tennis courts at windridge tennis and sports camps in Vermont

Skills for life, friends forever!

Young people encouraged to do well in things they enjoy will show positive personal growth — on the court and off it.

The Windridge philosophy starts with a simple observation: children who are genuinely engaged in something they love don't just get better at that thing — they grow as people. By combining serious sport instruction with the experience of living, competing, and belonging together as a community, we give campers something that lasts well beyond August.

We believe summer should be a release from the stresses and anxieties that fill the school year — a place built around discovery, movement, and the freedom to just be a kid. Fun and improvement aren't opposites at Windridge. They've always been the same thing.

Within the Windridge community, campers discover what trust and respect for others really means. They find confidence in themselves through hard work and competition. They learn to set goals, to handle success with humility and disappointment with grace — lessons that show up everywhere, long after the summer is over.

We keep enrollment at 150 campers per session by choice — because our directors want to know every camper by name, and because camp should feel like a family. That number is a commitment, and one we take seriously.

The founders

Ted Hoehn

Co-founder — Windridge Tennis Camp, 1968

Ted grew up with a racquet in his hand — the son of Dartmouth College tennis and squash coach Red Hoehn. He played his first tournament at age seven and went on to be ranked number one in New England in the 13, 15, and 18-and-under categories. After a stellar collegiate career at the University of North Carolina, playing #2 singles and #1 doubles for the Tar Heels, Ted decided tennis was his life's work.

At 25, Ted was the New England Men's Singles Champion — at a crossroads between pursuing the professional circuit (tennis was just becoming "Open" and offering prize money) and following his father into teaching. When a letter arrived from Alden Bryan in the fall of 1967 proposing a summer tennis camp, Ted didn't hesitate. It was an offer too good to pass up, and a partnership that would shape Vermont summers for generations.

Alden Bryan

Co-founder — Windridge Tennis Camp, 1968

Alden Bryan was a well-known Vermont landscape artist, businessman, and avid tennis player who played on the tennis team while at Harvard. In the mid-1960s, he built the first indoor tennis club in Vermont, along with two outdoor clay courts in Jeffersonville — at the base of what was fast becoming a popular ski destination near Smuggler's Notch.

The courts were packed in winter and quiet all summer — a problem that looked, to Alden, like an opportunity. When he wrote to Ted Hoehn in 1967, he was proposing more than a business partnership. He was laying the foundation for what would become one of Vermont's most beloved summer camps.

How it started

The first summer — Jeffersonville, Vermont, 1968

The first Windridge Tennis Camp opened its doors in June of 1968 — the same year the U.S. Open was founded. Tennis was booming, and the timing could not have been better. Ted assembled a great staff, the food and lodging drew rave reviews, and that first summer attracted 63 campers from across New England.

Within five years, four courts had grown to twenty, six staff members had grown to more than twenty, and demand had far outpaced what the Jeffersonville site could hold. There was simply no more room to grow. It was time to expand — and expand they did.

The Windridge story

1968 - Windridge at Jeffersonville

The original Windridge — a tennis camp at the base of Smuggler's Notch, built on Alden Bryan's indoor club and clay courts. The first summer drew 63 campers. By its fifth year, the camp had outgrown its home entirely, growing from four courts to twenty and from six staff to more than twenty.

Windridge at Jeffersonville ran from 1968 until 1988 — twenty years that established the Windridge name, the Windridge culture, and the Windridge approach to teaching tennis to young people. Everything that came after was built on this foundation.

1974 - Windridge at Craftsbury Common

In 1974, a former all-girls camp on the shores of Lake Hosmer in Craftsbury Common came on the market — thirty miles northeast of Jeffersonville, with gorgeous mountain views and spectacular lake frontage. Bryan and Hoehn saw it immediately for what it was: the perfect expansion. Swimming and sailing joined the program. Fourteen clay courts were added alongside the two hard courts already there.

The property was extraordinary — 26 buildings including an Adirondack-style dining hall, an arts and crafts and theatre building, a boathouse, an infirmary, and 20 sleeping cabins on the lake's shoreline. It made for an idyllic setting, and Craftsbury became an instant hit. The key to its success, alongside its spectacular location, was the hiring of Charley Witherell as camp director — a former Jeffersonville staffer whose love of water sports, charismatic personality, and organizational skills made him the perfect man for the job. His wife Pam, managing the office, communications, and finances, was equally essential. They were a wonderful team.

Windridge at Craftsbury Common operated as a beloved Vermont institution until Ted Hoehn sold the facility in 2010.

1982 - Windridge at Sugarbush

From 1982 to 1985, Windridge operated a third Vermont location in the Sugarbush Valley — expanding the reach of the program into one of Vermont's most scenic regions. The Sugarbush campus offered the same tennis-focused program in a new setting, introducing a new generation of Vermont campers to the Windridge experience. It was a brief but meaningful chapter in the camp's growth across the state.

1984 - Windridge at Teela-Wooket — home

In 1984, with both Jeffersonville and Craftsbury operating at full capacity, Windridge acquired the Teela-Wooket property in Roxbury — a former all-girls horseback riding camp and one of the most remarkable pieces of Vermont real estate a summer camp could ask for. 150 acres. Nearly 100 buildings, about 70 of them sleeping cabins. A spacious dining hall. A beautiful 44-stall barn. A swimming pond. Three recreation buildings. Riding rings and playing fields as far as you could see.

The vision for Teela-Wooket was something new: a camp that combined the horseback riding heritage the property was built around with tennis — Windridge's signature sport — and a team sport that could bring the whole camp together. Soccer was the natural choice: the world's most popular sport, played by boys and girls alike. Tennis, horseback riding, and soccer became the three pillars. Electives were introduced so that friends with different interests could attend together, build their own schedules, and still spend their evenings and cabin time side by side.

In 2021, golf was added as a fourth major — and Teela-Wooket continues to evolve. But the heart of it hasn't changed since that first summer in Roxbury: a place where serious sport and genuine community happen at the same time, in one of the most beautiful corners of Vermont.

Windridge today

More than 55 years in — and still growing

More than five decades after that first summer in Jeffersonville, Windridge continues to welcome campers from across the United States and around the world to the Green Mountains of Vermont. The facilities are bigger and better, the programs are broader, and the staff is exceptional — but the heart of it is exactly what Bryan and Hoehn set out to build in 1968.

A place where young people are encouraged to do well in things they love. Where sport is the vehicle for friendship, confidence, and character. Where every camper is known by name, every summer is someone's best summer, and the memories last a lifetime.

Windridge families are multi-generational. We regularly welcome the children and grandchildren of former campers — people who spent their own summers here and wanted the same for their kids. That continuity is something we're enormously proud of, and something that keeps us honest about what we're building.

The Windridge story is still being written. We're glad you're reading it.