Zinna Steps Down As League Liaison
Outgoing liaison cites full-time commitment to his hair; Dunphy assumes duties on interim basis
Search for permanent replacement expected to stretch into spring
Board declines to say who applied
By Raul Hortencia·League Affairs Correspondent
Jason Zinna adjusts a section of hair before a hallway mirror at his Rowayton home on Thursday morning.
“I can be reachable, or I can be presentable. The league is going to have to choose.”
ROWAYTON, Conn., Aug. 31 —Jason Zinna resigned Friday as the Rowayton Paddle Club's liaison to the Fairfield County Platform Tennis League's governing body, the RPTA, saying the position had become impossible to reconcile with the demands of his hair.
"I have loved this job, and I have loved my hair, and for three years I told myself I could do both," Zinna said, seated in his kitchen with a comb visible on the counter behind him. "That was a lie I was telling myself and the membership."
Zinna, who has held the liaison post since October 2022, said he now devotes no less than ninety minutes each morning to what he called "maintenance," a figure he arrived at, he said, "by actually timing it, which is part of the problem." He described the liaison role's email volume as "incompatible" with that schedule.
Skip Dunphy, who is both captain of the B team and president of the RPTA, said he would cover the liaison post on an interim basis while a permanent successor is identified, a arrangement several members privately called a consolidation of power and Dunphy publicly called "a formality."
"Somebody has to answer tenniscores.com when they email about the Division 4 rain date, and right now that somebody is me," Dunphy said, adding that he did not request the assignment and would not be seeking it permanently, a claim four members of his own team said they intend to monitor closely.
The RPTA has formed an ad hoc search subcommittee, chaired by Basil Thomson, to identify a permanent replacement. Thomson said the subcommittee has interviewed one candidate, received two unsolicited applications by email, and expects to present a recommendation to the full board no later than March 1, a deadline he called "soft."
Fred Schweizer, captain of the D team, declined to comment on the vacancy, saying only that he had "nothing to add on liaison matters" and had "never once opened the liaison inbox and does not intend to start."
Ken McCoy, a former A team captain, said he had not applied for the post but wanted it understood that he had been asked informally by "more than one person" whether he would consider it. He would not say by whom. "I'm not chasing the title," McCoy said. "I'm just aware that some people think I'd be good at it."
The liaison position, created in 2011 to manage correspondence between the club and the league office, carries no salary and, according to club bylaws, no fixed term, meaning Zinna's successor could in theory hold the post for as long as his own grooming schedule allows.
