers, Albrecht has the unique title of longest running volunteer at the VCO.

“I feel fortunate that I can still do it,” she laughed. “I enjoy it so much. It’s sort of indescribable.”

Before it was known as the Volvo Car Open and before it was on Daniel Island, the VCO was named the Family Circle Cup and was located on Hilton Head Island. Albrecht found her way to the event in 1993, thanks to an ad in the local newspaper, The Island Packet.

“I thought it would be something that I would really love to do and I was an avid tennis player,” Albrecht said. “Before I had ever moved here [Hilton Head], I went to the tournament one time for a day or so, and thought it would really be neat to volunteer there.”

In her first two years as a volunteer, Albrecht was a driver in a branch called “player services.” Her prime directive was transporting athletes from the clubhouses near the stadium to the court. “It wasn’t quite as sophisticated as it is now,” she said about the tournament in those days. “The tournament was at that time pretty much a local affair. You knew every volunteer because they all lived on Hilton Head. It was a small town putting on a big tournament, and it was never as big as it is now.”

In the mid-’90s, Albrecht graduated from player services and moved into her personal favorite position — operating a radio in the stadium. At that point, few tournament officials carried radios, so the folks with the devices, who Albrecht refers to as “ears,” were an important part of the Family Circle Cup procedure.

“We were the only ones that had radios,” she said. “If the court needed water, we had to call it in. If a player was injured on the court, the chair would turn to us and say ‘call a trainer’ because we were the only ones. But, that all changed dramatically when it moved to Charleston.”

Although the ears had some big responsibilities, Albrecht described her time in the position like a dream.

“You sat and watched matches and reported scores. It was a perfect job,” she commented.

Once the tournament moved to Daniel Island in 2001, and with the advent of new technologies, the ears became somewhat antiquated.

“After some years, and especially when it moved to Daniel Island, everybody had radios,” recalled Albrecht. “The chairs all communicate by computer with the scoring operation. We were not as special — or at least we thought we were special because we were the only ones that had radios.”

Despite this, ears were still around up until 2017, according to the volunteer. After that, she landed at her new job as an usher, where she will continue her reign as longest running volunteer in 2019.

Albrecht continues to reside in Hilton Head, meaning that she follows the tournament every year to participate in it.

Sticking with a volunteering position for 26 years may sound like a massive commitment, but Albrecht looks at it more like an integral tradition in her life.

“I just love the whole atmosphere of the tournament,” she said. “It is very exciting. I’ve made some good friends there over the years. I see them only the week of the tournament, but it’s like ‘Old Home Week’ when you go back. And it’s become just what I do in the spring: I go to the tournament.”