USPTA Honors Sunderland, Scalese
A pair of South Bay teaching pros took home top honors on February 6 at the USPTA NorCal Awards Banquet at Stanford — the highly popular Tim Sunderland the USPTA Pro of the Year and Jason Scalese the USPTA High School Coach of the Year.
“It’s an extreme honor,” said Sunderland, a mainstay at Los Altos’ Courtside Club for the last 30 years. “Every now and again they throw an old dog a bone.”
Sunderland, who joined Courside in the summer of ‘78 as the club’s head pro, has since taught and developed dozens of nationally ranked juniors through the years — capping a tremendous effort this year with Courtside’s 50th NorCal Junior Team Tennis championship. Scalese, head coach of the boys’ and girls’ programs at Archbishop Mitty in San Jose, helped the Monarch girls to a 25-0 record, including league, CSS and CIF NorCal championships.
“Needless to say, it was a once-in-a-lifetime team,” Scalese said. “We accomplished all you can in high school tennis in NorCal.”
Harker/Oakwood Marks 5th Anniversary
Break out the birthday candles. The Harker Oakwood Tennis Training System (HOTTS) is turning five.
The 2004 brainchild of Craig Pasqua, the newly selected USTA NorCal Diversity Committee Chairman, and former WTA and teaching pro Niru Sanjeev, HOTTS will celebrate its five-year anniversary in 2009 following a fifth straight CCS invitation for the team it was originally designed to stimulate.
“We originally began HOTTS to strengthen the varsity tennis program at Harker School,” said Pasqua, now in his fifth season coaching Harker Varsity tennis. “With five straight CCS invitations, I’d say we’ve had some success meeting that goal.”
Founded in ‘04, HOTTS is open to all boys and girls ages 6-18 and offers competitive tennis players the opportunity to participate in a program that combines regular team practice with weekly interclub matches. For info, visit harker.org/athletics.
Bronze Ball Honors for Tao, Nishimura
South Bay juniors Kenneth Tao and J.T. Nishimura got their bronze on in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 1, taking home a bronze ball in their first-ever Super National at the USTA National Winter Championships.
The pair of pre-teen San Jose natives, who helped the NorCal section to a ‘07 Gar Glenney Cup win playing for the Almaden Valley Athletic Club, ended the six-day event with a third-place finish. Following a 6-2, 6-3 upset of the tournament’s No. 2 pair, Tao/Nishimura dropped a heart-breaking three-setter 6-1, 4-6, 3-6 in the semis — the first loss for the pair in almost two years — before rebounding for a straight set victory in the third-place match.
Tao, an 11-year-old seventh grader at Joaquin Miller Middle School, has won 23 championships since joining the USTA junior circuit in June ‘05. He currently trains with former touring pro Brian Garrow and Terry Sheng at the Sunnyvale Tennis Center.
UC-Santa Cruz: ‘Give Me Liberty Or…’
Max Liberty-Point was Justin’s cousin trying to do the ”justin’s face” lolJustin’s cousin looks so much like Jaxon!hvrted:I wish I had google as a brainqueefilicious:sharing an umbrella with someone seems cute but in practice it is 100% horrible and you both end up getting angry and wet@mileycyrus:bubba suecarafrightley:i havent taken a good selfie since 1935likeserenitys:are people really calling justin-bieber-news.info irrelevant just because he didnt win something at the teen choice awards? its not like a surfboard determines how successful and talented a person is. a zero-star recruit online casino the day he met UC-Santa Cruz men’s coach Bob Hansen.
“He wasn’t really very interested in me,” Liberty-Point said of Hansen. “He talked about the program and the kids he typically got. I was honestly kind of bummed after talking to him, but it made sense on paper looking at my career before then.”
Liberty-Point was the No. 1 player at Summit H.S. in Bend, Oregon for four years. He won two district singles championships his junior and senior seasons, but never made it out of the second round of the state championships. As a USTA junior he never rose above the top 25 in the Northwest.
“And that isn’t even a strong region,” he admitted.
Still, Hansen gave him an opportunity — not a spot on the team, but an opportunity nonetheless.
“He asked me to come to their camp that summer,” Liberty-Point said. “And he changed his mind.”
As a freshman, Liberty-Point was No. 13 on the Slugs’ 13-man depth chart. Four years later, he’s the No. 1 singles player for the fourth-ranked UC-Santa Cruz men’s tennis team.
“In high school I was No. 1 all four years, but I never pushed myself,” Liberty-Point said. “It gave me more of a purpose at Santa Cruz to get somewhere.”
“A lot of guys hit the ball hard but they never engage like Max did,” Hansen added.
It took Liberty-Point over a year to break into the Slugs doubles lineup — he played at No. 2 as a sophomore and went on to earn All-American honors. It wasn’t until his junior year — last year — that he broke into singles at Nos. 4-5. Liberty-Point reached the NCAA final in doubles and semis in singles.
This season, a singles title at the Wilson/ITA West Regional Championships in the fall was the tipping point for Liberty-Point — earning him top billing for the Banana Slugs.
“He’s maybe played 80 meaningful matches in his whole life,” Hansen said. “And he’s No. 1 for us right now — and he’s one of the best in the country.”
In his first four matches, Liberty-Point is 2-2 at No. 1 — he swept in convincing fashion against Cal Lutheran and Sonoma State but was humbled against D1 Santa Clara and NAIA Fresno Pacific.
“It’s tough, you’re not going to get easy matches at No. 1,” he said. “I’m still getting comfortable with court No. 1, but I like it.”
Aces Continue to Blossom
For a batter, 4-for-5 is a heck of a day. For a tennis team, it’s a dynasty.
The Blossom Hill Aces’ reign as king of the NorCal Sectionals came to an end in ‘08, as head coach Gene Fortino’s girls’ 18s USTA club team lost a sectional title for the first time in half a decade with a 7-2 finals falter at the hands of Laguna Creek in early August.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge of trying to recapture the title this summer,” said Fortino. “The girls are highly motivated.”
Driving the motivation are two recent college commitments for the Aces. Leigh H.S. senior Sandra Florea recently committed to San Jose State, while Aptos High’s Nicci Yvanovich did the same with Texas-San Antonio.
“We’ve been so lucky to have a player of [Florea’s] caliber take the time out of her busy schedule and play for the Aces the past four years,” Fortino said. “As for [Yvanovich], there is no doubt in my mind that she will be successful at the collegiate level.”
In Brief
UC-Santa Cruz hosted a gathering for alumni and donors at the SAP Open, where mascot Sammy the slug was spotted roaming the stands.
Thirteens were wild Jan. 7 at the Copper Bowl in Tucson, Ariz., for Isabella Mozdzierz-Monico. The 13-year-old from Sunnyvale reached the girls’ 14s singles final as the No. 13 seed, her second final performance at one of the most prestigious junior tournaments West of the Mississippi. Mozdzierz-Monico fell to No. 1 seed Alexandra Morozova 7-5, 3-6, 6-0 in the singles final, and dropped a nail-biting 9-8 (2) tiebreak final with partner Alyza Benotto Wood to 10th-seeded Kaiulani Boyer/Ellen Jang Milsten.
