college process – AUSTIN TENNIS ACADEMY

ATA PLAYERS SIGNING TO PLAY COLLEGIATE TENNIS

One of the most significant events in a junior tennis player’s career is their Signing Ceremony, and there are two ATA seniors we will be celebrating this coming Thursday, February 15.

Ross Cockrell will be signing to play tennis at Colorado College in Colorado Springs in the fall and Tucker Taylor will head to Roger Williams University in Rhode Island to begin his college tennis career.

We’re proud of the work and dedication these two have put in necessary to realize their dreams of playing collegiate tennis, and we hope you’ll join us for their Signing Ceremony. There will be speeches, lots of laughs, even a few tears shed, and of course, cake.

Join the celebration Thursday at 6:00 pm at Austin Tennis Academy.

ATA COLLEGE PREP INDUCTS INAUGURAL NHS MEMBERS

2023 marks the inaugural year of the ATA College Prep Chapter of the National Honor Society, and with that comes the induction of its first and founding members. The National Honor Society is one of the oldest, largest, and most widely recognized co-curricular student organizations in American high schools.

The induction ceremony will recognize eight students as founding members of ATA College Prep’s NHS Chapter, joining more than 1.4 million students across the country who are members of the NHS. ATA College Prep NHS inductees include: Cole Kilian, Fate MacAlasdair, Michael Malyshev, Aya Manning, Marcus McWilliams, Riley Mueller, Caiden Riebold, and Jonathan Seder.

Membership in local NHS chapters, such as ATA College Prep, is an honor bestowed upon a student by a Faculty Council and is based on the four pillars of NHS: scholarship, character, leadership, and service. Once selected, members have the responsibility to continue to demonstrate these qualities.

The purpose the NHS is to create enthusiasm for scholarship, to stimulate a desire to render service, to promote leadership, and to develop character in the students of secondary schools.

FORMER ATA COACH RECEIVES TOP COLLEGIATE HONOR

In her 5th year as head coach of Brown’s Women’s Tennis team, Lucie Schmidhauser has been named Ivy League Coach of the Year. The award was announced following a vote of the league’s eight head coaches.

“Lucie Schmidhauser is one of the best college coaches in America; not just the best women’s coach, one of the best coaches period,” said Jack Newman, Owner/CEO of Austin Academy. “This will not be the last time she wins Coach of the Year.” Prior to joining Brown University as an assistant coach back in 2017, Schmidhauser worked at the Austin Tennis Academy, where she was a founding member and long-time coach.

This season, Schmidhauser led the Bears to an 18-7 overall record, the best overall winning percentage in the league this season, as well as a runner-up finish in Ivy play with a 6-1 record. The Bears currently sit at No. 72 in the ITA Division I Women’s National Team Ranking.

Congratulations Coach Schmidhauser!

ATA FEATURED ON YAHOO!FINANCE

The vision, practices and results for junior players attending Austin Tennis Academy and ATA College Prep are discussed in an online article published today, December 15, on Yahoo!Finance.

Click here to read the article.

YOU’RE INVITED

Signing Ceremonies, at Austin Tennis Academy, are a rite of passage for our junior tennis players ~ a milestone signifying a major goal has been accomplished after years of hard work. On Wednesday, Nico Jamison, will officially sign his letter of intent to play D1 college tennis at Cleveland State University. His signing ceremony is the first for ATA of the 2022-23 school year.

Jamison’s signing ceremony will be held at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, November 9, at ATA. There will be guest speakers, plenty of laughs, a few tears, lots of inspiration, and of course cake.

ATA Players Commit To Play College Tennis

One of the most significant events in a junior tennis player’s career is their Signing Ceremony, and there are two ATA seniors we will be celebrating this coming Monday, January 10.

Neha Dania will be signing to play college tennis at the University of Rochester,

and Devan Sabapathy will be heading to NYU for his college tennis career.

Join the celebration Monday at 6:30 pm on Court 6 at Austin Tennis Academy.

Commendation for ATA College Prep Student Athlete

For the second year in a row, ATA College Prep student Sasha Malysheva is being recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program. She received a commendation for being one of the 50,000 highest-scoring students in the country on the PSAT.

