JMTA Hosts Annual College Recruiting Combine

June 29, 2018 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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More than one hundred tennis players entering their sophomore, junior or senior years of high school descended onto Sportime Randall’s Island to be a part of the third annual John McEnroe Tennis Academy (JMTA) College Recruiting Combine.

The event gives prospects the opportunity to be in front of some of the country’s top college coaches, as they take part in match play, detailed tennis and fitness performance reports, informative coaching panels and personalized interaction.

“The 2018 JMTA College Recruiting Combine was a smashing success with competitors from all over the United States as well as from India, Bolivia and the Philippines,” said Jay Harris, Director of Tennis at Sportime Roslyn and the JMTA College Recruiting Combine Director. “The Combine was able to share the talents of top players with coaches from nationally-ranked college teams such as Dartmouth, Cornell, Baylor, Buffalo, Washington, St. John’s, Bucknell and many more.

New this year was an introduction into the incredible world of Sports Vision where players not only learned about the concept, but also were tested on their vision abilities and awareness.”

 

The two-day long combine featured the players competing on both hard courts and clay courts, outdoors and indoors, as the coaches were able to scout and take a look at the players in a multitude of environments. The match results count towards a player’s Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) and, with the partnership with CIZR, all matches were video-recorded and available to players with edited videos, detailed analytics and a custom video player that allows players to watch and share with college coaches.

“The showcase gave me a chance to show my abilities in a match situation to numerous college coaches. It provided the opportunity to demonstrate my game, mental toughness, and physical fitness,” said Jack Flores, who is entering his junior season at Huntington High School. “The college coaches were easily accessible throughout the combine and they also held a informative discussion where they answered questions about the recruiting process and what the college tennis experience is like.”

Players took part in a mental toughness seminar with some of the JMTA’s top tennis minds, and were able to learn from and ask questions to college coaches, from all levels, during the coaches’ panels.

Max Moscowitz, an assistant coach at Farleigh Dickinson University, was one of the speaker’s on the boys’ coaches’ panel and was eager to look at some of the local players in action to see who would be a good fit for his program.

“We’re trying to find more local players in the New York/New Jersey area to come to Farleigh Dickinson,” said Moscowitz. “We want to help players develop and grow, and events like this help us find those types of players. By the time our season ends, most of the high school tournaments have ended also, so events like these are so important because we only have so much time to recruit. It is so important to our recruitment process.”

 

One of the more unique aspects of the combine is the player portal that is created for each participant. The portal stores event information such as the results of your matches and fitness tests, which helps to further simplify the process of showcasing yourself to college coaches.

“I think we continue to improve on our unique college exposure product,” Harris added. “We are able to blend an opportunity for college prospects to gain exposure with a true educational opportunity for all of the players and their parents.”

Click Here to see more photos from the third annual JMTA College Recruiting Combine. 

 

 

 


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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