Tennis stars reaping the benefits of the regional centre
working hard to graduate its players towards the USA.
Becoming a professional in any sport is no easy task and
this is especially true for New Zealanders in individual sports such as tennis.
With a rich history of producing great junior tennis players in recent years,
the progress onto the senior circuit has proven more treacherous and
unfortunately players have failed to reach their full potential after they
graduate high school.
The highly competitive, expensive and sometimes nocuous
transition from juniors to seniors has been coupled with the dilemma on trying
to train and compete with the worlds elite in a sport with limited resources in
NZ is one that player and parent alike have struggled to navigate successfully.
This has often culminated in a shortened playing career as players have had no
choice but to retire at a young age due to a lack of initial success and
limited options from other avenues on their continued development.
However in the last few years the regional association based
in Albany, Tennis Northern, have decided to take matters into its own hands and
have formed a relationship with Play Atlantic, an Auckland based US college
scholarship company.
The purpose was to give their young players a realistic and
achievable pathway in which they could graduate from the regional academy and
continue to develop their skills in a world class environment at a college in the
USA over the course of four years.
David Frank, CEO of Tennis Northern, says “This relationship
provides our players and their parents with the motivation they need to train
and compete year on year. It is a fantastic pathway that we have developed because
it guides our kids into a system that will not only provide them with a degree after
four years, which in turn means they will be more attractive to future employers,
but it also gives our top athletes the opportunity to progress onto the professional
circuit at a more mature and sensible age once they graduate”.
Director at Play Atlantic, Sheridan Adams says “It is hard
to argue against the US college system, which is consistently ranked amongst
the best in the world and has proven to be a hugely successful breading ground for
professional athletes (2010 Heineken Open winner John Isner went to the University
of Georgia). If parents and their children are looking for a great education,
an invaluable life experience filled with traveling and tremendous career
prospects after graduation, all in the form of a sports scholarship that will
significantly help fund the process then America is for them”.
One recent player that has been through the system at Tennis
Northern has included former Junior Davis Cup player Chester Espie, who is
currently studying and competing at Stetson University in Florida. Chester
trained at Tennis Northern throughout being a junior under former NZ Davis Cup
coach Jeff Simpson and recently finished his first academic year and playing
season at Stetson, which culminated in an All-conference honour.
He says “The college system is pretty sweet, everything in
tennis is paid for and because of the amount we play it is basically impossible
not to improve”.
That sentiment has been echoed by a further fifteen
graduates from the Tennis Northern Academy in the last three years who have all
taken the same path as Chester and are currently applying their skills across
the USA.
So now with this well- structured pathway for the tennis
players in the Northern region well established it will be very interesting to
see which ones are able to break through from being a good junior to a senior
professional. But whether they are able to or not one thing is for sure, we
will look forward to watching them try and with the added benefits of a
university education for them at the same time this has made this relationship
a no brainer.
