Kojian, Tantee Will Forgo Playing for Schools

The drive to be the best is taking its toll on the local talent pool in high school girls’ tennis. Villa Park’s Arpi Kojian and Dana Hills’ Amber Tantee, both sophomores, are the latest county players to decide they’d would rather spend more time training with private coaches than playing for school teams.

This spring, Corona del Mar junior Caylan Leslie opted to skip high school tennis in favor of lessons with her private coach.

Kojian, ranked among the top 30 nationally in the girls’ 16 division, said high school tennis does not fit into her busy schedule.

“It takes up so much time,” she said. “The coach wants me to practice all the time and there just aren’t that many players coming up [at Villa Park] for me to practice with.”

Kojian, 15, has been driving to Rancho Santa Fe three days a week to work with Steve Dawson, who teaches out of Fairbanks Ranch Country Club.

“I like playing high school tennis, but it just doesn’t leave me enough time for my lessons and my homework,” she said.

Tantee said she is leaning toward being home-schooled this year and will be traveling often to tournaments. She probably would have played No. 1 singles for the Dolphins.

It’s not only girls who are leaving high school tennis. Last spring, three Woodbridge players--David Lingman, Brandon Shainfeld and Greg Levy--chose lessons with their private coach over high school tennis.

Kojian played No. 2 singles last year for Villa Park behind senior Katey Becker, but she would have moved into the No. 1 spot this season. Kojian missed several junior tournaments this summer because of a shoulder injury, but she plans to play national tournaments this fall and winter.

“My plan right now is to play college tennis,” she said. “If I get good enough, I might turn pro. But that’s down the road.

Sue Gardiner, the Villa Park girls’ athletic director and assistant girls’ tennis coach, was disappointed to hear of Kojian’s decision.

“We will miss her as a person and a player,” Gardiner said. “I hope it’s the right decision.”

Saddleback Coach Mike Conover, who has one of the county’s top players in Kim Nguyen, doesn’t understand why top-ranked juniors must choose between their private coach and their school team.

“There’s really no big [junior] tournaments in the fall,” Conover said. “It’s silly. I think they should be able to do both. I know Kim likes to play high school tennis. It’s with her friends and there’s a lot less pressure than the juniors.”

Corona del Mar Coach Tim Mang, whose team won the Southern Section Division I title last year with Leslie, said it is rare for players to leave his program.

“Our practices are strong enough where our kids can’t get the kind of competition anywhere else until they get to the semifinals of a [junior] tournament,” Mang said. “The only person I’ve had who was good enough to drop out [of high school tennis] was Taylor Dent, and I thought Taylor left a year early.”

Some of the county’s top high school tennis players will compete in this weekend’s Quiksilver Main Event and Trials at Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club. Qualifying matches will be held today through Friday at Corona del Mar High and Oakwood Apartments in Newport Beach. The main draw will start Saturday at Balboa Bay and conclude Monday with the girls’ (10 a.m) and boys’ (noon) singles finals. The doubles finals begin at 2 p.m.

The top local girls entered are Natalie Braverman of Newport Harbor, Etel Bugescu of University, Danielle Hustedt and Ardriana Hockicko of Woodbridge and Eva Baudenbacher of Corona del Mar. The boys’ players are Sameer Chopra of Corona del Mar and Tom Lloyd of Esperanza in singles and Corona del Mar’s Cameron Ball and Brian Morton in doubles.