A group of ATA College Prep and Academy student-athletes recently returned from a trip that began with a tour of multiple college campuses and finished with a College Showcase in front of dozens of top coaches.

ATA CEO Jack Newman led the group and served his standard role as grand maestro of the college placement and recruiting process for each ATA player throughout.

“Visiting college campuses allows the ATA students a chance to get a feel for the campus, meet the team and coaches, while giving them perspective to compare other schools against,” said Newman. “The major positive is that these kids become real people to the coaches, rather than a name and a ranking.”

The group visited Wesleyan University, Amherst College, Vassar College and Yale University, which also hosted the showcase.

“On a visit you can fall in love with the campus, or the city and decide that that is school you want to go to,” said ATA College Prep Junior Annika Pandey. “When visiting you get an overall feel of what life would be like as a student there, and that can make or break your decision to attend that school.”

The college showcase itself is designed to give student athletes a chance to compete in front of the top college coaches and academic schools in the country.

“Playing in front of coaches is always a lot of fun for me, you get to demonstrate how hard you’ve worked since the last time they saw you, and you get to showcase the type of energy and competitiveness you would bring to a college team,” said ATA College Prep Senior Alejandro Rodriguez. “I also had a lot of fun hanging out with my teammates at the showcase- I think college coaches took note of how close knit our group was and it speaks to the culture of the ATA program.”

Entrants play 3 singles matches against players of similar level and 2 doubles matches with a random partner.

“I really enjoyed playing good doubles in front of the Dartmouth and Brown coaches, and talking to the Harvard, Cornell, Pomona and Johns Hopkins coaches, among others, after the showcase,” said Pandey. “I also liked hanging out with my ATA teammates in between matches, and having them cheer me on when I played, and when I cheered them on when they played.”

While the student-athletes are doing their best on the court to present themselves as desirable recruits, according to them, the most unrelenting, hardest working member of the trip didn’t hit one ball.

“Coach Newman is the driving force in his players’ college processes,” said Pandey. “He is extremely skilled at his job, and I actually really like watching him talk to college coaches while selling his players. He knows everyone and everyone knows him and regards him with the utmost respect. I truly believe there is no one better than him to help me in my college process. The entire showcase he was talking to me about how to talk to coaches, and introducing me to coaches, hunting them down for me and talking to them about me. I remember after I played my last match, Coach Newman and I went on a mission around the Yale courts for all the schools that are on my list and he knew all of the coaches and introduced me to all of them, effortlessly. I think what makes him good at the college process is his relentless pursuit. From the beginning of the showcase to the end he kept talking to me about getting on Harvard’s radar, and Dartmouth’s radar, which did happen by the end of the showcase, thanks to him. He talked about hunting down the Princeton coach for me the entire showcase, with unrelenting perseverance. He will stop at nothing to sell his players to the schools they want to go to.”

Alejandro echoed Annika’s sentiment about Coach Newman’s leadership.

“Coach Newman is probably the best coach in the country when it comes to placing players at the schools they are dying to go to. He always had at least 5-7 coaches watching everyone’s matches, explaining to them who you are both as a player and a person, and helping to bridge that gap between the player and the coach. He is invaluable because his word has a lot of weight with coaches all around the country, allowing him to really bring ATA players into their radar. There are so many good players out there, but Coach Newman helps you stand out as a player, person, and recruit. So many times I heard coaches say, “we love ATA players”, and he knows exactly how to use that reputation to get the coaches you want recruiting you.”

For Newman, he is not only vigorously working on behalf of each of the players currently on the trip, but also all future ATA players who will soon be in that position.

“It’s very valuable for all the players at ATA, not just the ones who come on the trip because I am constantly talking to coaches about all of our players,” Newman said. “ATA has a very good track record of placing leaders at college tennis programs, coaches know ATA and more specifically they know me very well. My goal has been to build a stellar reputation with college coaches so that my credibility with them is impeccable. That way I can be an honest advocate for our students and help coaches make good decisions in their recruiting process.  ATA players are highly sought after by college coaches because of the record of the leadership our students have shown in the past.”

Historically, ATA players have gone on to serve as Captain of over 25 college teams – a number this group and many others are looking to add to soon.