It was a great end to 2016:

Hayden Shoemake was the 7A west singles runner up, and placed 4th at State!

Emma Baker placed 4th at the 7A west Conference tournament and won her first round at State!

Taylor Cheung-Damonte was the 7A west Conference doubles Championship, the 7A State doubles Champion, and the Arkansas Overall Doubles Champion! 

Brooke Killingsworth was the 7A West Singles Champion, the 7A Singles Champion, and the Arkansas overall Singles Champion! She was also named the Wendy’s Arkansas Player of the Year, Along with being named Tennis Player of the Year by the Arkansas Athletics Association.

(Brooke pictured Left)

Brooke was named the Arkansas Democrat Gazette Singles Player of the Year. Taylor was also named the Arkansas the Arkansas Democrat Gazette Doubles Player of the Year!

Congrats guys on an AWESOME year!!!

It’s almost a month old, so what a perfect time to welcome in 2016!!  But first, good-bye to 2015:

It was a great year, from Jack Vaughan winning the OTA tournament…

To welcoming Coach Matias (pictured giving Coach Kristina some words of coaching wisdom) to the OTA family…

To Haeleigh making the Qualifier finals…

To a phenomenal summer…

To the moving on of our two senior leaders, Mallory and Haeleigh…

To a sad, but not unexpected, good-bye to Coach Jake…

To a triumph at state for Taylor, who won the 7A doubles title…

To the beginning of off-season training, and a whole new CrossFit crew…

It was so good, Darby couldn’t bear to hear it was over…

Yes, it was an excellent year — and 2016 is already looking good!  There is an excitement amongst our coaches, as we see a motivation and effort coming from our players that can only lead to good things, on and off the court.  And this is not only from our older groups, but our younger ones as well.  From Anklebiters to Orange Crush to Black, it’s been a fantastic winter so far!

As we move into the year, much of the excitement stems from our coaching news.  As most of you know, we added two former OTA players to the staff, Matt Tabler and Caleb “C Mac” McReynolds, and they are already doing a phenomenal job.  Matt has the little guys wrapped around his finger (maybe they mistake him for a teddy bear because of the beard?), and C Mac has already put a stamp on our fitness program.  We are so happy to have both of them!

Coach Jared has also had a busy last year, with a rough start to 2015 transitioning to a year that saw him acquire 2 fitness certifications, serve a 3rd year on the Southern Section Coaches Commission, work as a Team USA sectional coach, coach two major team events (as a Southerns coach for 14’s Zonals and as the Arkansas coach for 12’s Southern Cup), and be one of only 2 Arkansas pros invited to attend the Southern Tournament Director’s workshop.  2016 has already been productive as well, as he was accepted into the USTA High Performance Coaching Program, where he spent a week training at the USTA National Training Center in Boca Raton.  All of the information he gathers is then funneled down to the rest of the OTA coaching staff, so that we can continue to grow as a program.

So there it is — the end of 2015, and the already-begun welcoming of 2016!  Thank you to all of you for being part of our OTA family, we are looking forward to an amazing new year!!!!

The state doubles finals was quite the OTA event!  Mallory Tabler and her partner from Bentonville High narrowly defeated Haeleigh Long and her Rogers High partner 6-2, 7-5.  The win was the culmination of an extremely successful career for Mallory, but one that had consistently seen her come up just shy of the elusive state title.  In all 3 of her previous years, she was a doubles finalist, placing second every time.  Bringing home the championship was not only critical to her team’s success, but also was an excellent way to close her individual career.  Oh, and Haeleigh?  All she did was contribute to 3 state titles for the Mounties in her career.

Winning the doubles title also helped the Bentonville girls win the team title.  Kruti Shah qualified in singles for the Tigers, making the quarterfinals to give her squad some much-needed help in the points department.  Fantastic job for all the girls!

And finally, in a busy week for OTA, Robert Terry (pictured above in the red with LITTLE brother Doug) was announced as the recipient of the Jay Freeman Award, presented by the Arkansas Tennis Association to the most improved boy in the state.  It comes as no surprise to his coaches, who have watched him develop into a solid player, and a great teammate, and a true OTA leader.  Congratulations, Robert, you deserve it!

The new session begins November 3rd, and Coach Kelley is excited to get the gang together again!  Class is from 2:30-3:30, Monday through Friday.  If you are interested in attending, but need a 4:30 class in order to suit your schedule, please let Jared know!

14 players from Ozark Tennis Academy journeyed all over the South to compete in the Southern Sectional Championships.  Each division saw 128 players from 9 different states enter in what is one of the largest tournaments in the country.

