Bottoms Up to the Very Top for Ellis : Party Animal Rises to Tennis Champion

Mark Ellis took a long and circuitous path to becoming a tennis champion. By the time he won the NCAA Division III singles championship for Cal Lutheran two months ago, he had come full circle.

Many expected Ellis, 23, a 1991 graduate of Camarillo High, to be a champion.

A 6-foot-6 left-hander whose serve has been clocked at 129 mph, Ellis had the size, power and athletic ability.

But some among tennis’ typically staid establishment were concerned about his off-court habits.

Ellis was an enthusiastic party-goer.

And although he said he was merely experimenting, like many other teenagers, he was stereotyped and not readily accepted around the courts. Some of his tennis mentors were concerned that he would get lost on the bumpy road toward maturity.

“No one knows the real facts of what’s happened in my past,” Ellis said. “But it’s my life and the path I chose. If I mess up, I mess up. It’s my problem.

“It seems like the whole world’s known my lifestyle. But look at me now.”

Now living in Ojai under the guidance of friend and employer Ron Adlam, Ellis said he has settled down and has made tennis, school and his future a higher priority.

“I’m focused on my health, endurance and physical fitness,” he said. “Before, I would work out hard, but I was just burning all the alcohol out of my system.”

En route to what was the first national individual championship by a Cal Lutheran athlete, Ellis, who will be a senior, posted a 34-1 record.

Three years ago, he was released from a scholarship at New Mexico, but Ellis completed a remarkable comeback by defeating Todd Bowlby of Gustavus Adolphus, 6-2, 6-3, in Atlanta to win the Division III singles title May 22.

His summer schedule includes the Infiniti Open wild card pre-qualifying tournament, which starts Monday at the Racquet Centre in Studio City and gives him a shot to qualify for the main draw of the APT tournament July 29.

Ellis will be honored at both a luncheon and dinner at the U.S. Open in August.

Coach Wayne Bryan will not only attend one of those functions, he will ask United States Tennis Assn. officials to enter Ellis in the U.S. Open qualifying tournament.

A national college champion belongs there, Bryan said.

“I have a great deal of affection for him and a lot of admiration for what he’s accomplished,” said Bryan, who remembers Ellis from his junior clinics at Cabrillo Racquet Club near Camarillo.

But Bryan was one whose hopes for Ellis were tempered by doubts.

To begin with, Ellis was a late bloomer who started competing at age 16. When poor grades left Ellis academically ineligible at Camarillo, Bryan worked with Ellis and school administrators to get him back on track.

“His athletic skills were intoxicating,” Bryan said. “Upper-one percentile.”

Ellis was 52-2 in sets his senior year and shared Marmonte League most valuable player honors with Mike Bannister of Newbury Park.

He made less of an impact on the Southern California juniors circuit, ranking 25th his final season in the 18-and-under division. But he and Bannister, now at San Diego State, were No. 2 in doubles.

No local college recruited Ellis, perhaps because he was considered a risk.

“I became known as a partyer and I did my share,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I was a normal teenager. But I got put down for that. People said I was part of a bad crowd.

“They weren’t dangerous friends. They were a mellow, cool crowd. There was never any fighting. I’ve got friends who will become addicted to something, no matter what it is. But I don’t have an addictive personality.”

Ellis had a ready response for those who suggested he was doing something wrong.

“I basically said, ‘Don’t get into my business.’ ”

A partial scholarship to New Mexico eventually came through after Ellis made a strong showing in a national tournament in the summer of 1992.

But that arrangement soon went awry. Academics plagued him again and he was released from his scholarship after 3 1/2 semesters.

Back home, two breaks helped Ellis form a new attitude and earn another chance. Ellis was hired to assist Sean Brawley, tennis director at Spanish Hills Country Club, and he met Cal Lutheran Coach Mike Gennette.

Under Brawley’s influence, Ellis learned a new mental approach to tennis. Gennette got Ellis back into school.

Gennette, always on the lookout for stray talent, said he was not worried that Ellis could be a poor representative for Cal Lutheran’s image as a Christian college.

“I’ve never had problems with Mark’s behavior,” Gennette said. “He’s the leader of the team.”

Gennette leaned on Ellis more heavily than the other players, he said, because he counted on Ellis for leadership. This led to occasional, but only minor, clashes.

“We had our arguments, but we always met each other half way,” Gennette said. “I didn’t really know him. I was aware of his potential. He’s done everything I’ve asked him to do. . . . This is a great person, a smart person.”

Gennette said Ellis is on target to graduate with a degree in psychology, perhaps sometime next year, but he probably would have struggled at a large college and without close academic guidance.

Gennette beamed in Atlanta while watching Ellis beat all five opponents in straight sets, never losing more than four games in a set.

“At Cal Lutheran in the past, we’ve had Davis Cup players from all over the world and All-Americans, and incredibly talented players who should have won it,” he said. “But [Ellis] was the one who did. It was an incredible accomplishment.”

*

Ellis credits a change of style and mental approach. Whereas he once yearned to be a crowd-pleaser, trying to hit winners on every point, Ellis now is more conservative and adds occasional finesse shots.

The desire to be a champion has always burned within him, Ellis said, and he finally reached the goal after he learned to think positively in matches.

“My racket would fly and I’d yell if I missed a shot,” he said. “Now I can’t imagine I used to do that. When I step on the court now, I’m going to do anything to win short of cheating. There’s no thought of giving up or losing.”

Ellis has become an inspiration to his community.

“You can bet I’ll be talking about him to my people,” said Annette Burrows, director of Cal Lutheran’s career center, co-president of Ventura County’s junior tennis program and a club member at Cabrillo.

“He was one of the more lost people in his career and tennis and professional life coming into college,” she said. “He was able to pull it all together. And now he knows if he sets a goal and works for it, he can accomplish anything.”

Ellis returned to Bryan’s Cabrillo clinic last week and spoke to a group of young boys and girls about setting goals.

“He found those things out on his own,” Bryan said. “But when he talked to the kids, he was saying those things with conviction.”

Ellis might have a future in professional tennis, but his goals for next year are to repeat as champion and graduate.

“I look at my past as a really good experience,” he said. “I have no regrets. You should never regret anything you do, because you can’t change it.

“I actually think I have a future now, where I didn’t think of it before.”