November 2016 – AUSTIN TENNIS ACADEMY

November SuperChamp Major Zones Academy Highlights

The fabric of junior tennis in Texas is woven with the monthly major zone competitions. Players from across the state in each age division converge on a city to put their hard work on the line.

This past weekend, ATA’s top junior athletes competed in major zone tournaments, with the 16s and 18s playing in the BCS Georgetown Super Champ Level 4 while the 12s and 14s went to Wichita Falls for the Echometer Super Champ Level 4.

In the Boy’s 18s division, Bailey Forgus reached the finals in both Singles and Doubles.

“This was a good step for Bailey into the 18s,” Coach Jack Newman said.

In the 18s A draw, Roger Chou worked his way to a consolation title.

In his first Boy’s 16s A draw singles, Max Schmidhauser earned an encouraging win on his way to the quarters by upsetting the #5 seed (Austin Lee) who is ranked #15 in Texas.

In the girl’s 18s division, Alexandria Mjos won the A draw singles consolation draw by earning 4 wins.

Kristin Kerrigan took home the title in the doubles B draw. Georgia Wright won the singles B consolation division.

In the Boy’s 16s A draw, Juan Abboud went undefeated in doubles to claim the championship crown. Also in 16s, Jack Lum logged a storybook comeback, digging out of a 4-7 hole and a 7-9 hole to win a 10-point tiebreaker.

In Wichita Falls, Denver Holden claimed a spot in the quarterfinals of the singles A draw with 2 straight victories.

“Denver competed extremely well all weekend and got better throughout the event,” Coach Brian Notis said. “His improved serve and ball quality were the keys to his success this weekend.”

Santianna Chrysopoulo won her doubles draw in the girl’s 14s.

“What impressed me the most was her no fear mentality,” Coach Josh Rifkin said. “Staying aggressive and going for shots to always keep pressure on her opponents.”

Check back here for more tournament results. Many more ATA athletes were in action this weekend in the National Open.

4 Qualify for Champs and 2 Qualify for Superchamps!

Over the last couple of months, ATA has had 4 players qualify for champs. ATA’s youngest academy players Jacob Golden and Lucas Riezebeek qualified for boys 12s. While, Sarah Schaal G14 and Alex Sheddan B16 also both qualified.

Savannah Baptiste and Keana Moon won the Girls 14’s doubles CMZ and qualified for superchamps and earned some ice cream!

Congratulations to all the players!

Designed Learning Experiences – Surprising Stoichiometry

ATA College Prep instructors strive to develop dynamic and stimulating content that is relevant to each student. Learning experiences are designed to engage students through information while adding intellectual, creative, emotional, and physical layers. Focusing on the goals of opening students’ minds and equipping them with the tools to succeed academically, lessons address the HOW and WHY of each learning activity in addition to the WHAT. This article is the first in a series titled Designed Learning Experiences and will feature unique activities that take place within the CP classrooms.

In example, the students in Mr. Rutherford’s Chemistry class use “stoichiometry” (quantitative chemistry) to predict the amount of baking soda needed to fully neutralize a certain amount of vinegar.

Mr. Rutherford explains, “The kids did the math and then tried measuring in the amount of baking soda they predicted (Alex added it so quickly that the fizz overflowed)… and found, to their surprise, that they had predicted way, way more baking soda than necessary because they didn’t realize that “vinegar” is really mostly water and contains only a small amount of acetic acid (the active ingredient).”

Using skills of analysis, prediction, experimentation and calculation, students adjusted their math for the observed revelation, tried again, and correctly predicted the amount of baking soda that would complete the process.

“An important piece of teaching the sciences is surprise,” explained Mr. Rutherford. “By the time kids are in secondary school, they already feel like they have a pretty good intuitive sense of how the world works. Experiments and demonstrations in which something surprising happens shake them out of their complacency and allow them to feel a little wonder and mystery, which is the motivation for studying science. It’s also very satisfying for them to resolve the mystery and incorporate new information into an updated worldview, which is a decent summary of the scientific process.”

Check back in the coming weeks for more examples of the Designed Learning Experiences at ATA College Prep.

Dwayne Hultquist Visits ATA

Dwayne Hultquist Head Men’s Coach at Florida State University for the pasted 17 years visited ATA on Tuesday. He talked to the academy about what he looks for when he recruits. Recruiting is not always based on results and skill but the athlete’s character and will they fit in with the team. He talked about perks from being a college athlete (food, laundry, and equipment). What a great opportunity for academy players to receive direct info and get a chance to ask questions about college tennis from one of the most elite college coaches!

November David Benzel Webinar and Article

David Benzel’s latest article, “Is Your Child Fearful or Fearless?” is on teaching kids to have faith rather than putting them in fear of making mistakes. Teaching children with fear basically makes them into an obedient puppet rather than a responsible citizen. Click here to read more.

Join for the webinar on Thursday Nov 17th at 8:00pm “What Your Child Needs to Succeed – Ten Life-Changing Strategies.”

Click here to sign up