Competing for OTA were:

Boys/Girls 10 and unders – Ella Coleman, Noah Butler, Colin Clay, Carter Swope, and Andrew Schweitzer

B/G 12s – Brooke Killingsworth

B/G 14s – Emma Baker

B/G 16s – Ryan Hargrove, Andrew Miller, Jack Neal, Catherine Nettle, and Kruti Shah

B/G 18s – Alexis Beaver and Kyle Henry

The group finished with 19 combined wins, with Ella Coleman snagging 3 on her own.  Noah Butler, Carter Swope, and Alexis Beaver all won 2 rounds of singles as well.

Even more impressively, the group wasn’t even at full-strength!  Dylan DeLuca (Boys 16s) and Avery Hughes (Girls 12s) both qualified but were unable to attend, while Patrick Keith (Boys 16s), Hayden Swope (Boys 12s), and Reagan Tunnell (Girls 10s) were high alternates who would have made the cut if they had been able to enter.

As you can see by the pictures, it wasn’t ALL about just cutthroat tennis!  We all had a great time, and hopefully it will prove to be an experience that continues to push the entire program to greater heights.

For the 7^th straight year, OTA has qualified over more than 10 players for the Southern Championships, with 13 making the Arkansas endorsement list!  In addition, 3 more players are first alternates, and there is a possibility of at least another 6 getting in to Southerns.  And check out some of these pictures… we had FUN, too!

Here is our qualification list:

Ella Coleman – Girls 10 – 5^th place

Reagan Tunnell – Girls 10 (3^rd Alternate)

Carter Swope – Boys 10

Noah Butler – Boys 10 (1^st Alternate)

Colin Clay – Boys 10 (3^rd Alternate)

Brooke Killingsworth – Girls 12 – 3^rd place

Avery Hughes – Girls 12 – 5^th place

Hayden Swope – Boys 12 (1^st Alternate)

Emma Baker – Girls 14 – 5^th place

Catherine Nettle – Girls 16 – 3^rd place

Kruti Shah – Girls 16 – 6^th place (1^st Alternate)

Dylan Deluca – Boys 16 – 2^nd place

Ryan Hargrove – Boys 16 – 4^th place

Andrew Miller – Boys 16 – 5^th place

Jack Neal – Boys 16 – 6^th place

Patrick Keith – Boys 16 (2^nd Alternate)

Lexi Beaver – Girls 18

Kyle Henry – Boys 18

Luke Lundstrum – Boys 18

Some weekend highlights:

Overall, it was a great weekend, and once again OTA showed that not only are we a quality program, but one with fantastic sportsmanship and integrity.  Our OTA coaches were so impressed with how our players fought, and the way they handled both winning and losing.  Placing 10 in the top 6 at the Qualifier is an incredibly solid showing, but it was the overall group performance that truly makes us proud!

• Straight numbers – OTA took 45 players and qualified 13.  Over a quarter of the group??  That’s awesome.

• Big division – We graduated an extremely tough class of boys this year, a class that routinely saw OTA having half of the qualifiers (or more) in their age division, and was always competing for the title at the toughest tournaments.  Losing them, it was a common belief that OTA would see some of our dominance-through-depth fade.  Enter our Boys 16s.  We took 4 of the top 6 spots, and did it with some new names and faces.  Dylan is a constant, having been in the finals 3 of the last 5 years.  Ryan is a rising force; a bigger, tougher version of the boy who showed up last summer.  Andrew and Jack have kicked in the door to the big boys club, and taken a seat at the main table.  These two truly exemplify what OTA is all about.  They were nowhere in the conversation in the Boys 12s, barely there in the 14s, and now are a full-on threat in the 16s.  This type of progress is what we love to see, and we are extremely proud of them, and our entire Boys 16s division!!

• Rockin’ girls – For the first time ever, OTA qualified a girl in EVERY age division!  Way to represent, girls!!!

• Double trouble – We had 4 players place in both singles and doubles.  Brooke and Avery placed second in the Girls 12 division, and Dylan and Ryan kept OTA’s perfect streak alive (at least one division champion in all 8 years of our existence) by winning the Boys 16 division.  Way to go!

• A good sport – Catherine Nettle not only made a huge statement with her performance, but she did it in the ultimate OTA-style.  She crashed through to the top 3, and in the process was awarded the Girls Sportsmanship Award for the tournament.  Nice job, Extra Credit!

