ITA/USTA Regional Tourmament Draws

Whitman is hosting the 2011 ITA/USTA regional championships this weekend. This is a such a wonderful event and opportunity for the players. Outside of the NCAA individual championships its the only event where everyone, regardless of team position, is put into one draw. Below are links are to the tournament draws.

More to come..

Singles

Doubles

Updated career matches

Hello Whitman tennis fans. I updated the Whitman career match statistics (since 1995) spreadsheet. Probably more interest for the alumni than parents or friends. Still kind of fun to look at. The link is posted on the right side of the blog.

Career matches

At the top of that sheet are links to different sorting options.

Interesting conditioning program for the team this afternoon -- 5 mile mountain hike (2.5 miles up and down) with 1500 elevation change. Will be interesting to see how quickly the guys can finish the "Blue Mountain Challenge"

Blackberry Picking Trip

Out looking for berries

In my last post I mentioned the importance of getting off the Whitman campus and exploring the surrounding area(s). Besides being historically important (at one time Walla Walla was the capital for the Northwest Territories) the Walla Walla area is full of incredible outdoor opportunities.

*As a side note to learn more about the wilderness areas around SE Washington/NE Oregon visit Grant Ritchie's (a Whitman alum and dear friend) webpage hikeandfishing. *

Prof Hutch

Sunday provided a perfect opportunity for exploration and team bonding as we joined the women's team for some blackberry picking and a dutch oven dinner at Professor Hutchinson's spread on the South Fork of the Walla Walla. Besides being an incredibly popular Whitman professor, Hutch is also a huge fan of Whitman athletics. He routinely shows up at a number of athletic competitions. Funny story -- last year he was kicked out of a men's basketball game!

The new Texas boys!

Turned out to be a great time for blackberries. We have had an unusually cool summer so the blackberries are ripening a bit late. Luckily everyone was able to find plenty of berries to fill bellies (seems more berries go bramble-to-belly than bramble-to-bucket) and to provide fruit for dessert.

Dutch Oven Dinner

While the men and women were out collecting berries and exploring the river, I got the dutch ovens ready for the dinner. I'm the first to admit that I'm a dutch oven rookie but I enjoy the experience of cooking outdoors over a fire. Honestly I was nervous about cooking for both teams. Besides preparing a new recipe I was also cooking for the women's team. Over the years I've learned that guys get hungry in college and are grateful for any meal I cook. They, in turn, have learned to heap praise on my cooking so I keep cooking for the them. Not sure if this is an example of a symbiotic relationship or a positive feedback loop, but it seems to work well.  However I wasn't sure how the women would react to my cooking. I used this chicken paad thai recipe as a start for my dinner. By the way I don't know the author of the "Back Porch Gourmet" Blog but he has some great outdoor cooking recipes and ideas. For the dinner I used two ovens -- one for chicken and one for a veggie version. Dinner must of been good because everyone went back for seconds! In fact the huge dutch oven with the chicken paad thai was gobbled up pretty quickly.

Wow what a dessert!

As dinner was wrapping up Coach John prepared Hutch's dutch ovens for dessert -- fresh blackberry & apple cobbler. Check out the picture of his amazing dessert! Throw in some vanilla ice cream, friends and roaring fire for one heck of a memorable evening.

Here is a link to photos from the evening.

At The County Fair

At the county Fair

Sorry, this should have been posted sooner but its been a busy couple of days. Besides the normal meetings, classes and appointments that usher in the start of the school year, a dead battery in my 1985 Jeep turned into a long few days of testing the alternator, replacing electrical lines, and for the heck of it replacing the power steering pump. On top of all this Saturday afternoon was the 23rd annual draft for my fantasy football league. And yes - our league has been at is so long that when we started there was no internet and we all anxiously waited for the Monday morning newspaper for player stats!

Heading up the grandstands

As a coach one thing I try to do with my team is get off campus to see the surrounding area(s). It would be a shame to spend the first week of college only spending time in the library, dorm room and courts. Besides, Walla Walla is fun to explore and, in fact, was recently named the friendliest town in the United States! And at the beginning of September there is no more interesting place to explore than the oldest fair in the state of Washington -- the Walla Walla Fair & Frontier Days!

