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Friday, November 12, 2010

National Junior Tennis Conference Next Weekend in Chicago; Eddie Herr, Orange Bowl Acceptances; Bangoura Returns Home for Collegiate Clay Courts

Now in its 14th year, the annual National Junior Tennis Conference put together by Care Academy's Junior Development Coach Mark Bey is schedule for November 19-21 at the Libertyville and Lincolnshire clubs in suburban Chicago. My schedule has permitted me to attend only once, back in 2005, but I found it to be a fascinating three days of competition, drills and information exchange.

Bey has again assembled some of the top minds in player development for his conference, including many Division I college coaches, such as Notre Dame's Bobby Bayliss, TCU's David Roditi, Alabama's Billy Pate, Boise State's Greg Patton, and Georgia Tech's Bryan Shelton. Kent Kinnear, a former touring professional who is now a USTA National Coach, is among the presenters, as is current ATP professional Rajeev Ram. Jeff Smith, who coaches Brooke Austin and other top juniors in Indianapolis, will be there, as will Sylvain Guichard, the former Mississippi State coach who has been working with the Redlicki brothers. Marcia Frost, who spoke at the Eastern section College Showcase in New York last weekend, will also be speaking at the NJTC again this year.

The conference has a facebook page and a website with more details. Whether you're a coach, a parent or a young player, you'll gain valuable information and contacts at the conference.

The acceptances for the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl tournaments have been released, in various places.

The entry lists for the 18s at Eddie Herr are on the tournament's ITF junior website page. Neither Daria Gavrilova nor Denis Kudla will be defending their singles titles, but nine Top 20 girls, including the U.S.'s Lauren Davis, are entered, as well as five Top 20 boys.

The acceptance lists for the Eddie Herr 12s, 14s, and 16s are available via pdf file at eddieherr.com. New this year is qualifying for 12s, which have not had a qualifying tournament previously.

The Orange Bowl 18s acceptance lists can also be found at the ITF junior site. Gavrilova, the top-ranked junior, is entered as are the other top four junior girls: Irina Khromacheva of Russia, French Open girls champion Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and Monica Puig of Puerto Rico. The top three boys, Juan Sebastian Gomez of Colombia, Wimbledon boys champion Marton Fucsovics of Hungary and Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic, are also on the entry list.

The 16s acceptance lists for the Orange Bowl can be found at the usta.com page devoted to the tournament. Christina Makarova, Kyle McPhillips and Catherine Harrison are playing the 16s, as are Maxx Lipman, Thai Kwiatkowski and Mackenzie McDonald.

The fall college season is winding down, but there are a few individual tournaments left, including this weekend's MetLife Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic in Bradenton. Mic Huber of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune posted this story on Florida Gator Sekou Bangoura Jr.'s return to Lakewood Ranch, where he grew up.

3 comments:

justcurious said...

Saw Bangoura's fall schedule, hard to imagine when he actually has time to attend classes at UF. Just curious if the NCAA has any rules about class attendance or can college athletes take online courses in order to pursue their sport. Anyone know the answer?

Frank said...

The NCAA has a minimum number of credits that you need to take inorder to be academically eligible to play. That being said, many schools have lots of online classes, but they also have many really easy classes that you can take. These require very little brain power and may not get you closer to a degree. The athletic academic advisors know exactly which classes fall into this category. Although this may not be the case, many coaches regard their players as "athlete students" and not "student athletes."

Tim OBrien said...

You can download the NCAA Manual at http://www.ncaapublications.com/p-3934-2009-2010-ncaa-division-i-manual.aspx. Article 14 covers Academic requirements and i think 14.4.3.4.18 specifically answers your question. At any rate it is an interesting read and the basis for the coach’s annual recruiting test.