Train Your Brain Sessions Begin In June

Looking for ways to keep your child engaged over the summer? ATA College Prep can help with our Train Your Brain Summer Sessions being offered at CP which include several enrichment and refresher courses. Whether your child is looking to get ahead, strengthen foundational skills, or keep their mind engaged during the summer days, ATACP will feed their love of learning.

As with all ATACP courses, they are taught by inspirational and dedicated expert instructors. Classes are limited in size (2-6 students). Each class is $350 for a 4-week, 8-hour session. Offerings vary each session. In addition to these small group sessions, individual tutoring is available in all academic subjects (subject to teacher availability and scheduling). * Note that session dates may vary slightly depending on student registration.

T o see the full schedule of classes for both Enrichment Sessions, simply click here. To register for any of the courses, email Carol Hagar, Head of School, @ carol.hagar@austintennisacademy.com and be sure to include your child’s name, session(s), days, and time in your email.

ATA College Prep Student Commended

Every year, more than 4.5 million high school juniors take the PSAT which enters them into the National Merit Scholarship program, a national academic competition for high school students to provide financial aid to attend college. ATA College Prep student Sasha Malysheva is one of less than 5{37ef6ac642fae6f93f343032eb62785d28fa7a25a4a4f0267a12512c541c53a9} of those test takes to receive a commendation. Malysheva’s score ranks her among one of the 50,000 highest-scoring students in the nation on the 2020 PSAT qualifying exam for the National Merit Scholar awards.

“Sasha, this recognition, along with the many other accolades that you have already acquired that honor unique aspects of your being, is a tribute to your long-term dedication to your studies, your work ethic, and your perseverance,” said Carol Hagar, Head of School. “Thank you for being such a heartful and powerful example for your mentees and our entire community.”

Semi-finalists and Finalists for the scholarship competition will be announced in September and if Sasha qualifies, she will be asked to complete an application and essays to compete for college scholarship merit awards. Each year, only about 7,500 students are selected to become scholarship winners.

Rain Pushes Back Party

Rain in the forecast for this evening is forcing Signing Day Party for three seniors to be rescheduled. The event is now scheduled to take place Tuesday on courts 5 & 6 at Austin Tennis Academy. There will be speeches from the guests of honor (of course) as well as others chosen to speak, lots of laughter, probably a few tears, and plenty of cake.

Sydney Marin will be heading to Grinnell College in Iowa, Keana Moon to Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, and Sydney Williams to Midwestern University in Wichita Falls. To be able to play college tennis is one of the dreams each of these young ladies has worked hard over the years to achieve.

The fun and festivities kick off at 5:45 PM and we sure hope you’ll come show your support and celebrate with them.

CATA Scholarships Available For Seniors

Capital Area Tennis Association awards several scholarships every year to graduating senior tennis players. CATA is currently offering two types of scholarships: a general CATA Scholarship and the Ricardo Flores Scholarship. The general scholarship is open for any graduating senior tennis player to apply. The Ricardo Flores Scholarship is a needs-based scholarship for graduating senior tennis players of Hispanic descent.

Last year CATA awarded $17,250 to 23 tennis players from over 15 different high schools in the area.

The deadline to apply for the CATA scholarships is March 1st.

Click this link to get more information as well as submit an application for one of the scholarships which represent a great way for high school senior tennis players to receive extra help toward attending college.

Wernli Says Yes To Gonzaga

Caroline Wernli made it official on her Instagram page. “I am so excited to announce that I have verbally committed to play D1 tennis at Gonzaga! Thank you to my coaches, family, and friends for their constant support through my process. Absolutely can’t wait for the next 4 and GO ZAGS!” Gonzaga University is a private Catholic University located in Spokane, Washington.

“Caroline Wernli has consistently been a top national performer,” says ATA CEO Jack Newman. “She has anchored our USTA Junior Team Tennis National Champion team. She is an A+ recruit for Gonzaga and will help them reach new levels of performance.” To receive a full-ride scholarship to play D1 college tennis is no small feat, especially in light of what’s happening in collegiate sports due to COVID19.

Austin Tennis Academy has a fairly large senior class this year; Wernli is the first to announce a commitment for the fall. One of the main goals at ATA is to help student-athletes maximize their college choice by finding the best fit both academically and athletically.

Congratulations Caroline!

