All-American Tennis Camp director and Men’s and Women’s tennis coach at Case Western Reserve University, Todd Wojtkwoski was featured this week on popular high school recruiting website, tennisrecruiting.net in the “ASK THE EXPERTS” section.  Coach Wojtkowski runs the popular All-American Tennis Camp at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.

The article is a Question and Answer session with Ross Greenstein of Scholarship for Athletes, a consulting company for high school students and their families looking to compete in college athletics.

It is an interesting Q&A session that helps understand what is involved in the recruitment of young student athletes for college athletics.  This is a growing industry and one that can be quite confusing to many young players and their families.  In fact, in 2009, The All-American Tennis Camp founded a speciality tennis camp – THE COLLEGE PREP CAMP, that focused on many of the realities of college tennis.

Coach Wojtkowski summarizes exactly what college recruiting is all about in the following quote.

Scholarship for Athletes (SFA): At SFA, we try to explain to our clients that the recruiting process is like being on a job interview; is that how you view the recruiting process?

Todd Wojtkowski (TW): I think that this is a very accurate way to look at the process. Simply put, it is a job interview because the player is “selling” or convincing the coach/school why the player would be a valuable asset, and why that school would need that player.

There are many minefields in the college recruiting process and it is vitally important that young players, that are hoping to go on and play college tennis, get as much information as possible on what is involved in the process.  Often the difference in going on and competing at the collegiate level comes down to gathering the right information.  Companies like Scholarship for Athletes and camps like the COLLEGE PREP camp are great resources for those with the aspirations to take their game to the next level following high school.  To read the full article, click here.

All-American Tennis campers Victoria and Mandy Marchant not only excel on the court, they excel off as well.   The sisters are known to be two of the top young players in Northeast Ohio (the girls qualified for the Ohio State Championships this past high school season and both are top Midwest ranked players in the USTA), but this does not mean that they are self centered and determined to succeed at all costs.  No, these girls are looking to give back to the game of tennis that has been so good to them.

The Chagrin Falls, OH natives founded a company named Racquets for Rookies (racquetsforrookies.com).  The companies mission is to provide young kids with no tennis experience, the necessary equipment to learn the game.  According to high school junior, Victoria Marchant:

Mandy and I started the organization over 2 years ago.  Neighborhood children saw us playing tennis and asked us for lessons.   The little boys we were teaching said they have never played tennis before because they do not belong to an expensive club, nor did they have any racquets.  We told them they can play anywhere, in the neighborhood, at school courts, and parks, and that we would get them some racquets for free. It gave us the idea that if we, as tournament players, each have 2-3 racquets and change them every few years, all of our tennis friends and families must have closets full of them too.  We started at our own club, Chagrin Valley Athletic Club, where we decorated a colorful plastic bin with information on where the racquets are going, and used it as a test.  Word spread, and the bin was full within a few weeks.  Short story, we called all the owners of the clubs we go to and dropped a bin off!  We keep in touch with them regularly and visit them and pick up the donations when the bins are full!

As a result of the girls efforts, the company has provided more than 350 (with more coming in weekly) rackets to date to organizations such as The Big Brothers and Sisters Association of Shaker Heights, OH & The City of Cleveland Parks and Recreation to name a few.  The

girls are continuing to build their company with the hopes of getting as many young players interested in the game as possible.   Marchant concludes:

We sure have spent a lot of money on tennis lessons and tournaments,but we want to let kids know that it does not have to cost anything if you really want to play!

For more information on Racquets for Rookies and where to donate your used or unused tennis equipment, please visit their website for a list of locations.

Congratulations to long time All-American Tennis Camper, Stephanie Hollis for winning the 2009 Diane McNeal Jr. Sportsmanship Award.   Stephanie,  a senior at Magnificat High School in Rocky River, was the only female recipient of the sportsmanship award in Northeast Ohio.  The award goes to the individual (one male and one female) that exemplifies the type of sportsmanship that is highly valued in the game of tennis.  More about her award can be found on the USTA – Northeast Ohio webpage.

Stephanie is one of the top ranked junior tennis players in the nation. She is currently ranked #155 in the nation, #17 in the Great Lakes region and #3 in the state of Ohio for the class of 2010 on tennisrecruiting.net In addition, Stephanie has recently signed a national letter of intent at St. Louis University to join the women’s tennis team in the fall of 2010.  Stephanie attended the All-American Tennis camp for 6 years between 2003-2008. Congrats Stephanie!

