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March 03, 2006
wowsers from little mo
Hello fellow tennis enthusiasts!! I want to share these notes with all of you…..we had a great time this weekend at the 30th anniversary Little MO
Many of our players were playing in their first little mo, Brendan Brown, Emily Cotton ( who by the way won second place in the girls 8 and under and will be playin in the regionals in May!!! Ally Gamble, Brandon Kivlin, Ian Kocher and Caroline Stockdale and they ALL were wonderful representing you well…….. the Little Mo tourney was and is a great opportunity to expand our family approach to the tennis experience…..with all day Saturday to hang out and bond in fun friendly games and of course FOOD!
Watching it rain and rain…special kudos to the parents who handled the adverse weather conditions very well and facilitated the kiddos with opportunities to hang out together and have fun! And we had a lot of first time parents at the event who got indoctrinated into the tournament experience in a big way……weather wise……schedule wise….( as the whole tourney was played on Sunday with the warmup at 645 and the matches beginning at 730 am ) and letting go wise…….letting the kids enjoy their journey and that’s really important….great job parents and another kudos for Lisa Sullivan who helped set up the team hotel …..with an indoor pool J…came in handy on a rainsoaked event!
We started our Little MO experience on Friday at 4 o clock in which I met with each player and went over why we came to the event………Have fun……meet new friends and Learn stuff!!! And it rained all day Friday and all day Saturday and we were still on the court 7 ish pm on Sunday nite and the ATA was represented well at the 2006 30th anniversiary of little mo
Your teammate Molly Fisher was the last ATAer on the court Sunday nite battling a champ level player #2 seed in the finals of the backdraw. She was awesome and l gave her and her parents several ideas on things that she can start doing right away and get immediate results.
This same player beat Meghan O Malley in the semis, and Allison Gamble( who had a 28 ball rally in her first little mo !!!!!) as well……that’s a tough draw…the girl ( Michelle Yang was the #2 seed, qualified and in the back draw!!!!!
Meghan by the way won the sportsmanship award ( only two\are given out of 140 players!!!!) Wow Is right! And speaking of sportsman ship award winners….past winner Grayson Sullivan got a rematch in the first round against a solid player and Grayson played and behaved solidly and turned in a better performance this year than last…….and hey that’s what were talking about…..progress!!!!! Just keep doing your best and you will get better…….and speaking of getting better…it was a joy to coach Ian after his first match as he was listening and taking notes…..and I speak for all coaches at the ATA when I say we really enjoy seeing a player listen and then APPLY the information in their next match!!!!! Ian took control of the things he can control and that’s progress!!!! Jake Berber battled awesomely really hitting out on his serve and commanding his racket ferociously on his forehand ( ask his dad about the stinger picture J ) oh yeah and I have to talk about the LUCK of the draw concept with Jake too!! His first round opponent ( in which jake battle well) went on to win the main draw and Jakes first opponent in the back draw
Blazed thru the draw winning the event….sometimes in tournaments you run into the players that are just on fire!! So all you can do is smile and love the battle….doing your best on each point…which is what Jake and the others did so well…..like Caroline Stockdale who was loving the battle soo much she just wanted the points to continue on and on!! Brendan too was sooo scrappy…..he even hit a running two fisted topsin backhand for a winner!!! WOWSERS!!!
I could go on and on…..and I probably will during jd tonite,
Great job everyone!!!!!
Tennis on and on
Ps and SUPER SPECIAL kudos to Jonathan Stockdale and Sierra Sullivan who were there to help out as warm up partners…cheering section and just plain fun to be around for the little ones!!!!!! GREAT JOB you two and the players are looking forward to you BOTH being at JD tonite
Posted by Jim at March 3, 2006 05:20 AM
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