Sunday, June 26th, 1977

It was a wonderful, lazy Sunday morning at the Academy. It was clear and grass was wet with dew, I love the smell of wet grass. This is the first day of the counselor tournament and I drew the number one seed, Eric Riley. Riley has the game and the sound, By that it means that when he strikes the ball its dead center of his Dunlop Maxply. It is a pleasing sound rivaled only by how picture perfect his strokes are. I ran and tried to run him; I was in the match, in the set, in the game, in the point, but Riley had an answer for every ball I hit. I had some luck with my drop shot because he doesn’t cover the short ball well, but he handled everything and beat me 8-0. Did I feel embarrassed? No. I gave it everything I had and I showed up. Sandy watched and thought it was a close match.

Mr. B also showed up to watch and when I came off the court he had nice words for me. He said that I out-worked him but I needed a plan. He said any plan is better than none. That I need to make a list of weaknesses and play to them, its not enough getting to every ball, he said I was playing defense, he thinks I need to grab the match, dictate points and play offense. He said while I’m out there on the court I need to constantly think of ways to win. Very wise words from Mr. B; I can work with that.

In the afternoon it was counselor doubles, John Day and I played Doug Hamilton and Andy Greenspan. John Day is a very good doubles player and we were able to win our serves and lucky enough to break Andy. We won 6-2. Andy is a great guy who just came into camp a few days ago from Scarsdale, New York.

Sandy beat X in the first round, Pat lost to Chris, Becky beat Jude. Bobby D. beat Tom V in a three setter. There were some great matches. Mr. B says hes putting up 25.00 bucks to winner of singles, that’s peaked interest in the tournament.

They had video tape replays from Wimbledon all afternoon, they had the Borg match and Bobby D. and the legion of pro Borg campers were cheering him on. I think he’s okay. I think the heavy topspin is more of a liability than an asset, but he should win the tournament.

After the matches and dinner Mike and I walked down to Wises for mint-chocolate chip ice cream. We talked about little league baseball, He's an athlete and was an all star. I bet he can hit the ball a mile. Hopefully when the sports camp gets going we can play them.

It’s a perfect night, I can hear the crickets and see the fireflies. I walked over to the girls dorm and hung out in the TV lounge and talked to Chris, Becky, Bevin and Pat. The poor girls have it much tougher than us, there are more girl campers! I adore them all.