Hol Wants to Take His Game, Foothill to Higher Level

Sam Olson has coached his share of elite junior tennis players--Anaheim’s Eric Lin, Sunny Hills’ Kevin Kim and Northridge’s Meilen Tu. Two years ago, Olson remembers adding Foothill sophomore Joost Hol’s name to that list.

“Joost was only 14, but I remember telling his parents that someday their son was going to become a very good player,” said Olson, who runs a tennis academy at the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club. “I had finished coaching Eric and Kevin and I thought to myself that Joost had the kind of tools to be as good as both of those guys. I told them he’d be the next great player.”

Hol, 16, hasn’t achieved greatness yet. He’s ranked only 75th nationally by the United States Tennis Assn., but he appears to be on the verge of breaking out. In the last two months, Hol has more than held his own with Sunny Hills’ Joseph Gilbert, San Diego’s Trent Miller and Newport Beach’s Geoff Abrams--older players ranked much higher than Hol.

Olson doesn’t work with Hol much anymore. Hol’s full-time coach is former touring pro Tim Pawsat. But Pawsat sees the same things in Hol that Olson did.

“Joost is not a household name in the tennis world,” Pawsat said. “But if any coach saw him strike a ball, they’d say, ‘This guy is going to be good.’ ”

Occasionally in practice, Hol leaves his coach in awe.

“If he wants to, he can hit a winner from anywhere on the court at any time,” Pawsat said. “That’s quite an asset.”

But Pawsat said it’s also a liability. Because of his power and incredible shot-making ability, Hol sometimes gets lazy and forgets about the rest of his game--serving and volleying.

“I’ve been around tennis for a long time and Joost hits his ground strokes as well as anybody,” Pawsat said. “He can hit the ball past a Sampras, an Agassi, you name it. But just because he can hit the ball hard, that doesn’t always correlate to victories. If he’s hot, he can beat anybody. But if he’s not on, he can lose to anybody.”

But Hol said losing isn’t always the worst thing for his game.

“When I lose, I try to examine why I lost,” said Hol, who was born in Ecuador and lived in Venezuela and Colombia before moving to California at age 5. “If I won all the time, I wouldn’t think as much about the match I just played.”

Said Pawsat: “My coach always liked when I lost because he always felt I was more coachable after a loss.”

Pawsat is working hard with Hol on developing an all-around game.

“No matter what happens to him, his ground strokes will always be his bread and butter,” Pawsat said. “But his serve can set up his ground strokes and his volley can finish off points.”

Hol said he is listening.

“I hear all the time that with my size, I should be coming to the net more,” said Hol, who is 6 feet 1 and growing. “It only makes sense that when I hit a good shot, I should put the next one away. But sometimes I like to wait and hit another ground stroke. I do know that if I can start coming to the net consistently, it’ll make my life easier.”

Not that Hol’s life is that difficult now. When he isn’t playing tennis or in class, Hol works on his Go Kart or his friend’s sailboat.

“He’s kind of a handyman,” said Servite sophomore Ryan Moore, Hol’s doubles partner in junior tournaments.

The simpler the lifestyle, the better Hol likes it. When he hears of other county players going across the country to tennis academies so they can improve their game, Hol shakes his head.

“I wouldn’t go,” he said. “I don’t understand why anyone would want to leave California. I wouldn’t want to leave my family and friends behind. I like my life too much here.”

But Hol isn’t opposed to a trip to Phoenix every December to play in the Fiesta Bowl junior tennis tournament, which he was won twice.

In April, Hol wouldn’t mind adding the Ojai tournament to the list of tournaments he has won twice. As a freshman, Hol took the boys’ 16 division at Ojai.

But until Ojai, Hol will concentrate on leading his Foothill team to as many victories as he can. Three of Foothill’s top four players graduated from last year’s team that reached the Southern Section Division II semifinals, so suddenly Hol is a team leader as a sophomore.

“Last year, we had so much talent we could goof around and still win easily,” he said. “This year, we’ll have to take each match seriously.”

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Boys’ Tennis at a Glance

Top players: Geoff Abrams, Newport Harbor, Sr.; Eric Bachelor, Mission Viejo, So.; Jon Biorkman, University, Jr.; B.K. Chang, Villa Park, Jr.; Chris Chung, Sunny Hills, Jr.; Taylor Dent, Corona del Mar, Fr.; Chase Exon, Woodbridge, So.; Brandon Fallon, Dana Hills, Jr.; Jon Han, Sunny Hills, Sr.; Brett Hankey, Huntington Beach, Sr.; Joost Hol, Foothill, So.; Andro Ignacio, Garden Grove, Jr.; Cody Jackson, Sunny Hills, Fr.; Todd Kaplan, Los Alamitos, Sr.; Beau Kojima, Edison, Fr.; Jerry Liao, Canyon, Sr.; Ryan Moore, Servite, So.; James Pai, Loara, Sr; Chris Seid, University, Sr; Chad Smith, Villa Park, Sr.; Boris Turkic, Corona del Mar, Jr.

League favorites: Century: Villa Park; Empire: Loara; Freeway: Sunny Hills; Garden Grove: Garden Grove; Golden West: Servite; Olympic: Cerritos Valley Christian; Orange: Brea Olinda; Pacific Coast: University; Sea View; Corona del Mar; South Coast: Mission Viejo; Sunset: Los Alamitos.

1995 final poll: 1. Sunny Hills; 2. Woodbridge; 3. Dana Hills; 4. Los Alamitos; 5. Foothill; 6. University; 7. Loara; 8. Mission Viejo; 9. Corona del Mar; 10. Villa Park.

1996 preseason poll: 1. Corona del Mar; 2. Woodbridge; 3. University; 4. Sunny Hills; 5. Loara; 6. Los Alamitos; 7. Garden Grove; 8. Villa Park; 9. Edison; 10. Canyon.

Key dates: March 14-16, Century/Vic Braden Cup, Century High; April 6-13, Easter Bowl tournament, Palm Springs Riviera Country Club; April 20, Canyon Team Challenge, Canyon High; April 25-27, Ojai tournament; May 14, 16, 21, 23, 29, Southern Section team tournament; May 18, 24-25, Southern Section individual tournament.

Notes: Abrams, who has signed a letter of intent with Stanford, is back after a year at Palmer Tennis Academy in Tampa, Fla., and will play for Newport Harbor. Abrams will attempt to win his third Ojai title and his first section individual singles title. As a sophomore, Abrams lost in the semifinals to Ocean View’s Jakob Pietrowski, now at Notre Dame. . . . Joseph Gilbert would have been one of the favorites to win Ojai and the section individual tournament, but he is doing independent study and is not attending Sunny Hills this year. Gilbert recently reached the semifinals of the Fullerton junior tournament. . . . The Century League will again play under a college-style format where every player must play at least a set of singles and doubles. Century Coach Chuck Lia, who designed the format, is hopeful it will be adopted by the Southern Section next year. . . . Garden Grove is certain to have its best team ever. The Argonauts lost only one starter. Ignacio (102-18 in two years) is one of the most improved players in the county.