You’re Invited to Attend Virtual Graduation Ceremony

Graduation will be held Thursday, June 11, for Austin Tennis Academy College Prep’s Class of 2020. In light of the COVID19 pandemic, ATA CP seniors will participate in a live, virtual ceremony while gathering with their family members at home.

Technology will be used to bring the seniors, family members, and friends together in a live, virtual setting to watch and hear graduate addresses, guest speakers, commemorative videos, diploma presentations, tassel turning, and the passage of leadership to the class of 2021.

All you have to do to get a front row seat to the festivities, right from your very own home, is click on this Zoom Webinar link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86324969689

The evening kicks off at 6 PM CST with an Art Exhibit followed by the official graduation ceremony beginning at 6:45 PM.

Register Now For Free Webinar

Have you walked away from a conversation with your young athlete and thought, “That didn’t go very well.”? Or perhaps you and your spouse would like to have more constructive and less defensive, talks with your kids about lots of things. This webinar will give you specific strategies for improving family communication.

Learn which topics to discuss and which ones to avoid
Discover how to balance a conversation between two toxic traps
Master the art of connecting with your kids through meaningful dialogue

The How to Improve Sport-Family Conversations webinar will be held on Thursday, March 19 at 8:00 PM CST. It is slated to last 45 minutes as well time for as questions and answers. This month’s Life-Skills Webinar will be hosted by David Benzel, founder of Growing Champions for Life.

Click here to register and save your spot for the event.

CATA College Tennis Scholarship Deadline Approaching

Every year the Capital Area Tennis Association, a non-profit tennis organization, gives out upwards of $14,000 to senior tennis players looking to attend college.

The scholarship deadline of February 28th is creeping up fast, and we don’t want our hard-working seniors to miss out on this opportunity!

CATA’s Scholarship Committee evaluates each application on the basis of tennis involvement in conjunction with the student’s scholastic achievements and involvement in community services. The committee then submits its recommendations to the Board of Directors for approval. Funds are presented at the CATA Annual Junior Awards Banquet or sent to the recipient’s home. Scholarship funds are acquired from various CATA offered programs.

According to CATA, online application is preferred. Click here for the application link.

Chinese Immersion Students Visit ATA College Prep

A group of five middle school students from Taizhou, China recently visited ATA College Prep. Arriving in the United States for a cultural and language exchange program, they first toured San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman’s Wharf, Stanford University, and the Google and Facebook offices. They then toured Hollywood, La Jolla Beach, and Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum and the Grand Canyon before making their way to Austin, Texas.

Excited students arrived in Austin and joined with their American host families. (A big thank you to the Malyshev family for hosting one of the students during their stay). Students shadowed in local elementary and middle schools, including a day at ATA College Prep. They interacted with CP students while learning in classes, playing American board games, and hitting tennis balls. CP students embraced this experience as an opportunity to learn about a new culture and share pieces of their own. And CP Chinese language students had an opportunity to put their language skills to the test.

This young and growing cultural and language exchange program is championed by ATCP instructor and owner of Westlake Chinese Academy, Mrs. Yang Wang, who expressed that it has been an eye-opening experience for all the students, as well as the Chinese teacher who led their group. Not only have they been exposed to U.S. history, geology, religion, daily American life and food, but also they had the opportunity to put into practice the English they have studied for many years. Mrs. Wang explained that most of the students come from only-child families and had never been away from home. “During this trip, I have seen the kids growing quickly – learning how to take care of themselves, organize their things, and share with others,” said Mrs. Wang. In the future, these children hope to attend a U.S. high school or college. By shadowing American students, they have a firm grasp of the differences (and the similarities) between American prep schools and Chinese prep schools, as well as how to prepare for admissions.

Two of the visiting students were a part of ATACP Director Carol Hagar’s English class last summer as part of this program in Taizhou, China. Linda and Amy were so excited to be reunited with Carol for the day!

“Studying abroad is an ideal opportunity to open the mind and the heart to cultural diversity and to broaden deeper understandings of humanity. ATACP is honored to be a part of this exchange program – connecting people across the world through heartful education. We look forward to many more shared adventures.”, says Carol Hagar.

June Brings Sectional Title, New Supers and Champ Players

June has yielded impressive results for a number of ATA Academy students including a Sectionals doubles championship, a few new Super Champs, a new Champ, and a handful of defeated seeds.

US Air Force Academy bound senior Kristin Kerrigan won the doubles title 6-2, 6-2 at the 2018 Summer Grand Slam.

