AT 60, PERRY STILL HAS DRIVE TO WIN

Not much has changed between Norm Perry and tennis over the last four decades.

“It doesn’t matter what age you’re at,” he said. “You want to win just as badly.”

From 1959-61, Perry was a three-time All-American and captain of the UCLA tennis team.

Now, at 60, he is a member of the Toluca Lake Tennis Club squad that recently beat teams from across Southern California to qualify for the USTA national championships.

In adult league competition, teams compete at various skill levels ranging from beginner (2.5) to teaching pro (5.0). Each team includes two singles players and three doubles teams.

Toluca Lake has, among its dozen players, a doctor, an animator and a boxing trainer. About half of them played college tennis. This spring, they won their 4.5 league in the San Fernando Valley to earn a spot in the Southern California sectional tournament.

Perry, who owns a tennis equipment business in Glendale, ranks as the elder statesman.

“He actually played at Wimbledon,” said Win Chang, a 38-year-old anesthesiologist who lost only one match at No. 1 singles for Toluca Lake this season. “I’m just a hacker by comparison.”

Because of his age, however, Perry usually serves as a substitute. At the sectionals, he was called upon to play doubles in a semifinal match against a San Gabriel Valley team.

With the match score at 0-2 and Toluca Lake facing elimination, Perry and his partner, Ron Nall, scrambled from behind to win, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Toluca Lake won the semifinal, 3-2, then beat an Orange County team, 4-1, in the final.

That sends the team to Tucson in late October for the nationals. Perry is every bit as excited as he was playing college tennis so many years ago.

“The pressure of playing on a team is twice as much,” Perry said. “If you play for yourself and you lose, you’re disappointed but you haven’t let anyone else down.

“If you lose on a team, you feel bad for the other guys. Therefore, when you do win in a team format, you get a lot more enjoyment.”

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At the other end of the age spectrum, Erin Boisclair had a strong showing at the recent USTA Girls’ 18 National Championships in San Jose.

The Agoura Hills player reached the fifth round in singles and paired with Whitney Laiho of Middleton, R.I., to reach the finals in doubles. They lost, 6-2, 7-5, to Allison Bradshaw of San Diego and Abigail Spears of Valley Center, Calif.

Though she improved upon her fourth-place finish in doubles last year, Boisclair was a little disappointed.

“It was my last junior tournament,” the 18-year-old said. “I wish I could have won.”

Local tennis fans might recall Boisclair as a 14-year-old Southern California junior champion who later struggled with tendinitis in her serving shoulder.

She spent the last four years in Florida attending various tennis academies. That kept her far from friends and family but, she said: “I knew it had to be done, so I dealt with it.”

The separation was tougher on her mother.

“Are you kidding me?” Dolores Boisclair said. “We’re talking 3,000 miles away.”

Erin was back at home this week, but only for a few days. On Monday, she begins her freshman year at the University of Florida.

“They have the No. 1 tennis team in the country and the coach is awesome,” she said. Even Dolores can share in that emotion.

“The best of the best,” she said. “I’m a blessed mom.”