Archive for July, 2009

Wednesday was a full day at the club, and we are not talking club med (or the country club or golf club or social club for that matter).  No, for the All-American Tennis Camp it was the Wooster Racquet Club.  3 trips to wooster’s indoor tennis center wore everyone out.   Rain showers descended upon thecampus first thing in the morning and kept it up all evening.   Out to the racquet club it was.  It was a bit of a zoo out there, but we got everything covered

that we needed to get in and we managed to do it without 1) losing any kids 2) losing our way or 3) losing our minds.  Indoor tennis at camp is never our preferred mode

Everything worked out for the best and only 1 camper left there room key at the racquet club.  Ok, we fess up, it wasn’t a camper who left their key behind but one of the counselors.  In fact, it was Jena S., whose sister Jill S. is at camp this week and truly enjoyed big sis’ mess up:)  The indoor portion of the day featured focus on the volley, volley stroke production, Olympics and the BABOLAT BIG SERVE COMPETITION (BBS).

The BBS is a highlight of every week where campers get a chance to measure up the speed of their serves.  The World Record serve is 155 mph by Andy Roddick and a few of our campers threatened that record, just barely coming in slower  The big serve winner were, Austin M. with 70 mph recorded serve & Chase M. with a screaming 84 mph serve.

Results from the Babolat Big Serve Competition are as follows:

South Division
Rachel : 54 mph
Mandy : 45 mph
Shannon : 47mph
Jon : 45 mph
Caelan : 46 mph
Morra : 40 mph
Alia : 43 mph
Candace : 66 mph
Sally : 46 mph
Thomas : 54 mph
Austin : 70 mph
Khouloude : 58 mph

North Division
Ashley : 50 mph
Jackie : 58 mph
Alec : 60 mph
Chase : 84 mph
Annie F : 68 mph
Jessica : 69 mph
Lauren : 77 mph
Annie K : 67 mph
Haley : 60 mph
Kara : 54 mph
Travis : 81 mph
Jill : 79 mph
Tessa : 79 mph
Brandon : 54 mph
Abby : 74 mph
Annie P : 53 mph
Libby : 59 mph
Kelly : 78 mph

During tonight’s evening session we finally got to play some tennis outside thanks to the weather letting up. We had our finals of our College Team Tennis Championship between Princeton and MIT. With a very close match between Travis & Annie F. (7-5 for Travis), Princeton capture the title of the College Team Tennis Champs by defeating MIT 19-14.

In this week’s big social event we had talent show this evening. All week the groups have been working with their counselors to put the finishing touches on their skits. Tonight’s big winner was Cameron’s group, starring Sally R., with a skit called “The Top 5 Ways to Annoy Your Roommate.”

Finally, we have posted new pictures from last night’s action.  Click Here.

Two new things took place today at the All-American Tennis Camp. One of those being the return of the Olympic World Cup game and the other being a random fire alarm that was set off in the dorm. Suspects for setting off the alarm are Maddy L. & Alex S., but nothing has been confirmed yet . World Cup was a huge success for The Fishmen team, which helped them take the lead over The Jakers in Olympic standings for the week.

In other news today, the campers continued to work hard on forehands, backhands and the newly introduced serve this afternoon. In fear of the rain putting a dent in our full day of tennis we came out early for the afternoon session and got in an extra amount of tennis for the days count.

In tonight’s College team tennis action we had the semi final showdowns with Princeton vs. Cornell and Stanford vs. MIT. Princeton came out on top against Cornell with a 20-11 victory. The Stanford/MIT match ended in a dead tie at 15 all and had to bring in a 12 point doubles tie break to name a winner. Annie K. & Annie F. (MIT) faced up against Lauren Y. & Jackie D. (Stanford). The Annie’s secured a victory for MIT in an incredibly close tie breaker.

For our evening we teamed up with Lacrosse camp for Casino Night. Campers of both sports competed hard to get as many chips as possible. By the end of the night we crowned 16 total prize winners. From Lacrosse the top camper was Mike and coming from Tennis was Chase M.

Finally, we have new photos (2nd set) from camp.  Click Here!

Today both the morning and afternoon sessions were highlighted by the always popular camp Olympics. This week, thanks to Counselors Justin & AJ, we have some very creative team names.