Also at the Grand Slam, Brown-bound senior Roger Chou was runner-up for the doubles title, losing 4-6, 1-6 to the #1 seeds, before putting up a strong fight against the #5 seed in singles; Chou had split sets in the Quarterfinals of the Boys ’18 Singles before having to retire for injury.

Fresh off her Level 3 championship last month, Callie Creath came into the Summer Grand Slam strong. Creath made it all the way to the Playoffs in Girls 18’s Singles and defeated the #4 and #5 seeds in straight sets along the way.

Also battling it out at the Summer Grand Slam, Megha Dania, Anushka Dania, and Caroline Wernli all made it into the Consolation Quarterfinals in Girls 16’s Singles; Juandedios defeated the #9 seed to earn his spot in the Quarterfinal Qualifiers in Boys 18’s Singles; and Tatum Blalock defeated the #17 seed in the Girls 18’s Singles in an upset (6-3; 4-6; 12-10).

Huge congratulations to Caroline Horn (G18) and James Burdick (B18) who qualified at last weekend’s Champ Major Zone in San Antonio.

Other Major Zone successes include Clark Sweeney who took out the #4 seed on his way to the Semifinals in the Boys 16’s Singles; Mason Hart beat a personal record making it all the way to the Consolation Semifinals in Boys 14’s Singles; and after switching to lefty only four short months ago, Sydney Marin blew through the Girls 16’s Singles Consolation Semifinals 6-0, 6-3, before having to retire in the Consolation Finals due to injury.

Then, with a strong performance at last month’s ZAT, Brendan Lucero earned his way into Champs.

Congratulations to all of the ATA players who competed in tournaments recently! Check back here for updates on upcoming tournaments.

ATACP Senior Kristin Kerrigan Earns Top Singles Ranking In Texas

Kristin Kerrigan will head off to the Air Force next fall. First, though, she wanted to accomplish a different long-time goal of hers: reaching the #1 singles ranking in Texas. As of last week, Kristin earned her spot atop the Texas singles rankings.

“While I don’t spend a lot of time focusing on my ranking, it was quite gratifying to rise to #1 in Texas for Girls 18’s, as this has been one of my main goals prior to heading off to compete for the Air Force Academy,” Kristin said.

According to her coach Jack Newman, this accomplishment is the result of consistent work logged over many years:

“Paraphrasing Vince Lombardi,

Becoming #1 in Texas is not a sometimes thing, it’s an all the time thing. You don’t reach a goal of that magnitude without years of dedicated work and practice to hone your technical, tactical, physical and mental skills. Kristin has been one of the most dedicated athletes at the Austin Tennis Academy the past five years. She has worked incredibly hard to accomplish one of her top goals before she heads off the Air Force Academy in June.”

Congratulations, KK!

ATACP Alumni Update: Chase Bartlett Checks in From SEU

Throughout the year, the recent ATA graduates send Coach Newman updates of what is happening in their lives in the classroom, on the court, and around campus. Below is a note from ATA College Prep grad and current St. Edward’s University sophomore Chase Bartlett. This one stood out to Coach Newman:

“From time to time I like to share communications that I received from our former students,” Coach Newman said. “I wanted to share this communication with you because I think it is exactly what we are trying to have our students become through their involvement in tennis. His enthusiasm for life, his willingness to put himself out there, and his Drive are all infectious.”

Hi Coach Newman,

I hope this email finds you well. I just wanted to reach out and update you on what’s been going on lately. I think in the last update I sent I told you that I felt things weren’t as challenging as I thought they could be, and that I wanted to add two minors and start doing more things around campus.

Firstly, be careful what you ask for! Haha. This semester has been excruciating at times—I’m taking 7 classes and have become much more involved. I am now a member of Alpha Phi Omega, the nation-wide co-ed service fraternity (and the only athlete in my local chapter, I believe). I have been elected president of St. Edward’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), which means that I now have the opportunity to start new initiatives on campus (some events that, executively, I can make mandatory for all teams). Coach Strecker and I are very excited about this and think that we can find some really cool ways to improve the relationships between the athletic teams on campus, as well as finding some big-picture service ideas that could make a difference in the local community. In DII, SAAC also has the ability to vote directly on NCCA rules and play a big role in the legislative process. It’s a pretty cool position, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated on how things change.

