Juniors May Earn $10K Per Year and Keep NCAA Eligibility; Small College Super Bowl Champions; Collarini Returns to Argentina; Mylan Smash Hits Tuesday Features Townsend and Crawford
I am embarrassed to say that I didn't know this by now, but thanks to Lisa Stone at Parenting Aces, I learned last week that the NCAA proposal allowing juniors to earn $10,000 per year in prize money while still maintaining their amateur status was approved back in late April and is now in effect.
First proposed back in 2007, the rule change, according to the synopsis posted on the ITA's website, permits collecting prize money under these circumstances:
In tennis, prior to full-time collegiate enrollment, an individual may accept up to $10,000 per calendar year in prize money based on his or her place finish or performance in open athletics events (events that are not invitation only). Such prize money may be provided only by the sponsor of an open event in which the individual participates. Once the individual has reached the $10,000 limit in a particular year, he or she may receive additional prize money on a per-event basis, provided such prize money does not exceed the individual's actual and necessary expenses for participation in the event. The calculation of actual and necessary expenses shall not include the expenses or fees of anyone other than the individual (e.g, coach's fees or expenses, parent's expenses).
The ITA website also provides a complete list of the changes, some of which are clarifications regarding recruiting visits, calls, what and how much the institution can pay for. Another gray area has always been "sponsorship," but it appears that as long as the player isn't sponsored by an agent, a school, or a booster, the potential student-athlete can be provided with funds for travel expenses, etc. by a business or "angel."
Anyone with an interest in college tennis should read this document, and I apologize for not posting it this spring, when these decisions were made.
The small college champions who won the annual Super Bowl in Mobile, Alabama Sunday will play in New York next month as members of the elite 32-player draws at the USTA/ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. Barbora Krtickova of Armstrong Atlantic will play in both the singles and doubles draws, the latter with Aleksandra Filipovski. The men's Super Bowl winner is Adrien Berkowicz of Tyler Junior College. The team of Georgi Rumenov and Daniel Reagan of Armstrong Atlantic won men's overall doubles title to earn their place in New York. Full draws from each of the eight divisions can be found at the ITA tournament page.
I first heard over the weekend from the Running Forehand blog that Andrea Collarini, who had played under the US flag for more than two years, including at 2010's US Open Junior Championships, will return to playing for Argentina, where he grew up and developed prior to receiving a USTA grant for training in Boca Raton. For more on Collarini's initial switch to the US, see this Newsday article from September of 2010. For another article (in Spanish) on his current decision, click here.
The big annual Billie Jean King/Elton John Smash Hits fundraiser for AIDS charities is tomorrow night in Pittsburgh, with world junior No. 1 Taylor Townsend and US Open girls champion Samantha Crawford taking part. Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi, Stefanie Graf, Andy Roddick, Martina Navratilova and Christina McHale are among the pros participating in the event, which has raised over ten million dollars since 1993. The exhibition will feature a World Team Tennis format competition, with Anna Kournikova and former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris serving as celebrity coaches. For more information on all participants, see this release. And if you can't attend, you can watch for free via live streaming from the WTT website.
12 comments:
Since you have been confirmed to be a pro USTA homer I (and many others) will abstain from commenting on your little blog. Your tendencies to censor critical comments have been duly noted...
Collette - don't feel compelled to post inane comments from people like this. Waste of space and time.. thanks for all the great and balances info on junior and college tennis!
Collarini leaving and going back to his home country is exactly what is wrong with USTA Player Development. They spend huge amounts of money recruiting foreign players and their coaches to come and play for the US at the expense of more deserving AMERICAN players. And then after these foreign players don't get what they demand, they tell the USTA to stick it and head back to their home countries.
@tennisforlife
I don't post them all, just once in a while so everyone is aware that I do get them. I took the bait on this one.
Collette - given your confirmed status as a USTA homer :) perhaps you could follow up with PD and find out whether the USTA is being compensated by Argentina or Collarini for what i imagine must have been a substantial amount of resources provided to him? Would be interesting.
Sad to see Collarini leave. This has happened to the USTA on numerous occasions. We can only hope that the others players learned and grew from playing with him, because we certainly invested a lot in him.
What is wrong with USTA Player Development is the amount of foreign coaches on staff. It is no surprise with this new regime that all the American coaches have left. Fire the people hiring the foreign coaches and go back to hiring American coaches. It is embarrassing and hurting the culture of American Tennis. Tom Gullikson and Lynne Rolley ran the best USTA program.
The Andrea Collarini was a disgrace from the start. He is only an average player which took tons of money and wildcards away from deserving American Players.
Did Andrea Collarini give back the thousands of dollars in wildcards and grant money like Alex Bogomolov had to do?
Player Development should also go back to Supplemental Coaching and let the private coaches do the work - that is when American Tennis was dominate.
This news made me laugh, was there ever a doubt he would go back to Argentina?
So when that kid Berman decided to go and play for Australia this blog was full of people who wanted to roast him and the Aussies. But when we do the same thing there isn't a peep? Come on y'all, can't have it both ways. The USTA tries to buy players worse than any other country in the world; face the facts.
Oh, and all those imbeciles who squeal about foreign players and foreign coaches in college, YOU are showing exactly the kind of losers mentality that is ruining our kids. YOU are the reason why we're not the best in the world any longer because YOU think that the world owes you something and YOU pass that sense of entitlement along to the kids. If our kids want to play Div 1 college tennis then they need to prove they've got the game. Why should they get a free pass just because they're American? All that does is make them complacent and accepting of mediocrity. If they aren't the best, they don't get to play, simple as that and there couldn't be any better lesson to learn than that everything you get you earn.
Dear Mr. Carl Anger,
You state that we have a "sense of entitlement" about Americans playing college tennis.
There are many high quality academic universities that are STATE UNIVERSITIES.
A student needs a very high GPA to get in and excellent SATS.
You receive a private education at a public price.
Why you ask?
The taxpayers of the state are supporting the university with their hard earned tax payer $$$$$$.
However. many 4 star players from the state can not play on the mens college tennis team as it is all foreigners.
Martin,
Your post seems to bolster the entitlement claim. Most "Four Star" recruits are not producing a high level. They are "rated" that way by a business that has a significant incentive to create the illusion of four starts as entitled to benefits for playing a high level. (high level being a contributor on a top D1 top 25 team or individually reaching top 200 ITA) A small % of four stars ever reach this level and smaller % still play this level as a freshman.
Just to clarify, non revenue sports at state schools are not funded by tax payer money. Their education might be, but the sport itself is not supported by the state. That being said, a limit for foreign players should be looked at further.
Post a Comment