Some Promising Players Resist Lure of Academies : Tennis: Disadvantages of the system include being away from families and risking burnout in the game.

Don’t try to sell tennis academies to Eddie Weiss and Cameran Lindee.

Weiss and Lindee are two Orange County standouts who have played tennis since they were kids, played well enough in high school to earn college scholarships and they say they did it without disrupting their lives.

“I never wanted to go to an academy, either here or Florida,” said Weiss, a four-time Sunset League first-team selection in singles at Fountain Valley High who plays at UC Santa Barbara. “I had good friends here and there was enough competition in Southern California.

“I still played two-three hours a day, hung out with my friends and had a normal childhood. I might have burned out on tennis otherwise.”

Lindee, 19, might have been born to play tennis. His mother, Janet, was playing the day she wound up delivering Lindee, who was two months premature.

At Loara High, he was the Empire League’s top singles player for four years. Now at UC Irvine, Lindee played steadily as a freshman, but has struggled this season with a 6-12 record.

Lindee also wasn’t attracted by the lure of academy instruction. “I’m an only child, very close to my parents, so leaving them to play tennis would have been tough,” he said. “And we couldn’t have afforded it anyway; my dad was pretty sick when I was younger and we’re still paying some of the medical bills.”

But Lindee maintains the academy system might not be that good for very young players anyway.

“I know a couple of kids who got scholarships because they were top players. But it’s so expensive, you almost need a sponsor. One person I know who had a sponsor said he didn’t enjoy it all that much because of the pressure. You’ve got to really be committed,” he said.

Commitment is something Lindee, a sophomore, is wrestling with now. He wants to become a physician specializing in sports medicine, but is having difficulty striking a proper balance between academics and athletics.

“It’s a dilemma because I have a tough class schedule and I haven’t played that great lately,” Lindee said. “We just came back from a recent road trip and I was hit with two tests in biology and chemistry classes in which I had missed three-four days. I will still play, but I’ve learned you really have to budget your time well.”

Irvine Coach Steve Clark will be patient with Lindee because he believes his talent will soon bear out. Clark also said academy training might not have made that much difference for Lindee--and many other players.

“The best players all get individual attention,” Clark said. “Some academies are better than others, but a lot are cattle-feed markets. Some kids spend $30,000 a year there and just get a lot of balls to hit. Well if you hit the ball wrong 5,000 times, you hit it wrong.”

Weiss, 20, studied under teaching pro Mark Hirtler, played in many junior tournaments was fairly polished by the time he got to Fountain Valley.

His coach at Fountain Valley, Jay Gardner, said: “There was little I could teach him as far as technique by the time he got here. But he is as normal as they come.”

Gardner agrees with his player about academies.

“I don’t think they are the only way to go. Eddie’s way wasn’t cheap; private coaches are charging $30-$50 an hour, and that can be an extra $100 a week to parents. But it’s still a big difference from academies, and you don’t have to give up your whole life.

“Would (an academy) have made him better? That’s tough to say. Maybe a little. But he also might have gotten burned out on tennis, which some kids do. Eddie enjoys it as much now as he did in high school.”

Weiss agrees.

“I play tennis for fun,” Weiss said. “When I started doing well I didn’t know how far I’d go. But it’s gotten me a scholarship, and I want to stay all four years.”