As in prior years, the tournament has been organized by a group of Polish-American sports fans associated with the Riverdale Tennis of New York and the Polish American Golf Association (PAGA). The origins of the tournament go back to 1998, when Arthur Bobko came forth with the idea, securing support of a number of Florida sports aficionados. Those supporters included Andrzej Skora, Andrzej Misona, Marek Czarnecki and Krzysztof Knop.

The first tournament was played in 2001 and it’s most popular side attraction was a golf competition organized by the current president of PAGA, Mr. Paul Gasior. The event was enthusiastically received by both players and sponsors. Since then PAGA under the Chair of Pawel Gasior decided to ho host the annual golf tournament along side tennis. PAGA has a great deal of experience not only in organizing the Polonia Open but many other just as important tournaments such as POLSAT CUP or PENN CLASSIC. The Polonia Open has proven to be one of the best organized sports events of the Polish American Community. This statement can be supported by the fact that PAGA received the recognition from the Olympic Committee of Poland for the propagation of Polish sports activities around the world. 
As the number of participants rose, the group of organizers was augmented by Mr. Mark Kwoka, currently residing in West Palm Beach. A devoted volleyball player and activist, he is well known in the Polish-American sports circles. It is expected that the event will attract even more active supporters in the coming years.
It is the hope of the organizers that the success of the tournament contributes to the foundation of a Polish-American Sports Center in Florida, which would benefit both Polish Americans and sportspeople from Poland. Everyone interested in such venture is requested to contact the organizers of Polonia Open Tournament.

PAGA :
tel: 718-389-8536
e-mail: eagle@paga2000.com
http://www.paga2000.com/

Riverdale Tennis:
tel: 941-544-4778
e-mail: adbobko@bellatlantic.net
http://www.rtctennis.com/

Mark Kwoka:
tel: 561-452-1439
e-mail: philmarka@aol.com

Artur Bobko - The tournament's prime architect has been active as a certified tennis coach for over 13 years. He is also an owner of a prestigious tennis center in Riverdale, which directly borders the northern tip of Manhattan. Riverdale Tennis has hosted a number of excellent tennis players, like for instance Agata Ciroch (currently the best US female collegiate player) or Monika Schnajder and Joanna Sakowicz (both leading female tennis players in Poland). Among sports celebrities befriended by the Center was Mr. Wladyslaw Komar, an Olympic shot put champion, who represented Poland in the 1972 Olympic Games. For the past couple of seasons, Arthur has been the head tennis coach of an outstanding Manhattan College team (http://www.manhattan.edu/).

Pawel Gasior - a sports enthusiast, golf and tennis player, founder and chairmen  of  Polish American Golf Association, contributes without regret an enormous amount of his free time in everything that has to do with sports and especially golf.

Mark Kwoka - golf and tennis player, former player and manager of the Polish American Volleyball Club in Brooklyn NY, US Open Volleyball Champion in 1996 in Dallas with Hubert Wagner as a honorary coach.

Henry Lajca - the secretary and co-founder of Polish American Golf Association,  USGA Handicap Club Chairman for the last several years. He is a banker so numbers and rules are his passion as well as his profession. Thanks to Henry the technical part of the competition runs always as smoothly as anywhere.

The organizers and Sponsors of the tournament with ŻYWIEC in the lead are inviting all to take part in this 7th Polonia Open!

The promotion of the tournament has been awarded to OS3-Interset Group, a multinational advertising-multimedia company specializing in creating and implementing advertising campaigns, design and production of Internet portals and multimedia presentations. The Group has created all promotional materials for the tournament, including this website.

Henry Lajca & Paul Gasior with PKOL Award