Friday, January 24, 2003
Friday, January 24, 2003 |
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Tennis program sent five members to Super Nationals By MICHAEL
BOYLAN Five members of the Peachtree City Tennis Center's High Performance program went to Arizona over Christmas to play in the Super Nationals. The players are of varying ages and had to qualify for the tournament in different tournaments around the country. Though tennis is an individual sport, there is little doubt that the High Performance program is a team focused on helping each other become the best tennis players they can be. To qualify for the Super Nationals, players have to be in the top 128 players in the nation in their age group. The five players that qualified for the Super Nationals were Starr's Mill junior Jenny Shular, McIntosh junior Priscilla Roberts, Rising Starr eighth-grader Michael Browder, Booth seventh-grader Nathan She and St. Paul Lutheran sixth-grader Kevin King. Shular and Roberts qualified for the tournament by placing fifth and sixth respectively in the Girls 18 National Open in Pensacola, Fla., while Browder and King qualified by playing in the Boys 14 National Open in Arlington, Texas. King toppled the number one seed in the tournament and finished in the top 12, while Browder finished in the top 16. She placed sixth in the Boys 12 National Open, which was held in Augusta. The team practices four days a week and every other weekend, along with attending one tournament a month. Other members of the program include Nancy Peaden, a senior at Woodward Academy who will attend and play for Auburn University in the fall, Rebecca Timmis, a junior at McIntosh High School and Link Leskowski, a sophomore from Macon, Ga. who makes the trek up to Peachtree City for practices. Leskowski is ranked number one in the south in her age group and toppled the top seed in the Junior International Orange Bowl. Both King and Browder have been playing tennis for years and have traveled to a large portion of the country to play in tournaments. They enjoy the fact that their success in tennis is based on their individual efforts and that there is always room for improvement. King knocked off the sixth seed in the Super Nationals, while going 3-2 in the tournament. Browder went 1-2 and is aiming to break the top 50 in his age group. Shular and Roberts have played frequently as doubles partners, though each spring they face each other with their respective high school teams. Last year both McIntosh and Starr's Mill's girls tennis teams made the final four of the state playoffs. The girls enjoy the sport because they can play it forever and they really enjoy the camraderie of the program. In fact, aside from sightseeing when they travel to out of state tournaments, they enjoy meeting a lot of the same players in each tournament. Roberts has reached as high as 42nd in the nation in her age group, while Shular reached 75th. The program is coached by Jon Reeves and Sean Ferreira, who share in their players successes. They are optimistic that many of the players will receive college scholarships. "The members of this program work together a lot and compete and play against each other to make themselves better players," said Reeves. "They spend a lot of time together." Ferreira agreed, adding, "Though they play as individuals, this is a team."
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