It is amazing to sit back and think about what the SCTA and Junior Tennis have accomplished already in the short duration of 2017. It’s equally fun to consider what lies ahead for the remainder of the year. Our team focus is to continue to work on many different areas within the junior tennis structure, most notably on team events, innovation, and sportsmanship.
Throughout May, teams were finalized for most Zonal, Intersectional and National Boys and Girls 18s teams for the summer events in our section and across the nation, to be held during July and August.
The Woody Hunt Level 2 Sectional that takes place at the end of May will fill the last two spots for both the 14s and 16s Intersectional events, coached by Gary Victor and Dave Nowick. Those teams will head off to Auburn, Alabama and Shreveport, Louisiana to compete against the other 16 sections within the USTA.
Sectionals will play a big part in the final selections for our Boys and Girls 18s teams, as both finalists will receive automatic bids to the team competitions in Champaign, Illinois and Claremont, California. These teams will be coached by Debbie Shafer and Trevor Kronemann.
Other team events in our section will be the CIF Boys Championships (Claremont), Junior Team Tennis Spring Season Sectional Championships (Long Beach), and the CTC Cup (Claremont).
The Jim Buck Level 1 team event structure will be changing over with a boy and girl from each age division 12s-18s. The selection will be made based on the Sectional Standing List, plus a ‘waterfall’ method with UTR to make up the 16 teams. Points will be awarded on a team finish basis. You must complete the entire event in order to receive your team points.
Along with the Jim Buck team event, the Junior Competition Committee has approved a clay court event at Racket Club of Irvine, in order to give the juniors an opportunity to get quality match play before heading off to the Clay Court Nationals. This will hopefully increase our participation to fill our quota spots for national competition. Surprisingly, Southern California has not filled its quota spots in years, leaving important National Ranking points on the court. With it’s points-based structure, the game on green clay needs only a brief learning curve and transition period, and is not that much different from traditional hardcourts.
We look forward to crowning many Team and Individual champions over the next couple of months and continue our focus on Innovation and Sportsmanship from Youth Progression to College Tennis. Best of luck to all our athletes as they represent TEAM SO CAL!