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Wayne Bryan speaks to junior players
© Marcia Frost
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(l to r) Steve Wild, Wayne Bryan, Allen Fox, Peter Cameron, Andrea Calvert and Mark Bey
© Marcia Frost
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Wayne Bryan and participants at the conference
© Marcia Frost
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By Marcia Frost
The CARE Academy, a USTA Regional Training Center run by founder Mark Bey, presented its 13th Annual National Junior Tennis Conference, Nov. 20-22. The event was once again held at the Academy’s facilities, The Libertyville Club and the Lincolnshire Club in suburban Chicago.
The National Junior Tennis Conference is a unique experience where parents, players and coaches (junior and collegiate) interact through seminars and training opportunities. This year’s featured speaker was Wayne Bryan, award-winning coach, author (“Raising Your Child to Be a Champion in Athletics, Arts, and Academics“) and father to the No. 1 doubles team in the world, Mike and Bob Bryan. Coach Bryan not only spoke to parents and players about his experience taking his boys through juniors and into Stanford (where they led the team to sweeping the 1998 NCAAs), but was on hand for lengthy questions and answers.
Sessions were held at the National Junior Tennis Conference all weekend. They included two seminars to help players with the college planning process, led by speakers like the USTA’s General Manager of Junior & Collegiate Competition Erica Perkins and college head coaches Bobby Bayliss (Notre Dame men), Claire Pollard (Northwestern women), Billy Pate (Alabama men) and Mark Ardizzone (DePaul women). There were also seminars on everything from Sports Science to Player Development, with expert speakers that included: Allen Fox, former Pepperdine coach, professional champion and current sports psychologist; Andrea Calver-Sanders of the USTA Midwest; Austin Tennis Academy founder Jack Newman; and Peter Cameron, Director of the Toronto Tennis Academy.
Wayne Bryan also worked on court with juniors attending the High Performance Training Camp that was held in conjunction with the conference. Junior participants in that camp included Aaron Chaffee, Chase Curry, David Beasley, Jasmine Minor, Katie Zordani, Penfield Binet, Brienne Minor, Christina Zordani, Gabby Rosales and Julia Schroeder, Brian Alden, Blake Bazarnik, Ben Hoogland and Brooke Austin, who won the girls’ 16s title at the National Open in Michigan a few days later.
Missing from the 13th Annual Junior Tennis Conference at the last minute was Coach Mike Wolf (of the Mike Wolf Academy) and Jack Sock, who spent the weekend winning his first professional title (the Ravenswood Wine Amelia Island Futures Championships).
For more information on the conference and the Care Academy, visit the official website.