Premier Sports Camps have announced the dates for the 2010 Revolution Lacrosse Camps. Once again, PSC will offer 1 week for boys and 1 week for girls this summer.

The Boys week of lacrosse camp is July 25-29, 2010 and will be hosted at The College of Wooster in Wooster, OH. Directing the camp is Kenyon College head men’s lacrosse coach Doug Misarti.

The Girls week of lacrosse camp is July 18-22, 2010 and also will be hosted on the campus of the College of Wooster.  For the sixth year in a row, Mike Scerbo, Head women’s lacrosse coach at Duquesne University will direct the camp.

The Revolution Lacrosse camps have quickly become one of the top instructional lacrosse camps in the Midwest.  For the past 7 years, the camps have hosted more than 1000 young players of all age and skill levels.  For more information about these camps, please visit our lacrosse camp page.

Premier Sports Camps announced the dates for the All-American Tennis Camp at Case Western Reserve University. The 2010 dates at Case are Session I – June 14-18, 2010 and Session II – June 20-24, 2010.

This camp is now in our second year at the University in Cleveland, OH and is directed by Head Mens’ and Women’s tennis coach, Todd Wojtkowski. Each session is a 5 day camp from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m daily at the Carlton rd. Varsity tennis courts on the campus of Case Western Reserve Univ.  Session I runs from

Monday through Friday, while session II runs from Sunday through Thursday.  Each camp is limited in size and the first session in 2009 was sold out.

“We are excited to be offering a camp at Case Western Reserve again this summer (2010)”,

Premier Sports Camps president David Schilling stated.  ”Todd is one of the best young coaches in the country and more importantly runs one of the most thorough tennis camps in the Midwest.  He is very personable, has a great knowledge of the game, and is very engaging when working with young kids.  Many camp directors make an appearance or two and leave the teaching to their staff.  Todd is hands on and goes the extra mile for each camper.”

For more information on this camp, please visit our camp page at All-American Tennis Camp at Case Western Reserve University.

Premier Sports Camps and the Revolution Lacrosse Camps are very excited to name a brand new camp director for the Revolution Lacrosse Camp for Boys, July 25-29, 2010.  The new camp director is Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach at Kenyon College (Gambier, OH), Doug Misarti.

Coach Misarti, now entering his third season as head coach of the Kenyon lacrosse program. He wasted little time installing his high-octane offense in Gambier. Each of his first two seasons at the helm, the Lords ranked among the top 35 teams in the nation in scoring offense. Misarti also capped his first season prowling the Kenyon sideline by leading the Lords to their third-ever NCAA Division III tournament berth in 2008.

“We are extremely excited to partner with Coach Misarti.  He comes extremely well recommended and is widely regarded as one of the top young lacrosse coaches in the nation.” Premier Sports Camps, president, David Schilling stated.  ”He places a real emphasis on teaching, and in particular, individual development.  He realizes that there is a shortage of lacrosse camps with top flight teaching of personal skills, and that this sort of personal attention is the essence of player improvement in a camp setting.  Too many camps today offer a big name player and/or coach who make little or no effort to develop the players at the camp.  This will not be the case with Doug.  He has a real passion and concern about player development” Schilling continued.

The Revolution Lacrosse Camp for Boys is hosted at the College of Wooster July 25-29, 2010 and is now in the 7th year at Wooster.

The 2010 All-American Tennis Camps at the College of Wooster have announced dates and prices for the upcoming summer.  These camps, named the Top Sports Camp in Ohio (click here), by Sports Illustrated magazine, have become the most popular tennis camps in the Midwest.

Once again, we will be offering 5 full weeks of tennis camp, and a special weekend College Prep Camp.  The dates are:

Session I – June 20-24
Session II – June 24- July 1
Session III – July 25-29

Match Play Week  I – July 11-15
Match Play Week II – July 18-22

College Prep – July 8-10

The camps will be directed by Ohio State University assistant men’s tennis coach, David Schilling, with the exception of the Match Play Week II – July 18-22, which will be directed by Todd Wojtkowski, Head Mens’ and Women’s tennis coach at Case Western Reserve University.

The fees for the camps are as follows:

Traditional camps (Sessions I,II & III) – $605

Match Play camps (Match Play Weeks I, II) – $660

College Prep Camp – $375

For a more information on each of these camps please visit our camp page for the College of Wooster.