Junior Players Get Chance to Learn by Teaching

Consider it a lesson learned.

By the kids, and the kids teaching the kids.

Stephen Amritraj was among 23 elite junior-circuit players who spent Sunday teaching tennis basics to children as part of the first Kids Teaching Kids clinic at the Warner Center Tennis Club in Woodland Hills.

“I think it went pretty well,” said Amritraj, a sophomore at Crespi High who organized and directed the clinic as a community-service project required by his school.

“I thought the juniors did real well, relating to the kids and remembering how they started out.”

The clinic provided Amritraj and other junior players the opportunity to spend time together in a less competitive setting than they experience in the U.S. Tennis Assn. youth tournaments.

“It’s such a cliche, ‘Giving back to the game,’ ” said Harvard-Westlake player David Frankel, one of the instructors.

“The game is just the game, but the game is based on the people in it. So this was a chance to give something back to all the people who have helped me in my career. And the thing is, I had a lot of fun with it. It’s tennis, which I like, and you’re in more of a social atmosphere.”

The three-hour free clinic included 45 elementary school children. Among the instructors were Mike Smith of Crespi, Jesse Ferlianto of Harvard-Westlake, Nina Yaftali of Westlake and Georgette Wright of Burbank.

The clinic was the first planned, organized and executed by junior players, according to Annette Broersma, director of community and youth programs for the USTA’s Southern California section.

“The idea of kids teaching kids, that was his concept,” Broersma said of Amritraj, a veteran of the junior circuit who is ranked No. 17 in the boys’ 16 division in Southern California.

“For all of them to get together and be teaching these little kids was [beautiful]. We kind of did this as a training exercise, in how to run these things and how to be teachers, and they were able to get their points across really well.”

The Southern California Tennis Assn., which provided balls and rackets, would like to see more clinics. Similar events are being considered for the Ojai tournament next month and the Mercedes-Benz Cup at the Los Angeles Tennis Center in July.

Amritraj, who directed traffic at a farmer’s market for a previous community-service project, first approached SCTA officials with his idea last fall, seeking advice and equipment. He later sought help with organizing and running the event from friends on the junior tennis circuit.

“I wanted to promote tennis around here a little bit,” Amritraj said. “I know it’s been really good to me, and I felt I’d get more out of something like this than just doing something that anybody could do. This was [geared] more toward my talents.”

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The Harvard-Westlake boys’ team is tackling its second national tournament in two weeks.

The Wolverines (11-2, 6-0 in Mission League play) will be tested today in the National High School Coaches’ Assn. Invitational, a four-team, one-day marathon event in Overland Park, Kan., where they will play the three other schools in pro-set matches within a 16-hour period.

“It’ll be more tennis than I’ve ever played in my life,” Frankel said. “We’ll see how that goes. It’s going to be interesting.”

Among the schools in the tournament is Cardinal Gibbons of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., which won the event last year and was considered the top team in the nation largely because of that result.

Competing in the tournament is part of Harvard-Westlake’s push for national exposure. The Wolverines are the only team from California entered.

Harvard-Westlake finished third in the National High School Tennis All-American tournament in Newport Beach last week, beating Clovis West, Brentwood, and, in the third-place match, Corona del Mar, then the top-ranked team in the Southern Section Division I.

The Wolverines lost in the semifinals to Peninsula, which has handed Harvard-Westlake both of its defeats. The Wolverines beat Horrace Mann of New York, 11-7, in a nonleague match Wednesday.

“It’s been a really positive start,” Frankel said. “I feel like we proved something by getting as far as we did and being among the top three or four teams in a tournament like that.

“And to think we did all this without our No. 1 [player] is a real accomplishment.”

Top player Prakash Amritraj is playing international events in Asia and won’t return to Harvard-Westlake until next month.

But that hasn’t bothered the Wolverines.

“I have no idea how we’re going to do [in the tournament], what these teams will be like,” Coach Keith Huyssoon said. “I think the guys are ready.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Top 10

Rankings of boys’ tennis teams from

the region

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RK School (League) Rec. 1 Harvard-Westlake (Mission) 12-2 2 Westlake (Marmonte) 6-0 3 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 7-2 4 Burbank (Foothill) 7-1 5 Glendale (Pacific) 6-2 6 Rio Mesa (Pacific View) 5-0 7 Granada Hills (West Valley) 6-0 8 Crespi (Mission) 8-2 9 Agoura (Marmonte) 5-2 10 Calabasas (Frontier) 6-4

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