A collection of the area’s top young tennis talent will travel to South Carolina this weekend to challenge some of the best players in the southeast region.
Three Wilmington tennis teams advanced to the USTA Southern Junior Team Tennis Section Championships Aug. 21-23 in Lexington County, S.C., including an under-10 advanced team and under-18 intermediate and advanced teams.
Players from the Country Club of Landfall, Cape Fear Country Club and Lenny Simpson’s clinics based out of Empie Park make up the U10 roster. The U18 advanced team pulls players from Landfall, Pine Valley Country Club and Cape Fear Country Club. The U18 intermediate team is comprised entirely of Landfall players.
“I think it’s great for these kids, from all different clubs and different backgrounds, to come together to hopefully win the sectionals championship,” said Alan Donald, a Landfall tennis coach who is traveling with the team.
The teams will play girls’ and boys’ singles and doubles matches as well as mixed doubles. They’ll take on opponents from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The winner will be the team that wins the most games, not matches.
“It’s cool, because every single game is so important,” Donald said.
The competition will be tough. Often the older age groups draw players that have secured full scholarships to NCAA Division 1 schools.
Donald said Wilmington’s U18 advanced team is also deep with talent, from the youngest member of the squad, 14-year-old Westley Gaines, to Chase Horton, who is starting his freshman year at Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C., on a tennis scholarship.
Horton developed his skills in Landfall’s junior tennis program, which has about 180 players from age 4 to 18. The youngest children are now taught with the QuickStart Tennis Format, in which the players use larger balls with smaller racquets and play on a smaller court.
“They use decompressed balls that are a little bit easier to make contact with, so you can hit it harder,” Horton said. “If they were that age and trying to hit a real tennis ball, it would be going all over the place.”
He entered Landfall’s tennis program when he was 12 and soon was spending every day at the courts, playing matches with his friends. As he grew older, he started helping the coaches teach the youngest players, which he said was rewarding.
“When I was that young, I was pretty much playing everything but tennis,” he said.
He said his favorite part of junior team tennis is the camaraderie. During sectionals, while a few of Wilmington’s doubles teams play, the rest of the team will be courtside, watching and cheering.
“Tennis is an individual sport, but it is so much more fun as a team,” Horton said. “We all get along really well, and we have a lot of chemistry on the court. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and hopefully we’ll be able to do well and get to nationals.”
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