In 2015 I put together a script/photo booklet, NEARLY FIFTY, described below “
HISTORY
(From Play is where Life is by Tom Parham)
Wilsonians provided me with a lot of laughs. I guess it’s just out there, but Wilson I think is special in the humor world. No one was better than Stephen Earl “Country” Boykin.
Our best joint venture was the “River Trip”. It began with a new event in 1967: The Super Bowl. We hosted clients of Earl’s Sportsville Sporting Goods Store at Happy Valley Golf course. We held the beer blast in the “Sugar Shack”in the middle of the course. Mostly coaches from Wilson, only one got arrested. He drove his Pontiac up the downtown Courthouse steps.
In 1968 Earl bought a “camp”to duck hunt. It was located on Back Creek, near rural Bath, NC.
We held the “River Trip” there for about a dozen years. Then we moved to my beach house at Emerald Isle, NC. We have run over one duck, as far as duck huntng goes. The appendix-Summarizes some highlights. We don’t want you to know everything but this s”chronology” will give you the “gist”.
Most of us were from Wilson, NC , home of Atlantic Christian College, now Barton College. And from eastern NC. Barton recently posted THE BARTON PROJECT which similarly recalls the “neighborhood” from 1960 until 2024.
“The Barton Project” is available through Hackney Library’s Special Collections. For access or more information, visit https://barton.libguides.com/special_collections/home or reach out to technology and grants librarian Naija Speight at nispeight@barton.edu.
Phillips Seafoood ( Swansboro, NC ) has a sign in the front window: “Local As It Gets”!
The alarm expressed in my last article (FEAR AND LOATHING – https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/2025/03/17/fear-and-loathing/ has forced educators to choose sides. Congressional Republican genuflectors have bowed to fear. Will federal threats to withhold funding accomplish the same with American education?
Nathan Hale said Liberty or death! Thoreau refused to pay taxes. Anyone? ….Bueller?
Join the parade? –if we throw away the first amendment can we throw away the 2nd?
Will Universities indeed go bankrupt for actually endorsing “Academic Freedom?”
How about a DEI University?
Am I mistaken? Aren’t there alot of people who believe what we were taught?
Got a dictionary?– See egregious. See exigency. Endowment reserves? This is war time: Colleges and Universities, Administrations, Trustees, faculties, students, parents, donors, public educators and public patriots. Vote for education. Your silence is a vote for Fear.
Don’t bow down.
“There must be some way outta here, said the Joker to the Thief….”
“… if you don’t start out with a trust fund, you’re stuck, especially for a sport like tennis that requires years of youth investment. This is a major, fatal disadvantage for American tennis. In Europe, South America and lately in Asia, kids from all social classes have a shot at a tennis career. If they show sufficient talent and motivation, there are numerous community organizations, government programs and general social assistance systems to help build up their careers, in part because these other societies strongly support investment in their youth. ”
Malcolm Gladwell’s follow up book, REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT, comments on the expense issue. The list of needs for wannabe great tennis players looks to be about 100-150 k annually. Six year cost ? 600 -900 thousand . Anyone wishing to follow junior tennis into pro tennis will probably have to go the Challenger route at 100k for expenses and 100k for a coach. Average time to develop needed tools about 3 years ( or 600k) to “make it”. ???
North Carolina has 4 men in its total tennis history who made enough to cover the tab and break even.
One spinoff will surely affect the only other way to recoup some of the investment: College Tennis scholarships. Tennis scholarships, already usurped in large part by internationals, are about to become even more rare for Americans. Two main reasons are 1. Sizable amounts of cash are now legal. Enough that the college route will attract more talented internationals. These people now know the harshness, expense, and probabilities of the Challengers tour. 2. A seismic shift is aided by the attractive improvements in College tennis such as the new money, competition levels that can aid development, no expenses, great coaches, facilities, teammates. What the hell, I may even go to class.
The new ITA’S new video on the history of American college tennis is enlightening. Seven minutes of the video address the international issue
(minutes 50-57 ). The one point I take issue with is the suggestion only parents were concerned and disappointed. Young Americans are eliminated . 300 schools have dropped men’s teams for reasons Coach Benjamin cites. Many Coaches throughout the nation had nice local programs rendered unacceptable. Fans and students say who cares? Still American Parents and citizens write the checks. To have Parents and youngsters dismissed to go hunting for a fifth option for their higher education is not acceptable .
With the door shut to scholarships, the expense of tennis player development becomes more and more a questionable sport to pursue.
Along with many American aspirants another group is about to be bumped : Marginal Internationals.
FROM STANFORD UNIVERSITY Stanford senior Filip Kolasinski can envision the different paths his tennis career might have taken simply by looking at the group of players he trained with back home in Poland
Some now work or attend university in Europe, playing tennis only in their free time; others took coaching jobs. It’s a far cry from four years ago, when their schedules necessitated online high school, practicing four to five hours a day and traveling 25 to 30 weeks per year for tournaments and training. Several within this group of Polish junior players decided to turn pro, Kolasinski said, but it has been challenging for them.
Four years into their professional careers, some are still barely able to break even financially, Kolasinski explained, in spite of achieving decent on-court results. “I think the important thing is that you have to be really, really good in tennis to make significant money,” he said. “Because the costs of basically training and traveling are so high.”
Kolasinski, a Warsaw native once ranked among the top 100 juniors in the world, ultimately took a different route: NCAA Division I tennis. He is one of an increasing number of international players who are choosing to postpone or forgo professional careers in favor of additional years of competition and education at American universities.
And while collegiate tennis in the United States has long been an option for non-domestic players, athletes and coaches say that the financial incentives, professional opportunities and motivations for prospective international student-athletes have only grown in recent years.
