Ladies Beginner class - summer 12 weeks of training complete

I LOVE teaching this class! I have 6 ladies from our community who have now completed my 12 week series of “Love to Learn” “Love to Play” These ladies are ready to start playing doubles and soon will be playing league tennis. We have tons of laughs and they are so eager to learn and play. It’s really a Mom’s Night Out on Monday’s with me. I understand how important that is now an “Empty Nester” mom of 2.

The Magnificent Seven !

The Magnificent Seven !

Mal Washington Gala & Pro Am Tournament fundraiser.

Each year our pros are involved in the gala for a fundraising event for our youth tennis in Jacksonville.  Thursday we will attend a silent auction and on Friday participate in playing the ProAm tournament at San Jose Golf and Country Club  

www.malwashington.com

 

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Gala dinner fundraiser

Over $200,000 raised for MVWF and their new high school tennis facility, a second edition tennis center for tennis and education.

USTA Team Tennis Challenge weekend October 30th

Saint Johns Tennis Academy entered 8 teams into this weekends USTA Team Tennis Challenge weekend located at Boone Park.  We had 4 teams entered in the U14 intermediate and 4 teams entered into the U18 intermediate.  I am so very proud of each and every team with high efforts to play their very best tennis and displayed great sportsmanship in every match!  I received several compliments from various parents and teams and pros from our local communities.

We had 2 teams come in 1st and 2nd place in our U18 intermediate flight - Team 904 won first place with players Landon Williams, Molly Wannamaker & Lily Thompson.  We had 2 teams of ours in the playoffs of U14 intermediate "Team Highlighters" and "Team Uno".  Team Uno won 1st place with players Allie Bielski, Carys Cook & Lily Davis.

Halloween Tennis Social 2016

We had a blast last night with all our students to celebrate Halloween tennis style. We had three contest winners for ; "Wackiest tennis shot"- Sam W.,  "Best Tweener shot"- Gabe S. , and "Best target serve"- Lily D..  We also had a dog fight in which our winner was Grace W.   Pizza, drinks, awards and candy was enjoyed by all. Coaches Patrick Diegan and Heather Lester thank you for coming out to play in our 4th annual Halloween celebration!

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Wimbledon Week at SJTA summer tennis camp! 6 Years of Tradition

For 6 years we have been teaching our seven week summer tennis camps at Creekside High Tennis courts because our kids outgrew the 4 courts at Mills Field tennis club.  We have 8 tennis courts we can fill up for kids ages 4-18 years old, all levels of tennis play.  For 6 years we have celebrated "Wimbledon Week" in which we all dress in white, commemorate with a professional group photo of Academy tennis players and PTR Tennis Pro's.  We also have a tradition of a week long tournament play with a format just as you would have in Wimbledon and eat delicious Strawberries, which is a Wimbledon staple food.  The kids learn about all the Grand Slam tournaments of the year and we teach nutrition, strategy and mental health for tournament play.

I will work on a collage of all 6 years of our photos so everyone can see how young and old they are - although in my opinion tennis players stay looking young because of how much Joy the sport brings them!  

Our annual Academy players group photo - week #4 summer tennis camp "Wimbledon Week"

Our annual Academy players group photo - week #4 summer tennis camp "Wimbledon Week"

Summer Tennis Camp Week #4 - Dog Fight

Three weeks out of our seven week tennis camp we facilitate a "Dog Fight" in which all our Academy players do several tiebreaks in a round robin format.  Whomever has the perfect score is the finalist, these two tied and we ended up doing a playoff.  Amazing long rallies from Grace and Cary's in this picture.  These girls are training to play Level 6 & 7 USTA tournament play.

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Summer Tennis Camp week #4 - Our 8 & Under Red ball class

Our 8 & Under red ball class has been full every week!  We can fit 8 kids on one adult size court in which we work on forehand & backhand groundstrokes on Mondays, Volleys and Overheads on Tuesdays and Underhand and Overhead serves on Thursdays.  Of course, every day we play tons of game in which the kids are learning technique through games.  They LOVE tennis!!

SJTA Tennis Camp week 1

Well we had a rough start to our week with the Trooical Storm but we finished out strong with one court of red ball, two courts of orange ball, 4 courts of green ball and 20 Academy players! This year we have 123 registered tennis players. Wow! Biggest summer to date in past 8 years.  

 

Congratulations to Molly & Sankeeth for our first Dog Fight winners of the summer season! These two had a perfect record and never were beaten once in a five round tiebreaker round robin.  

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