It was at breakfast that I noticed a major mood change. The kids were dressed in their finest, the Borg and Vilas fans were dressed in Fila, the Connors kids were wearing JC clothes, the young Chris Everts were equipped with her Wilson autograph, BJK fans were playing with Bancrofts. Its hilarious. The Borg kids are all wearing headbands and playing with that awful Donnay racquet, they are even walking like him, this is something one has to see to believe. We were all eating in Forde Hall when Roger Dickinson, X and Riley walked in, X had the draw sheet but he wasn’t sharing it with the kids. It was driving them all crazy with anticipation. The counselors were curious too, but we went on with our breakfast and eventually made it across campus, past the Buchanan Cabin to the courts. Mr. B was leaning up against the station wagon waiting for us. We did the warm up lap and then the boss went into a 30 minute talk on sportsmanship, on desire on excuses. He told them he didn’t want to hear any excuses, that they were to play their hardest and leave the excuses on the court. It was a great talk.
Play began, the bigger kids squared off on the upper clay courts, the little kids on the lower clay courts competition among the kids is great to watch. I brings out the very best and worst in their developing personalities. I love to watch the scrappers, theyre the ones that will do anything just to get a ball back, they don’t have the groundstrokes, just desire, those are the ones destined to win tournaments in their lifetimes.
The tournament favorite is this tall blond kid by the name of Rick. His Dad dropped him off here for the summer and he hits everyday with Tom V. He can beat most of the counselors. And he breezed through the draw and made it into the final.
It was the same thing on the girls side, a few of the older girls, High School players breezed through the draw and will square off in the final.
After the matches were over I played Sanderson, at 6’4 he can hit the ball over a hundred miles an hour, and he was on fire he smoked me 8-1. I never had a chance, that’s the worst beating I have had here, except for the Riley match. I know what to do next time, Ill soften everything up, take away his pace and make him run, then I should be fine.
Last night one of the campers came by and offered me $20.00 for my old Head Master. I readily sold it, probably at a lost because I need some spending money, I was down to my last $5-dollar bill. One of my Jack Kramers is broken, popped a string playing Sandy, so I have just one racquet and I cannot afford to restring it. That $20-dollars should last me a long time.
We had a big Dance starting at 8:30, all the kids and campers were there and it was a lot of fun. Mr B. brought some ice cream and punch by and he hung out for a while and took photos. I think everyone will be sad to see this session end, what a great bunch of kids.
McEnroe's run at Wimbledon is over, he lost to Connors and we were able to watch some of the match in Mr. B's apartment, Borg beat Gerulitis, both were sensational matches.
Its late now and we have to get up to watch the finals and then kids are checking out at 1:00. Parents can show up at anytime and we have a barbeque scheduled on the veranda at Forde Hall. Tom has a few of us on duty tonight to make sure none of the kids sneak out of the dorms. So Sheridan and I are going to walk around campus at midnight, should be spooky!
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