In the South Division:

The Fishmen – Morra A., Caelan P., Maddy L., Jon L. & Alia P.
Deja Moo’s – Mandy H., Maria M., Shannon H. & Rachel P.
Stack That Cheese – Candace J., Khouloude A., Shelby L. & Tom E.
PBJ’S - Micah C., Sally R., Molly V., Austin M. & Alex S.

In the North Division:

Stuntin’ Like My Daddy’s – Kelly P., Tessa H., Libby G & Annie P.
Politically Uncorrect – Annie F., Haley K., Jackie D., Alec D. & Kara S.
The Jakers – Jill S., Travis C., Abby H., Owen S. & Brandon T.
Doughnuts For Dinner – Lauren Y., Chase M., Jessica H., Annie K. & Ashley R.

After a fierce first game of Rally Count, The Jakers took the early lead. The teams will continue to play different games all week.

Coming out for a hot afternoon session we reviewed forehands and introduced the backhand stroke. Then the campers were given another shot at a different game of Olympics. After a couple close finals of Risk & Reward, The Jakers are still on top with 6 points. In second place there is a three way tie between The Politically Uncorrect, The Fishmen & Deja Moo’s.

During tonight’s evening session we continued on with our College Team Tennis Tournament. Up first tonight we had the Northwestern Huskies taking on the Big Red of Cornell. Cornell captured the overall match with a 23-16 win. After that match concluded, the team’s of Stanford and Oxford squared off in the next round. Helping to secure the close 18-14 win for Stanford, Austin & Jon (Stanford) squeezed out a win against Shannon & Tom (Oxford)6-4.

Check back tomorrow for more Olympic and Team Tennis updates!

The final week of camp has begun with what might be our loudest and most energetic group of campers yet!

Tonight’s evening session was highlighted with a heated battle between Molly V. and Counselor Cameron on the Beat The Pro court. On the games court Sally “Singles” R., dominated while playing singles in a doubles structured game of Sky Ball. Tonight we also began the College Team Tennis Tournament, where each camper is assigned a team and they play matches throughout the week. This weeks College Tennis teams are as follows:

Wellesley : Kelly P., Kara S., Mandy H. & Alex S.
MIT :  Annie F., Annie K., Maria M. & Rachel P.
Cornell : Jill S., Abby H., Alex D. & Shelby L.
Stanford : Lauren Y., Jackie D., Caelan P., Austin M. & Jon L.
Oxford : Chase M., Annie P., Candace J., Shannon H. & Tom E.
Yale : Jessica H., Owen S., Morra A., Molly V. & Alia P.
Princeton : Travis C., Libby G., Sally R. & Khouloude A.
Northwestern : Tessa H., Haley K., Micah C. & Maddy L.

This first matchup this evening was between Wellesley & Princeton. Princeton produced powerful 25-10 win over the Wellesley Blue Pride. Khouloude (Princeton) pulled out a marathon 7-5 win over Alex S (Wellesley).

In the second matchup of the evening Yale faced up against MIT. The MIT Engineers came out on top with a convincing 20-9 victory.

The evening activity of Capture the Flag was a huge success for the last run of the summer. The girl campers and Counselor Justin stole the win 4-2 over the boy Campers and girl Counselors. Haley K. was a standout with her exceptional quickness that helped lead her team to victory.

Despite the rain finally resulting in the courts being too wet for our evening session, we are still running right on schedule with our time on the court due to coming out early for the last couple days.

We ended tonight with our main social event of the week…Talent Show. All week groups have been working with their counselors to tweak and create the best possible skit they could come up with. Counselor AJ was hoping to continue his perfect streak this summer with a skit called “The Best Skit Ever.” However, a new champion was crowned tonight as Counselor Susan’s group of Sophi, Riley, Lucy, Jenson and Morgan came out on top with their skit titled “The Bachelor.”

The long 3 hours morning session at tennis camp culminated with the BABOLAT BIG SERVE competition.  This competition allows each camper

five serves in which to record their fastest speed.  The winners in each division were:  Jordan R with a score of 80 mph in the North division, and Brennan who topped out at 73 mph in the south division.   Only serves that were in the service box were recorded and players who did not make one of their 5 attempts were given an “X”.  The fastest serving girls were Christine with a 69 mph serve and Maria and Kelsey with 68 mph scores.
The total results were:

