Missouri Valley / St. Louis

Jamie Hansen champions growth in St. Louis tennis scene

Josh Sellmeyer | June 02, 2025

Jamie Hansen (bottom-left) brings tennis players together through coordinating events like the Love Wins tournament and adult/junior tourneys.

In connection with Pride Month occurring in June in the United States, USTA St. Louis is highlighting Jamie Hansen—league captain, tournament director and Love Wins organizer.

When Jamie Hansen was 5 years old, she watched with curiosity and excitement as her dad hit around the tennis ball with one of his friends. Fascinated by the sport and wanting to jump in on the fun, Hansen requested and received a tennis racquet for her 6th birthday.

“I would go to this park up the street from my house and just hit against the wall,” Hansen said. “I would dream that I was playing Monica Seles, and I won every time. So, I’m a Grand Slam winner in my own mind.”

The birthday gift ignited a lifelong passion and pursuit of tennis for Hansen, who captains and plays in several USTA St. Louis leagues and has upped her involvement in tournaments this year in chase of a golden ticket to nationals.

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Hansen additionally has begun to run tourneys on behalf of the East St. Louis Community Tennis Association and has helped orchestrate the Love Wins tournament for multiple years. The Love Wins tennis tourney returned last June after a one-year hiatus, and Hansen is optimistic the Team Saint Louis-run event will take place this year in September.

Hansen said Team Saint Louis—a nonprofit dedicated to providing sports programming and healthy lifestyle initiatives for the LGBTQ+ community and beyond—is hoping to leverage its grassroots growth in pickleball to tennis. She noted Team Saint Louis welcomes everyone in the community to the organization’s programs.

Self-Taught Beginnings

Hansen was a standout softball player growing up and competed on travel teams. With tennis lessons not readily available in her community, Hansen taught herself how to play the sport and developed into a varsity tennis competitor at Fremont High School in eastern Nebraska.

After graduating from Webster University in St. Louis, Hansen gravitated back to tennis, intermittently playing in leagues as she moved around the country to Nebraska, Texas and Washington, D.C.

When she permanently moved back to St. Louis, Hansen’s tennis involvement picked up steam. She enrolled in a tennis class at St. Louis Community College taught by legendary coach Pat Purcell, who encouraged Hansen to play more frequently. Purcell helped chart a course for Hansen and “kind of the rest is history as it were,” Hansen said.

Jamie Hansen has participated in USTA St. Louis leagues for seven years and has entered several adult tournaments in 2025.

Jamie Hansen captains a USTA St. Louis 18+ mixed team and plays in 18+ and 40+ leagues throughout the year.

Jamie Hansen has helped run the Love Wins tennis tournament for Team Saint Louis for several years and is planning on hosting the event this September.

Jamie Hansen has participated in USTA St. Louis leagues for seven years and has entered several adult tournaments in 2025.
Jamie Hansen captains a USTA St. Louis 18+ mixed team and plays in 18+ and 40+ leagues throughout the year.
Jamie Hansen has helped run the Love Wins tennis tournament for Team Saint Louis for several years and is planning on hosting the event this September.

“I don’t think the St. Louis region or Missouri Valley sometimes realizes how lucky they are to have such a vibrant tennis community,” Hansen said. “I can play year-round here. And that’s really hard to come by where I’ve been before.”

Reconnecting with Tennis

A vital contributor in the St. Louis tennis scene, Hansen’s league involvement includes captaining a USTA St. Louis 18 & Over mixed team in addition to playing in 18+ and 40+ women’s and mixed leagues throughout the year. She has participated in USTA St. Louis leagues the past seven years.

“When I started it was, ‘Oh, let’s just have some fun.’ And then I’m a really, really competitive person—anyone who plays doubles with me or anyone on my team will tell you that,” Hansen said. “I’ve had to work really hard on not being so results-focused. I’ve been so incredibly fortunate to have captains and teammates who meet me where I am.

“But then to also have this camaraderie is such a big deal. My family here in St. Louis now is primarily made up of tennis people. And I don’t know if I could make the changes I needed to make in terms of competitiveness without those people. I will be eternally grateful.”

Hansen, a senior internal communications strategist at BJC HealthCare, recalled playing in only one tournament prior to this year. But she’s ramped up her adult tournament participation in 2025 in hopes of securing a golden ticket. She’s handpicked specific tourneys to help her achieve that goal.

“The tournaments will quench that competitive thirst,” Hansen said. “And not that leagues don’t. But I think I have to have a mentality shift between this is a league—it’s about playing with these women or friends of mine.

“Whereas a tournament, especially in singles because I am primarily a singles player, is more about, ‘OK, what can I do to solve this problem? This person is doing this. How do I need to adjust my game to deal with that?’ That’s what I like about tournaments so far.”

East St. Louis Involvement

Late last year, East St. Louis CTA President Scott Stinson—one of Hansen’s good friends who got her involved in the Love Wins event years ago—offered Hansen some work opportunities with the CTA. It was a great match, with Hansen running a mixed doubles adult one-night tournament on behalf of the organization in March.

She served as tournament director for her first junior tournament, a USTA Junior Circuit event, that month as well. And on May 31, Hansen hosted a landmark USTA Junior Circuit. The junior tourney was the first one to be played at the brand new, six-court complex on the campus of East St. Louis Senior High School. Hansen is also running a USTA Junior Circuit on July 12 and a Level 5 Open on Aug. 9-11.

“The thing I’m so excited about in getting to run tournaments for East St. Louis on the junior side is to be able to watch these kids develop,” Hansen said. “That’s so neat how they even improve from tournament to tournament. There is so much going on with the East St. Louis CTA this year I’m just really excited to be a part of.”

Learn more about getting involved in USTA St. Louis leagues by clicking here and USTA adult tournaments by clicking here.

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