November Aces; Harrisons Sign with IMG
With all the tennis I've seen played since the first of November, it seems like the ITA Indoor in Columbus was months ago, but the winners there lead off my monthly Aces column for the Tennis Recruiting Network.
I recently spoke to Pat Harrison and IMG's Ben Crandell, who now represents the Harrisons, and they confirmed that the brothers have signed with IMG. This unsigned story at juniortennisnews.com was the first public mention of it I've seen.
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6 comments:
Does this mean the Harrison's will have to forfeit a potential collegiate tennis career. If so, this seems like a high risk decision for kids this young.
The Harrison's signing with IMG was already being discussed at the Eddie Herr. It is disappointing that a parent has to make a decision about their child's future at such an early age. The USTA should rethink their High Performance philosophy and instead of wasting money by sending a select group of young players to camps sporadically throughout the year (with limited impact on their overall development), use the money to sponsor these players at tournaments, like other countries' Tennis Federations do. Have you thought about investigating this topic through your blog? I strongly believe this is one reason why the US is falling behind other countries in developing promising players for the future. This topic continues to be ignored by the USTA.
Signing with an agent (IMG) means you are now a pro and future college eligibility is thus eliminated. As far as risk is concered that depends. If his signing is accompanied by a large contract, which is highly likely, it may not be that risky. In most cases such as Harrison's money is usually paid to the player derived from overriding endorsement(s) agreement(s). For what it's worth my guess is he got paid bewtween 500K to 1 million plus expenses to sign.
If he and his parents are smart they can bank the money and pay for college later if things don't work out on the pro tennis tour. Does not seem like a big risk now does it?
I heard it was like $60,000 between both kids, which is a huge amount considering their ages. I would like that, especially with no taxes. But who knows. It could be more.
It is hard to say how much they got for signing. And who know what the incentives are for, qualifying for certain events. winning certain events, attaining certain rankings, etc.? Regardless for them it appears that they are intent on going down the path to trying the pro ranks. This is how many top-ranked young Euros and South Americans go abou their games. In their culture college does not have to happen right after high school like in the U.S. Nothing wrong with that to me. Good luck to them.
I suspect it is probably close to the $60,000 the first blogger calculated. They are excellent junior players, but there is nothing special about them. IMG must be hungry for a hit, so why not take a risk. Hopefully the kids will pan out. There are others coming up through the ranks in the 14-year-old category that may not have had the early splash, but I saw one of them play on Wednesday in California and was blown away by the raw natural talent of this kid. I heard third-hand that he will be at Orange Bowl in the 14s main draw, so we will see how his talent fares. This kid can serve, has extremely solid and consistent ground strokes, and his volleys are a thing of beauty. I have also heard that his parents are not in a hurry and understand that there is a lot more to making a champion than winning early, so he has been developing secretly in my own quiet central valley California town. I am not even sure of his last name, but this kid definitely has the it factor.
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