Getting ready for day 2 of the ITA's

Morning tennis fans we are getting ready for day two of the ITA Northwest regional tournament. Unfortunately I don't have much time for a full recap (matches start in an hour). Great results for the Whitties -- we placed 9 players into the final 16!

Couple interesting results. The three Whitman freshman (Jeff Tolman, Sam Sadeghi and Matt Tesmond) had HUGE days. Jeff who is the #9 seed won both of his matches without dropping a set. Sam Sadeghi won his first match then took out the #6 seed (Michael Manser #2 player from PLU) 6-4, 6-3. Matt Tesmond squeaked by his first match in a match breaker then defeated the #5 seed (#1 from Whitworth Michael Shelton) 6-3, 6-2).

Match of the day I didn't see (was played indoors). Senior Thomas Roston defeated the #11 seed (#3 from PLU) 7-6 (15-13), 6-4. Fellow Canadian Jasper Follows cruised into the round of 16 without dropping a set. #15 seed Quin Miller had a first round battle (winning in a match breaker) then won easily in the 2nd round. Conor Holton Burke made a splash in his first regional tournament defeating the #16 seed in three sets and then beat the #1 from UPS. Chris Bailey had a bye and the won 6-0, 6-3.

We had an awesome night of doubles. Matt and Jeff had a bye then won 8-0. Chris and Jasper had a bye then 6-0, 6-3. Quin and Conor won their first match against the #3 from PLU then upset the #3 seeds (#1 from Linfield) 8-3. The freshman Matt and Sam won their first match then beat a very good Willamette team 8-5. That Willamette team won the Linfield Wildcat Open last week.

Sorry for the brief post and/or grammar problems. Getting ready to hit the courts and don't have time to proof read!

Getting ready for the ITA Regional Tournament

Day one of the Northwest ITA tournaments starts in about an hour on the Whitman campus. Lots of great matches going and I'm looking forward to seeing all the Whitties battle against others from the conference. I'll provide twitter updates throughout the day.

A camping we will go!

This past weekend I took members of the tennis team on an overnight backpacking trip. I've always thought it would be fun to share my love of the outdoors with the team and this year I decided to make it happen!

We kicked things off Friday with a brief fly casting lesson. Since I teach a fly fishing class at Whitman I'm lucky enough to have access to a fair amount of equipment. Was pretty fun watching the guys try their hands at casting a fly. Those that have ever tried to fly fish know the difficulties of learning how to cast.

Saturday we were up "bright and early"..well I didn't think that leaving at 10am was all that bright and early but some of the team members had a difficult time getting up. In fact we had to get Adriel out of bed!

Since this would be the first time backpacking for some of the guys I decided it would be best to head to an area and trail I know well: the Wenaha Wilderness area. In terms of distance the Wenaha Wilderness area is pretty close to campus (about 50 miles). However it takes a couple hours of driving on gravel roads to make it to the southern part of the wilderness area. We hiked the 3.5 miles down the Hoodoo trail to the Wenaha river to set up camp. Let me say its a pretty steep hike down..certainly a MUCH easier hike in than out.

After getting the packs loaded up and hiking down the trail we were able to set up camp around 4pm. This left the guys a couple hours to try out their new fly fishing skills. Below the camp is a nice stretch of river where I've caught a number of Bull Trout. After getting everyone set up with rods, reels, leaders, flies, waders and boots they were able to start with the fishing. After making sure everyone was doing OK, I slipped across the river to fish the deeper section of the hole. First cast and BAM I caught a nice 20" Bull Trout..much to the surprise of the team. Someone asked if it were skill or luck that I caught a fish so fast..obviously it was skill!

After an evening of fishing we gathered around the camp fire for a dinner of steak fajitas (complements of coach). With full bellies we hung around the camp fire talking and sharing stories. It was wonderful to be away from cell phones, text messaging, emails, computers etc. and spend a relaxing evening together. Was an absolutely perfect team event!

Next morning we awoke, huddled around the campfire to have breakfast. After a bit of exploring our time was short so we packed up camp to make the hard hike out of the canyon.

All agreed it was a wonderful personal and team experience.

Here are some pictures of our night in the wilderness area.

Coach

PS- for those not familiar with a wilderness area, it is a designated area where nothing mechanical is allowed: no bikes, motorcycles, or engines. The only way into a Wilderness area is by hiking or horseback.