According to an NCAA Research report published in December 2022, 61% of male and 66% of female Division I tennis players are international students, up from approximately 38% and 50% reported in 2006-2007. Many attribute this large increase to high-profile professional players who successfully transitioned from collegiate tennis to pro careers. Currently, 15 men in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) top 100 are former college players, and six of those are in the top 50.
Recent talent to emerge from the collegiate sphere includes the American phenom, Ben Shelton, who won the 2022 NCAA singles and team titles for the University of Florida and reached a major quarterfinal less than a year after turning pro; American Danielle Collins, a two-time NCAA singles champion at the University of Virginia and now Australian Open finalist; the top-ranked British male, Cameron Norrie, who held the No. 1 national collegiate ranking in singles while at Texas Christian University; and Diana Shnaider from Russia, who spent this past season alternating between dual matches for North Carolina State and various pro events, scoring her first two major match wins in 2023.
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“The success of some of the collegiate players on tour has increased the viability for international student-athletes to consider college as a pathway to professional tennis,” said Stanford men’s tennis head coach Paul Goldstein.
Students can also benefit financially from playing pro events while at school, though only to a certain extent. NCAA eligibility rules state that Division I tennis players may collect up to $10,000 in prize money from professional tournaments each calendar year. Any additional money accepted after reaching that limit may not exceed the athlete’s expenses for participating in an event.
The ATP announced an additional incentive last January, unveiling a partnership with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). The top 20 players in the June ITA rankings and any other player who reaches the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament singles draw will now be awarded wildcards into Challenger 50 and 75 events, entry-level tournaments designed to provide upward mobility to lower-ranked players. Those ranked in the top 10 will be entered into a tournament’s main draw, while Nos. 11-20 will gain still sought-after places in qualifying brackets. These opportunities, the ATP said in a statement, are intended to help the next generation of collegiate athletes jumpstart their professional careers.
NADAL AND ALCARAZ TO PLAY DOUBLES TOGETHER IN OLYMPICS
That headline got some attention. The Spanish duo, history’s elite, past and future singles icons, playing doubles.
I watched too, but maybe with a new observation:
Credit as due—my first glance at this strategy came while watching the NCAA WOMEN’S DOUBLES this spring.
THE GOAL is to pin the server deep and wide on the baseline. Assuming all four players are right handed and the point is from the ad court, , the best way to begin is with a great service return down the line. This flies in the face of conventional thought which sends the return crosscourt. AND DOWN THE LINE IS TOUGHER TO DO.
However, Tactic 2 ups the ante. Once the receiver’s partner recognizes this return he moves to a unique position at the net, almost up to the net and in the MIDDLE of the court. This does two things (1) it cuts off almost all but the super angled crosscourt return and (2) renders the server’s partner to a neutralized position.
The College Women used this basic formation, and multiple variations of it, to achieve the same goal : To limit the opponent’s best option to a “down the alley” rally—-with our net player in a much better position to attack. And to put pressure on the opposition.
As the Olympics match began to progress I noticed both professional teams were not only aware of this strategy, both were using their own variations , OFTEN with great success.
Alvarez and Nadal have been singles specialists. Doubles is a different game. A team game, with different shots from different places. VOLLEYS, QUICKNESS, SERVICE RETURNS, ANGLES AND LOBS.
While odds favored the Spaniards doubles, a less familiar game featuring a new effective ploy, evened the match ( 7/6, 6/4 ).
The two diagrams below reflect
1. Traditional alignment for the four players and 2. The alignment goal of THE PINCH ( One variation ).
Here is a clip from an earlier blog—College Doubles
The most fun in tennis is playing for your school team. The doubles point often dictates the team winner. American college coaches. all things equal, recruit players who are good at both singles and doubles.
I believe college women will find great pro possibilities in doubles because of the unique efforts in developing doubles teams.
One flaw in American Junior development is the emphasis on singles ranking only. Doubles play is considered a detriment to singles rank. What if players were ranked on singles and doubles combined. Or simply a combination ranking?
Actually men’s college doubles vets shone brighter this WIMBLEDON. Henry Patten for the UNC Asheville Bulldogs, a winning partner in doubles. Rob Galloway of the Wofford College Terriers played a spectacular first set in doubles second round. Doubles COUNT in college tennis and the results shed light on a bigger issue. Having coached against Wofford and UNC Asheville years back I can describe them as small mid majors in the NCAA.
COLLEGE TENNIS HAS BECOME THE MINOR LEAGUES OF PROFESSIONAL TENNIS
[Verse 1] Deep within each heart There lies a magic spark That lights the fire of our imagination And since the dawn of man The strength of just I can Has brought together people of all nations There’s nothing ordinary in the living of each day There’s a special part every one of us will play
[Chorus] Feel the flame forever burn Teaching lessons we must learn To bring us closer to the power of the dream
[Bridge] As the world gives us its best To stand apart from all the rest It is the power of the dream that brings us here
[Verse 2] Your mind will take you far The rest is just your heart You’ll find your fate is all your own creation And every boy and girl as they come into this world Bring the gift of hope and inspiration
[Chorus] Feel the flame forever burn Teaching lessons we must learn To bring us closer to the power of the dream
[Verse 3] The world unites in hope and peace We pray that it will always be It is the power of the dream that brings us here There’s so much strength in all of us Every woman, child, and man It’s the moment that you think you can’t You’ll discover that you can
[Chorus] Feel the flame forever burn Teaching lessons we must learn To bring us closer to the power of the dream Feel the flame forever burn Teaching lessons we must learn To bring us closer to the power of the dream
[Verse 4] The power of the dream Faith in things unseen Courage to embrace your fears No matter where you are To reach for your own star
[Outro] To realize the power of the dream To realize the power of the dream
The Little Green Book of Tennis 