• (Cross)Fitness pays off – We’ve had a strong crew doing CrossFit since last November (or longer).  Dylan, Catherine, Ryan, Andrew, Jack, Kruti, and PK are the only members of that group that played the Qualifier.  Check out how that crew did: Everyone but PK placed and qualified for Southerns… and he is 2^nd alternate!!  Coincidence?  Um, no.  Thanks to Coach Lee and Coach Wendi for helping OTA reach our goals!

Thank you again to all of our parents for your contributions last weekend, you guys were fantastic… as always!!  We are excited to build on this result, and look forward to doing it this summer.  Go OTA!!!!

15 OTA players made the trip to Shreveport last weekend, and it turned out to be an absolutely fantastic weekend!  The weather was phenomenal, which made for good tennis and enjoyable spectating… which is OF COURSE the most important thing!!

A quick look at some of our result highlights:

• Emma Baker won the Girls 14s without dropping a set the whole tournament.   Lexi Beaver beat the #1 seed in the first round in a 3^rd set breaker, then won her semifinal in another breaker, en route to finishing 2^nd.  And Hayden Swope followed up last week’s finals appearance with a 3^rd place finish.  3 out of 15 in the top 3 is a pretty solid showing, so great job!

• In addition to those in the Top 3, Brooke Killingsworth, Catherine Nettle, and Kyle Henry all won out in the back draw, making it to the conso finals (which due to time restrictions are not played in these events).

So that’s how we did.  And, as usual, that’s only part of the story!  Here are some of my favorite moments from the weekend:

• Listening to Coach Beau (aka, The Varmint) and (mostly) Hunter Nall trade hunting/redneck stories for 6 ½ hours.  Seriously, it was awesome.
• At the end of Friday’s matches, Hunter gutted out an 11-9 tiebreaker in the 2^nd set to close out his victory.  About 2 seconds after his match finished, Jack Neal split sets and went into a breaker of his own.  At the first side change, Andrew Miller sighed and said, “I think it’s easier playing than watching.”  For those that don’t know, this isn’t common.  Tennis is an individual, often cutthroat sport, where every player is looking out for him/herself.  For a 15-year-old kid to be so into his OTA teammates’ matches speaks first to Andrew’s quality of character, but hopefully also to the culture of our program.

• This week’s Quote of the Week is, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall,” from Confucius.  Patrick Swope sent it to me, because he thought it was appropriate for the weekend.  I totally agreed.  I generally think that the most difficult match to play is usually the 3^rd and 4^th place match, because you are getting over the disappointment of being so close to the finals, but you still have to gather yourself to go play an extremely tough opponent.  Hayden Swope did just that, dropping his semifinal in a fashion that left him feeling as though he never brought his “A” game, and then bouncing back to take down a very solid opponent for 3^rd.   Well done, Haydo!

• But, if there is a situation that might be even more difficult, it’s when you are one of the top seeds and lose early.  The embarrassment is what makes this kind of loss so difficult.  Having to walk around the facility for the rest of the weekend, thinking everyone is looking at you like the overrated loser who couldn’t hold their ranking.  Then you have to check in the next day and play consos, where it is easy to fall prey to the fallacy that you have nothing to gain, and only something to lose in every match that’s left.  Just ask Kyle.  Seeded #2 in the Boys 18s, he lost a frustrating 3-setter in the first round.  How did he handle it?  Won out in the consos, dropping only 4 games in 2 matches.  Or you could ask Brooke.  She also lost first round.  Except she was the #1 seed.  She showed up the next morning and absolutely punished the consolation draw.  In fact, her image grew because of how she handled that situation, as coaches, tournament officials, and other parents all took notice.  I told someone today that I’ve never been happier with a tournament where so many of our top seeds lost.  They didn’t understand.  But I know that those players have won, and will win again.  To watch Kyle and Brooke handle themselves like true champions is as rewarding as it gets.

• But my favorite moment of the whole tournament happened before the first match was even played.  We had warmed up, and I wanted to get Jake Keefauver some more hitting in before he left for his site.  Before I could ask anyone, Kyle piped up, “I’ll hit with you, come on.”  Jake is 12, and just won his first STA Level 3 match this weekend.  Kyle is 17, and one of the top players in the state of Arkansas.  Again, this is first and foremost a(nother) reflection on Kyle’s character, but is also an aspect of OTA that we absolutely love.  The Varmint (Coach Beau) said to me in the hotel on Saturday how impressed he is with our kids and parents.  How he’s never been around a group like that.  It’s sometimes hard for those new to the program, or outside of it, to understand all of our talk about “OTA family.”  But it’s real.  And we are grateful to all of you for making it that way!

So there you have it, the 2013 Red River Shootout round up.  Thanks to all that went, it was a great weekend!!