Other than being more involved with SAAC and APO, I was also selected to present research I did in the fall at the University of Houston for a research conference, which was a cool experience. Other work I did from fall is being published in the ’17-18 edition of our school’s academic journal (Arete). This is something that I am happy about since only 5-ish people are published per academic year. I’ll try to send you a copy of it as soon as they are published. I have also become a member of Theta Kappa Alpha, the Honors Society for Religious and Theological Studies, and believe that I will be named in the fall a member of the Honors Society for Germanic Studies. I received Outstanding Student of the Year Award for German, along with one of my other teammates.

The best academic highlight of my year was receiving the Summer Academic Excellence Award, which is a scholarship allowing me to study abroad in Germany for two months at Freie Universität Berlin, a school ranked top-75 in the world. I am going to take two language intensive courses there and one course on German culture, which I find really interesting. I am SUPER excited about this, because I’ve wanted to study abroad really badly since my first day on campus, but didn’t think I was going to have time while still playing tennis.

Tennis has also been going well. I been fighting 1-2 injuries this season, but haven’t had to take much time off. Our schedule has also been incredibly intense, and we’ve got a lot of matchplay in. I was ranked as high as #23 a few weeks ago in singles (I’m not sure what I am right now), and have played line-1 singles and doubles every match. We were the Conference Regular Season champs (basically, we won against everyone in our conference before our big tournament). AND, as I’m writing, we’re on our way back from TCU, where we just won the conference tournament!!! We beat St. Mary’s, our rival, 5-2. Luis and I won doubles against a team ranked top 10 in the nation, who we have lost to the other 3 times we played them.

Going to St. Edward’s, I couldn’t understand that a DII conference title would be something worth being excited about; after all, it’s not even nationals, let alone a D1 national championship. Let me just say: that lack of understanding has vanished, along with St. Mary’s hopes of a conference title. I have never felt more satisfied after a win than I did today, and for so many reasons. First, in my freshman year, we were down 1-2 or 0-3 after doubles in literally 95{37ef6ac642fae6f93f343032eb62785d28fa7a25a4a4f0267a12512c541c53a9} of our matches. We worked so hard to improve our doubles skills as a team over the past year, and today—when we needed it the most—we went up 3-0. It was not luck. Secondly, when you spend two years training with one specific thing in mind (more specifically, a thing that you haven’t been able to get), you’ll find yourself pretty happy with all the excruciating work you’ve put in with your teammates when no one else was watching. Third, and finally, you will recognize how much your DII conference title means when you finish celebrating with your teammates and see your coach 3 courts down with watery eyes (some would say “crying,” but I don’t know how he’d feel about me using that vocabulary). I don’t know why, but that was probably one of the best moments of the year. I’ll get emotional just thinking about it.

There are other highlights from the year, but obviously, I can’t write forever. To conclude though, I got what I wanted. I have failed. I don’t know that I will keep my 4.0 or not—but, I have done so much more cool stuff by putting myself out there. I can let myself rest this summer in Europe.

As always, I hope that everything is going well back at the academy and enjoy seeing everyone when we play there. We will have one final match at ATA this weekend—Regionals—and then the winner of that goes to Nationals the following week. I’d love to see everyone there; it’s always great to have y’all’s support!

All the best,

Chase Bartlett

Pictures From The Annual Walk For Water Event At ATA

The Austin Tennis Academy players, parents, and coaches participated in the annual Walk For Water event on the ATA campus yesterday afternoon as part of the 2017 Playing For Glimmer campaign.

The group carried jerry cans full of water on a course around the facility designed to mimic what women and girls in rural Ethiopia do daily to fetch water, oftentimes walking for hours on much tougher terrain carrying 40-pounds at a time.

After the walk, the group came together to watch a short video on ATA alum Breck Spencer, who traveled to Ethiopia and experienced the actual walk for water:

Breck and Donna’s Walk for Water | March 7, 2012 from A Glimmer of Hope on Vimeo.

Many ATA students have created their own campaigns to help contribute to the overall ATA effort. After watching the video, Coach Newman encouraged all students to get involved in some way.

Learn more about the overall Playing For Glimmer Campaign here. Scroll down to view all of the student campaigns.

Below is a gallery of pictures from the 2017 Walk For Water at ATA.

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