ITA BG 12-18's Great Pumpkin Sectional

Thanks to all the players, parents and coaches who came down for this year's ITA Great Pumpkin. The weather and play were outstanding! Congratulations to our division winners and finalists. See you next year!

Please join former #1 players Brad Pearce and Tim Blenkiron, along with the ITA Junior Competition Coordinator, Tiffany Clifford, for a question and answer seminar on "Becoming a World Class Champion". Ryan Wolfington, Executive Director at the Nevada Tennis Association, will emcee the seminar. The seminar is free and will be held at the Darling Tennis Center's Stadium Court from 5-6 p.m. during check-in on Saturday, October 25. Players, parents, and coaches are all encouraged to attend and hear from former #1 players on what it takes to become a world-class champion. Brad Pearce was the #1 ranked junior in the U.S. and #5 in the world in 1984. Brad was a junior Wimbledon semi-finalist, an Easter Bowl and Grass Courts Champion, a two-time Kalamazoo doubles champion, and a finalist at the hard-court and clay-court national championships. He was also a member of the champion USTA Junior Davis Cup team, the runner-up USTA Galea Cup team, and won a gold and bronze medal at the US Goodwill Games Team Championships. Brad was an All-American at UCLA from 1984-1986 and turned pro after his sophomore year. He achieved a career high world-ranking of #71 in singles and #24 in doubles. His professional accomplishments include nine professional titles, reaching the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1990 (one of 16 Americans in the last 22 years to do so), and reaching the quarterfinals of both the Australian Open and US Open in doubles. Brad is currently the Head Tennis Coach at BYU, a position he's held since 2004. Tim Blenkiron was recruited by the South Australian Sports Institute in high school and won his country's Secondary School Singles Championship in 1992. A year later Tim came to the U.S. on a UNLV tennis scholarship. From 1994-1996, Tim achieved All-Conference player status in singles and doubles. In 1997, Tim paired up with doubles partner Luke Smith to win the the NCAA Division I Doubles title. Tim has worked as Director of Junior Tennis at Canyon Gate Country Club and at the Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club. Tim is currently coaching Asia Muhammad and is Director of Junior Tennis at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Please join us for a player party and pot-luck dinner during check-in! We'll have a wide variety of entrees, salads and desserts to choose from! We'll also have a ping-pong tournament for anyone who wants to play (parents included) and a DJ playing your favorite tunes. The pot-luck dinner is absolutely free and is open to players and parents.

Seeding for all of the Intermountain Tournaments (Circuits and Sectionals) will be taken straight off of the current ITA Standing's Lists except if there is an exceptional player aging or playing up. An exceptional player is defined as a player listed in the top 100 of the most current National Standings List in the lower age division. This exceptional player will be CONSIDERED for seeding. DOUBLES SEEDS-Will be taken directly from the recent ITA Individual Doubles Standings Lists. Partners ranks will be averaged and seeded accordingly. Consideration for seeding will be given for teams that are on the top 100 Nationally ranked doubles Standings List.

All entrants for the ITA Great Pumpkin have been accepted into the main draws. No alternate lists will be published.

Please note that the ITA Great Pumpkin is now scheduled from Sunday, October 26 through Thursday, October 30. The dates have been changed in order to avoid scheduling conflicts with the Nevada State High School Championships. For the past 6 years, the State Championships have been scheduled during the third week in October. This year, however, the state championships will be held October 23-25, which conflicts with the original dates for the Great Pumpkin. Due to this unexpected change in dates and the inability of the Nevada Interscholastic Athletics Association to alter their schedule, Intermountain's Junior Competition Committee approved the date changes so southern Nevada juniors would be able to participate in the State Championships and compete in the Great Pumpkin. The entry deadline of September 25 remains the same. We apologize for any incoveniences this may cause and appreciate your understanding.

Check in will be held Saturday, October 25 from 4-7 p.m. at the Darling Tennis Center.

A tennis camp will be held for all Great Pumpkin competitors at the Darling Tennis Center. Camp dates are Friday, October 24 from 3-7 p.m. and Saturday, October 25 from 1-3 p.m. The cost of Friday's camp is $60 and Saturday's camp is $45. The registration deadline is Thursday, October 23. The camp will be run by Darling Tennis Center pros' Saad Ashraf, Brian Wilson, Goradz Gavrilov and Lew DeLeon. For further information or to register, please call the Darling Tennis Center at (702) 229-2100.

We would like to thank Laurel Springs School for being one of this year's main sponsors of the ITA Great Pumpkin Junior Sectional Championships. For further information about Laurel Springs, please click on the following link: more info