Four times a year, the best junior tennis players in the United Sates gather to compete in the highest level of tournament available to USTA players.  Level 1 Nationals, or Super Nationals, have a very prestigious history and many famous participants.  A few notable participants in past events include John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Andy Roddick.  The host cities for Super Nationals are spread out across the country, and due to the number of players, different age groups often go to different cities.  For the Boys 18’s division the Spring Nationals are held in Mobile, Alabama, National Clay Courts are in Delray Beach, Florida, National Hard Courts are in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Winter Nationals are in Scottsdale, Arizona.  This past week Coach Newman accompanied four Austin Tennis Academy players to compete in the Spring Nationals.  The players were Jeff Offerdahl, Hunter Goertz, Aaron Chaffee, and myself.  Trips to tournaments of this calibre are always great, and I could not have asked for a better group of guys to travel with.

 

 

Day 1: Travel

 

     There is no better way to start off a trip than by having to get up at 4:15 in the morning in order to make a 6 A.M. flight...  Who am I kidding, it was horrible.  I would be lying if I said that everybody going on the trip, besides Coach Newman, didn’t complain at least five times the night before and several more times the next day.  It felt like I was sleep walking all the way to Mobile.  The other guys weren’t feeling much better either.

 Because we took off from Austin before the sun rose, we landed in Mobile at around 11:00.  The rest of our day was pretty simple.  Grab lunch on the way to the hotel, check in to our rooms, go for a nice light practice to get rid of any lingering lethargy from our trip and get a feel for the courts, head back to the hotel, order some room service, and in bed by 7:30.  Yes, that’s right 7:30.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody fall asleep as fast as Hunter did that first night in the hotel.

Day 2: Training and Check-In

          This was the day when everything was really going to get started.  We woke up fairly early so that we could have a nice relaxed breakfast at Waffle House (a place we would be visiting very often for the rest of the trip) before we went to the site for our first practice of the day.  We were joined by Coach Mark Bey from Chicago and one of his players.  We had a routine practice consisting mainly of drop and hit games and tie-breaker rotations.  Hunter had a very interesting experience that morning.  Very early on in the hit, he broke the strings in the last racket he had strung.  He had dropped off two of his rackets to be strung the day before, but the pro shop had not yet opened for the day. So, unfortunately for him, he had to sit out the practice.  The whole event earned him the title of Rookie of the tournament, courtesy of Coach Bey.

     After our first practice, we had a quick lunch before heading back to the hotel for a quick rest.  Our second practice of the day was all about points.  Our whole focus was to make sure that we worked out any last minute kinks in our game, and make sure we were ready to compete the next day.  After our hit we had to go officially check-in for the tournament.  Checking-in for a big tournament like this is one of my favorite parts of the whole event.  It is a great feeling to be surrounded by the best players in the country and know that you are a part of the group.  A unique part about this check-in, was that every player had to give a short interview in front of a camera.  In the interview, each player had to give their name, hometown, and either say which college they had committed to or if they were undecided.  After we had all finished the check in process and received our match times for the following day, we got back in the car and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Day 3: Tournament Day 1

     This was it.  This was the day that we had been preparing for since the end of the last tournament.  Luckily for us, the first match of the day for our group was at 10, which meant that we wouldn’t have to wake up really early.  After getting up and heading to Waffle House for breakfast, we had a comfortable warm up on one of the 60 courts at Mobile Tennis Center before we walked over to the tournament desk and waited for Aaron to go on.  Slowly but surely we all eventually got onto the the court and played our matches.  Unfortunately, Jeff was the only player from ATA in the winner’s column on day 1.  Aaron played a very competitive match against a very accomplished player.  He had some opportunities that he could’ve taken advantage of, but overall played a quality match.  Out of our group of players, I had the longest match of the day.  My match was very physical and over the course of the first two sets, which we split, I had him broken down physically.  Unfortunately, a new rule in the USTA this year is that 18’s now must take a mandatory 10 break between second and third sets.  These 10 minutes gave my opponent enough chance to recover and play a much better third set.  Like Aaron, I had my chances that I didn’t take advantage of, but still played a good match.  I didn’t get to see any of Hunter’s match because he played at the same time as I did, but from what I was told, he also played a very competitive match.  I only got to see a small amount of Jeff’s match, but what I saw was vintage Jeff Offerdahl.  He was neutralizing his opponents big shots, and attacking anytime he was given a short ball.  It was by no means a blow out, but it wasn’t an easy win either.  Doubles went much more to our liking.  Jeff and Aaron absolutely dominated their opponents, in a quick victory.  Hunter was paired with another player at the tournament who did not have a partner.  They played quality opponents and Hunter play well, but unfortunately he lost his second match of the day.  I was the last one to get off the court with a comfortable win against some big serving opponents.  While we all may not have had the results we were looking for that day, as a whole we competed very well.