Ryan – 79 mph
Steven – 72 mph
Jordan C. – 64 mph
Trisha – 51 mph
Jordan R – 80 mph
Alyssa – 54 mph
Molly – X
Sydney – 50 mph
Maria – 68 mph
Jenny K – 51 mph
Emily – 47 mph
Jeffrey – X
Jack R – 44 mph
Joey – 53 mph
Jordan G – 63 mph
Olivia – 63 mph
Joe – 51 mph
Kelsey – 68 mph
Brennan – 73 mph
Cassidy – 39 mph
Christine – 69 mph
Jack S. – 63 mph
CJ – 62 mph
Brandon – 51 mph
Jenny D – 55 mph
Hannah -39 mph
Sophie – 51 mph
Jensen – 47 mph
Lucy -32 mph
Riley – 48 mph
Megan – 37 mph
Cecily – 37 mph
Sheila – 43 mph
Lily – 38 mph

Another day of dodging the rain drops provided a key victory for the All-American Tennis Camp.  Despite a weather forecast that predicted rain for most of the day, we adjusted our schedule for no reason.  This crazy schedule inconvenienced the campers a little, but paid off in the long run as once again we actually got in extra tennis.  Therefore, the way that we see it, the scoreboard reads All-American Tennis Camp 2, mother nature 0.  I know, I know I just jinxed us.  Thunderstorms will probably rain down upon us on Wednesday

The focus of todays instruction was more backhands, with in depth instruction and videotaping.  From there, it was on to our Serving demos.  Counselor AJ did a great job talking about the key swing components involved with the Service Motion.

In social news, another big Camper vs. Counselor Bball game broke out at lunch.  This time, camp director David joined in.  It was a tightly fought game with the counselors squeaking out another 1 point game.  We learned that Steven M can only dribble to his right, CJ lost his shooting touch on Tuesday, Maria continued to kill the staff from the outside and David used his lengthy 5′7 body to record to impressive blocked shots.

For the evening activities, Casino Night was all the rage.  Despite informing the campers that this was a “black tie” affair, not a single tux or cocktail dress was sported  :)  Counselor AJ, however, donned his usual casino night outfit of tux, top hat and tails.  Bond, James Bond!  The big winners at Casino Night were Jordan G with a total of 118 chips.  Second prize went to Jenny K and Third Prize went to our own little casino-buster, Jeffrey Y.   Rounding out the evenings winners were: Maria F., Cassidy, Callie, and Trisha.

Results from the evenings College Tennis Matches are as follows:

Navy defeated Richmond 19-16 to advance to the finals of the tournament.  Results were:

Steven (Navy) def. Jordan C. 6-3
Jack R (Navy) def. Maria F. 6-0
Jeffrey (Richmond) def. Joey 6-2
Riley (Richmond) def. Sheila 7-5

The other semifinal match featured Notre Dame def. St. Louis 23-17.  Results were:

Ryan/Emily (Notre Dame) def. Jordan R./Jenny 6-3
Brandon (ND) def. Kelsie 6-2
Jensen (ST.L) def. Lucy 6-4
Lily (ND) def. Cecily 7-6

The finals will be played on Thursday.

Finally, we have new pictures from camp today.  Click Here.

With sunshine in the early morning and the threat of an ominious rain storm later on in the day the counselors were determined to get the campers on the fast track to knowledge by starting off the day with a continuous, but not drudging review of forehands followed by the new and exciting stroke, that some may call the backhand!

Despite CJ’s objection(by already claiming the mastery of the stroke) the staff felt the continuation of emphasis on the forehand stroke was essential, and followed that by videotaping all of the campers forehands at exciting and professional angles. After the emphasis on forehands the camp moved on the the beloved college drills (only by dave and hated by campers becasue it involves high intestiy and quick footwork).

Thus brought the day to the olympic challenges, first started in 776BC in ancient Greece by the mighty Zeus and the stunning Hercules, now being brought to All American Tennis Camp, allowing the campers to follow the footsteps of the ancient olympians. Young Jeffery has been expected to take the place of the a new aged Hercules with stains of sweat, dedication, and pizza sauce on his shirt. Olympics are our week long competition of games culminating in the declaration of one team as the champion. This weeks campers originated some of the most obscure team names in recent camp history ( see below).

