Leaving Los Alamitos Was Tonic for Hoskins’ Game
Though the results didn’t quite show it this week at the Easter Bowl, Drew Hoskins says his tennis game has improved since he left Los Alamitos High last August for Austin, Texas, and the St. Stephens Tennis Academy.
“I’m getting to play a lot more tennis and there’s just a lot more opportunities for me to get better,” said Hoskins, who spent two years at Los Alamitos.
One of those opportunities came three weeks ago in El Salvador. Hoskins received a wild card into a junior International Tennis Federation event, which he wound up winning. On the same trip, Hoskins reached the doubles final of an event in Costa Rica.
“I could have never done anything like that if I had stayed at home,” he said.
Hoskins spends about three hours a day playing tennis at a new $2 million facility and another hour doing fitness training. He attends a private school, which he says is more demanding than Los Alamitos.
“It’s smaller than Los Alamitos, only 600 kids compared to 3,500 at Los Al, but I’m getting a great education,” said Hoskins, the only Southern Californian out of 50 players enrolled in the tennis academy. “I do miss high school tennis and the battles with Woodbridge and Corona del Mar.”
But not enough to return to Los Alamitos for his senior year.
“I think I’ll be back at St. Stephens next year,” he said. “I need to keep working on getting better.”
Hoskins lost in the first round of the boys’ 18 division, but won two matches in the consolation rounds.
“I think I was tired when I first got [to Palm Springs],” he said. “I hadn’t seen my parents in a while and I don’t think I was ready to play that first match.”
Hoskins, a second-team Times’ Orange County selection last year, advanced to the round of 16 in doubles with Roger Gubser of Laredo, Texas, before losing to the fourth-seeded team of K.C. Corkery of Manhattan Beach and Brian Wilson of San Marcos, 6-4, 6-2, on Wednesday.
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In play on Thursday, 10th-seeded Tracy Lin of Anaheim advanced to the finals of the girls’ 14 consolation draw by defeating Riza Zalameda of Los Angeles, 7-5, 6-2, and ninth-seeded Bryce Marable of Darien, Ill., 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 6-2. In the girls’ 18s consolation quarterfinals, Caylan Leslie of Corona del Mar lost to San Marino’s Luana Magnani, the Southern Section singles champion, 6-2, 6-1. In the boys’ 16 consolation quarterfinals, University High’s Aaron Yovan was defeated by fourth-seeded Josh Cohen of Weston, Fla., 6-2, 6-1.