Plus I wanted to give the guys on the team a very special experience -- a huge demo derby! The Walla Walla fair demo derby is one serious event. Its 3+ hours of speed, smashing and collisions in front of 4K yelling fans. Throw in some delicious (and very unhealthy) fair food, a beautiful evening and good friends for a very fun and very interesting evening.

flipped car at the derby

The first part of the demo derby is a series of heat races around the dirt track. Even though these heats are lap races there is plenty of bumping, crashing and broken down cars. In fact, this unlucky driver got pushed on his side and the fire trucks had to come out to make sure all was ok. Sam Sadeghi wasn't that impressed with the heat races and said driving in rush hour LA was a "bit like the demo derby except you don't get to go that fast."

Crazy time at the Demo Derby

 The end of the derby is a the-last-car-moving- wins race. All the cars line up around the arena and at the starting signal drivers try to a) disable other cars and b) try not to get disabled. Its a lot of loud cars, parts/tires falling off, crashes, and screaming fans. In this photo you can see unlucky car #19 getting pushed over the concrete barrier! Probably not a redeeming social value in attending the demo derby but I have to say everyone had a smashing good time.

Click here for more photos of the fair/demo derby

Beginning of the school year

Whitman is official off and running! Classes started yesterday but many members of the team been on campus for several days getting moved into dorm rooms/apartments/fraternities. Since most everyone back on campus it was time for an opening week dinner at coaches house!

Let me say I got a HUGE beef brisket from the market for the dinner -- dang thing was so large I had to cut it in half to fit it into the smoker! To go along with dinner I went to farmers market for a couple ripe watermelons, fresh green beans (I figured the mom's would be happy to know their sons were eating a veggie). To finish off the night I made dutch oven blueberry cake! I'm certainly not a dutch oven pro but I must say the cake was unbelievably moist and yummy.

Unfortunately I was so busy cooking and serving that I didn't have time to snap many photos. What I did take can found here.

Looking forward to more opening week activities with the team.

Tennis Alumni Reunion

Calling all tennis alumni -- the 2011 Whitman Tennis Reunion is ago for Nov 4-6 in Las Vegas! I've had great verbal response to the event and a group of dedicated alumni are working on putting the event together. All tennis alumni will be receiving something via email and/or mail about the reunion.

It was pointed out to me that Southwest currently has great deals into Vegas from the Pacific Northwest airports ($80 each way). Might want to jump on this deal before it ends!

More on the event later....

Uncorking a Great Time in Walla Walla

Enough of the tennis camps for junior players -- here is a very special tennis camp for the parents! July 21-24 we are hosting a tennis/wine tasting/gourmet food event at Whitman. Camp consists of morning tennis instruction, afternoon private wine tastings, and evening dinners with with winemakers.

If you haven't been to Walla Walla recently (or at all) you are missing a real treat. Home to over 120 wineries Walla Walla has been called one of the wine capitals of the United States. Along with the wineries there are a plethora of great restaurants in the area. Walla Walla is now one of the top vacation destinations for wine enthusiasts. Talk about a perfect pairing -- tennis at Whitman and Wine Drinking in Walla Walla. Also the profits from this event go to the Whitman tennis programs.

Joining me running this camp is our women's coach John Hein. John is an incredible coach and brings a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to the courts. And speaking of enthusiasm Coach Greg Patton of Boise State will be helping direct the camp. We are very lucky to have Greg joining us at event. He is one of the top coaches in the nation and brings unparalleled energy to the courts. He is the only person in college tennis to be named College Coach of the Year with two different teams (UC Irvine and Boise State) and he was the US Junior Davis Cup coach to Sampras, Courier, Chang, Wheaton (among others) when they were cutting their teeth on the professional ranks.

Here is a link to the camp flyer. If you know someone who loves tennis and wine make sure they get a copy of the flyer!

If you have any questions please email me at coach@whitman.edu