The Olympic Teams are as follows:

The Monica’s : Jack S., Brennan Sophi, Lucy
LeRoy Jenkins : CJ, Christine, Cecily Sheila
Cadillac Jumbo’s : Kelsey, Cassidy, Jenny D., Jensen, Lily
The Extra Special Team : Brandon, Hannah, Megan, Riley

Kimbo Slice : Jordan C., Jordan G., Callie, Maria
Straight out of Compton’s : Jordan R., Molly, Trisha, Jenny K., Joey
Puma’s : Steven, Joe, Alyssa, Emily, Jeffrey
The Black Jack Ballerz :  Ryan, Olivia, Sydney, Jack R.

Following the morning session, the highlight of the afternoon was the big counselor-camper basketball game. Counselors AJ, Justin, Cameron were positive they would dominate the campers, however they clearly underestimated the MVP baller of camp, Maria F.  She not only sank shot after shot, but she routinely picked the pocket of beanpole counselor AJ Nelson. She was named star of the day despite the protests of CJ, who once again gave it to himself.

With an extra long evening session, the camp was not only able to beat the coming storms, but stole an extra half hour of tennis play to use for another rainy day. We have posted new pictures from the camp action on our photos page, or by clicking HERE.

College Team Tennis results from tonight are as follows:

Navy defeated Wooster 18-15
Steven (N) def. Jordan G. (W) 6-4
Jack R. (N) def. Callie (W) 6-1
Jack S. (W) def. Joey (N) 6-0
Sheila (N) def. Sophi (W) 6-4

Notre Dame defeated Wyoming 18-11
Ryan (ND) def. Molly (Wyo) 6-1
Sydney (Wyo) def. Emily (ND) 6-0
Brandon (ND) def. Brennan (Wyo) 6-1
Lucy/Lily (ND) def. Megan (Wyo) 6-3

A full day at the Revolution Lacrosse camp culminated with an intense evening of scrimmaging. Among the fiercely competitive coaches, teams were fielded by Coach Kat, Coach Gina and Coach Ashley. With several close games coming down to the wire, Kat’s team took the evening title by going undefeated for the session. Highlights from the evening play included Tess leading all scorers on Gina’s team and MacKenzie (Mac Mama) H. piled up the goals for Kat’s team.

Earlier in the day two of our shining campers lost their mouth guards to start the morning. This was highlighted by young Erin taking a mere twentyminutes to misplace her mouth protection. This session also featured some electrifying coaches vs. campers challenges. The coaches routinely defeated the campers in the four on four challenge, however the campers would not be denied in the power and finesse competition. This does not reflect well on the revolution staff and rumor has it that director Mike S. will be holding a scrimmage at midnight for his staff

The big social news of the day was two of our finest campers, Brigid & Monica, celebrating their birthdays. Many congratulations and celebrations were recognized for the b-day girls and the whole camp partied with ice creams and juice this evening as well as birthday cakes for the birthday girls. In other social news huge attendance today for afternoon swimming. College of Wooster has never seen the combination of Lacrosse sticks, eye guards and flippers

Finally, there is much cheering and jeering as camper Lexus was able to stuff counselor Ashley two times this evening! Lastly, please check out the photo pages for the latest photos from tonight’s action or CLICK HERE!

Tonight  we began our College Team Tennis matches. The teams are as follows:

Navy : Steven M., Jack R., Joey P., Sheila K.
Notre Dame : Ryan W., Emily L., Brandon T., Lucy B., Lily O.
St. Louis : Jordan R., Jenny K., Kelsey C., Jensen F., Cecily P.
Richmond : Jordan C., Maria F., Jeffrey Y., Riley M.
Wooster : Jordan G., Callie Z., Jack S., Sophi K.
Wyoming : Molly W., Sydney K., Brennan U., Megan S.
Hawaii : Joe M., Trisha P., CJ C., Christine T.
Denison : Olivia F., Alyssa M., Cassidy C., Hannah L., Jenny D.

The first matches of the evening were Hawaii vs. Richmond. Richmond came out on top with 20-13 victory. The results are listed below.
Jordan (R) def. Joe (H) 6-4
Maria (R) def. Trisha (H) 6-2
CJ (H) def. Jeffrey (R) 6-2
Riley (R) def. Christine (H) 6-1

Our second matches were Denison vs. St. Louis, where St. Louis won with a 27-13 victory. Here are the results!
Olivia (D) def. Jordan (SL)
Jenny (SL) def. Alyssa (D) (6-0)
Kelsey (SL) def. Cassidy (D) 6-1
Jensen (SL) def. Hannah (D) 6-0
Jenny (D) def. Cecily (SL) 6-2

Check back tomorrow for more match updates and pictures!