Shepparton tennis doyenne Heather Lees retires from her volunteering roles after more than 60 years in the sport

And during her time, Heather’s seen a few.

The arrangement of chrysanthemums, roses and carnations providing her and husband Doug’s living room a pop of colour were a gift from Shepparton Junior Tennis Association, thanking Heather for 39 years of volunteer service.

From 1986 to 2025, a determined, driven and generous woman has devoted countless hours to tracking scores, updating ladders and ferrying kids to matches — all in the name of tennis.

And that’s only in one association.

Outside the SJTA, Heather owns life memberships to Shepparton District Tennis Club and Shepparton North Tennis Club.

She’s managed a Goulburn side to a three-peat at the Tennis Victoria Inter-regional Country Championships.

Heck, Heather’s even sliced sandwiches at clubs she wasn’t even officially part of.

But as her retirement dawns after more than 60 years entwined in tennis, Heather smiled, sat back, adjusted the bouquet and spoke about how it all began.

“Well my dad played tennis, so I used to go and just play around because if I stayed home I had to do cooking,” she said with a laugh.

“He just said to me one day ‘you'll be in the team this week’ — no coaching or anything, and that was out at Central Park.”

No practice. No prep.

Just the straightforward expectation that she would step out and play.

And so she did.

Sure enough, Heather jumped straight onto the court and into a secretary role.

Five years on she remained in the position, but when the family moved out to Bunbartha, tennis took a back seat in Heather’s life.

Until one night.

“When our eldest daughter was about 10, she was in bed asleep and the car came roaring in,” Heather said.

“It was one of our neighbours who said, ‘where’s Debbie?’ and I said she’s in bed.

“Well, we need her, she’s got to play tennis’ they said — so I went to her, ‘Debbie, quick, get up, you’ve got to go to tennis’.”

Debbie didn’t play tennis and told her mum as much, but Heather’s answer was classic.

“I said ‘well, you are today’,” she said.

Like her mum, Debbie caught the tennis bug that day.

Tennis is in the Lees’ bloodstream and Heather’s granddaughters now carry the torch at Shepparton North, swinging their racquets on the very courts she once fought to rebuild.

“I remember playing tennis one day (at Shepparton North) and this kid went into the corner, and he wasn't coming back, and we sung out, ‘hey, what's the matter?’,” Heather said.

“He said the fence was falling down and if he let go, it was going to crash over.

“So, we worked hard, we did a lot of fundraising and got two concrete courts, and then we got another two, and then we got a grant to build the clubhouses out there.”

That kind of ‘get stuck in’, nose-to-the-stone mindset Heather possesses has moved mountains over the years.

If there were a Grand Slam for commitment, she would have a mantle full of trophies.

But among her many achievements, one gleams with particular lustre: shepherding a Goulburn side to a three-peat at the Tennis Victoria Inter-regional Country Championships.

“I was involved with the Goulburn region and that was really satisfying too, but very, very demanding — getting a team from this region of all the best players,” she said.

“We were very successful; we won it three years in a row and hadn't won it for 50-something years.

“But it wasn’t me — it was the players. They made the commitment to play and David Starling said ‘we were all playing for you’.”

Heather was made an honorary country champion through Tennis Victoria, another feather glistening in a very broad cap of achievements.

“When it comes to Tennis Victoria, she’s certainly a community champion that we recognise across Victoria,” Tennis Victoria programs manager Sam Condon said.

“We’ve all got our own example of this respective person in our sporting community that got us into the sport and kept us in it.

“I think that’s what she can probably hold up high — not only did she give and create so many opportunities for the tennis community, but she retained so many just by the hard work she did in providing everyone a great experience.”

Condon was one of many in attendance when Heather was presented her flowers on Sunday.

There alongside him were SJTA president Christian Willmott and registrar Fleur Baldi — both of whom were often in Heather’s car during her days ferrying youngsters to the courts.

Heather was “completely overwhelmed” on Sunday, being the centre of attention when her only aim was ever to see tennis thrive.

“I didn’t want any thanks; my thanks were seeing juniors learning to play the great game of tennis,” she said.

“That’s all the thanks I wanted, really, was seeing them progress, and I’ll keep my eye on that, for sure.”

So, as she steps back after 39 years in the SJTA and more than 60 years in tennis, what’s next for Heather?

She’ll go holidaying at Noosa, where she’d previously chatted tennis with the great Evonne Goolagong, and the local courts are never far from home.

They are where she has spent a lifetime keeping score — not just of games, but of decades of devotion — and they are more than mere playing surfaces.

They are her second home, her legacy, her well-marked baseline.

But in her Shepparton North abode, standing ever present by her side, will be a man who helped make Heather Lees’ story possible.

“I’d never be able to do what I did without Doug,” she said.