Day 4: Tournament Day 2

     After a good nights sleep, we woke up and started the process all over again.  Tennis players tend to be creatures of habit, so when we go on trips like this one, we like to keep everything a repetitive as possible.  So, just like the day before, we started things off with a trip to Waffle House.  After an interesting breakfast, which included a slight confrontation with our waitress over a burnt waffle, we headed to the site to warm up.  Aaron was once again starting us off at 10.  As soon as the match started, we could tell that Aaron would be getting his first singles win at a Super National.  From the first point, he was all over his opponent and never let up.  Aaron played some solid, aggressive tennis and got off the court with a quick win.  Jeff, Hunter and myself all went on at about the same time so I can’t really say too much about their matches.  Jeff lost, but from what I heard his opponent played some of his best tennis and as always, Jeff competed his hardest all the way to the very last shot.  I played a solid match against a fairly aggressive opponent.  After having to go to a tie-breaker, I was able to pull out the first set and from there won the match relatively easily.  Hunter, after being down a set and 2-5, battled back to force a second set tie-breaker but fell just short of sending the match to a third set.  Doubles on this day would be very interesting.  Jeff and Aaron would be facing the number 1 seeds, while my partner and I played the number 9 seeds.  I went on court right after Jeff and Aaron had won the first set.  I heard that it was a very exciting match, which ended up with Jeff and Aaron pulling off the upset in the third set.  I had a very similar match.  My partner and I got down 5-2 in the first set, but battled back to take it in a tie-breaker.  We lost the second set, and went into a third set tie-breaker.  After going back and forth throughout the tie-breaker, our opponent hit a couple of unbelievable shots to win the match.  While it was not the result we wanted, we played some good doubles and were looking forward to singles the next day.

An interesting side note, when we walked into the facility that day, we saw a man we had never seen before wearing one of our shirts.  Free advertisement, gotta love it.

Day 5: Tournament Day 3

     It was down to just Jeff, Aaron and I.  All in the back draw, as of this day consolation would be two matches a day for the rest of the event.  All three of us played at 8:30 so we got up and headed to Waffle House (4th day in a row) and were served by the same waitress who had been assigned to our table the previous morning.  She was not very happy to see us again.  After another quality breakfast from our favorite place, we headed to the site to prepare for our matches.  Once again, Jeff would be the one in the winner’s column for the day.  Both Aaron and I competed well, but were rather impatient in our matches.  We both and were out of singles much sooner than we would have liked.  Jeff’s match was very exciting.  After splitting the first two sets, the third set tie-breaker was a battle.  At 8-9 in the tiebreaker, Jeff saved a match point and then went on to win it 13-11.  Although disappointment clung in the air, we could not let it affect our moods too much, because Jeff still had another match to play.  We ate a quick lunch and went right back to the site for Jeff’s match.  Jeff’s opponent played a solid match, and put up a good fight, but in the end Jeff was just too solid for him.  WIth two singles win under his belt for the day, it was time to move on to doubles.  Jeff and Aaron would be taking on one of Jeff’s future Vanderbilt teammates and a player who had committed to Cornell University earlier in the year.  It was a hard fought match, but unfortunately for us Jeff and Aaron could not pull it out and ended up going down in straight sets.

Day 6: Tournament Day 4

     By this point in the trip, I could describe everybody with one word; tired.  We were exhausted.  We had been on the road for almost a week and had been competing at the highest level of USTA tennis for three days.  While Aaron, Hunter and I could just drag ourselves around all morning Jeff had to get ready to play his match.  Jeff played a solid match, but his opponent played some incredible tennis, hitting big forehands and even bigger serves throughout the match.  It was a very close match, but in the end Jeff’s opponent got the better of him.  With that loss, ATA was officially out of the Spring Nationals.  By the time Jeff was finished it was still only about 10:30, so we decided to go back to the hotel, shower, and go have some fun.  Well, lets just say that after all that tennis, our definition of fun was very simple....

Sleep,

Sleep,

And more sleep.

     After everybody’s respective naps, we spent the rest of the day at the movies.

Day 7: Spring Break

     Waking up the next morning, we decided that since we were all out of the tournament we wanted to do something fun.  After a good bit of planning, we decided that we were going to ask Coach Newman if he could drive us to Pensacola Beach, which was only about an hour away from our hotel.  Coach agreed, and we were off to “get tan” as Jeff put it.  We had a great time at the beach.  The sand was white, water was blue, sun was shining, it was the perfect day.  What made our trip to the beach even more enjoyable was the fact that it was St. Patrick’s Day, and there were lots of people on the beach who were celebrating it whole heartedly.  To say that they provided us with a good bit of entertainment would be a gross understatement.  Some of the more celebratory people we the source of some great laughs that day.  After a long day of basking in the sunlight and just having a good time we finally decided to head back to the hotel to get some sleep.  We had an early flight the next morning.

Day 8: Travel

     It was nice to finally be headed home, but I was a little sad that the trip was over.  I was having a great time, and I’m sure the other guys were as well.  Unfortunately for us, the flight home was just as early as the flight we took to get to Mobile.  After all of the excitement from the week we were exhausted during the trip home, and as you can see, Jeff and Hunter certainly took advantage of their time on the plane to make up for some of the sleep they lost that morning.

    

     There is nothing like traveling to a Super National.  We got to compete against some of the best players in the country and support my teammates while they did the same.  We spent a relaxed day at the movies and even got to spend an afternoon on a beach in Florida.  Other than having us all win a few more matches, there isn’t a thing that I would change about the trip.  We all had a great time, and I know that we are all looking forward to the next trip.