August 10, 2008

Brand New Home of Little Giant Tennis

Good Sunday Evening,

I am excited that the summer is almost over. It sure is quiet without the students around. I am ready for the heat to be over, for football to start, and to get the 2008-2009 tennis team back on the court. Not to say that it has been slow around campus, it is a very busy time, but it is definitely different when the guys are back.

As most of you may know, the Collett Tennis Center has been under renovation since early July. This is another reason I am ready for the school year to start. Only a couple of guys have seen some of the work that has been done and I am eager to see how the team will react. It is awesome, first class. The contractors did an excellent job. There are a few items to finish up on, but it should be completed within a few days. Here is what has been renovated:

1. New indirect lights and insulation.

2. New black backdrop curtains with "California Corners" which angle off in between courts.

3. Black divider nets between Courts 1 and 2 and 2 and 3

4. Painting in areas that needed it

5. New nets and net posts

6. New energy efficient roof (painted on)

7. Vent fan on the west end and 2 on the south side

8. The playing surface has been painted red and the outside of the courts are now gray

9. Updated bathroom (new sink/vanity, toilet, and light)

10. Bottom three outdoor courts repainted

As I said, a lot of work and it looks unbelievable. Those of you that remember the old building will not believe your eyes when you see it. This is going to help tremendously with recruiting. No longer will I be weary of taking recruits to our center.

I hope that you fans can make it to campus and see the place. We only have one tournament in the fall and this year it is in St. Louis, but we have a home heavy schedule this spring, so please come and support your Little Giant tennis program. If you have any questions about the facility, do not hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email.

Also want to say thanks for all involved in making this project a reality. Have a wonderful end of the summer and pictures should be up on the web of the finished product soon.

Wabash Always Fights,

Coach

 

Posted by hutchisj at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2008

Camps done, bring on the recruits

Good morning fans of Wabash Tennis,

It has been a great month of June and we had record numbers for our summer camps.  Around 85 campers (2nd grade - High School).  The biggest goal was to make sure that the young ones had fun and that they want to continue playing tennis.  For the middle school and high school, it was about teaching them the right way to act on the court and how to play smart.  Crawfordsville is by no means a tennis mecca, but we can get it there with numbers like we had.  

Evan Bayless, an incoming freshman, did an awesome job of being my assistant and Bryce Barton, the high school AD, did a great job as usual with the high schoolers.  I am glad that it is done, but it is great to hear the kids that they are looking forward to our fall clinic that will begin in October.  

This past weekend I attended the USTA Midwest Closed Championships in Indianapolis.  The first rounds are spread out across the city, but it is based at North Central High School.  Other than the Boys National Open at Kalamazoo and maybe the Midwest Open in Chicago, this is the biggest tournament of the summer.  Players from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and a few from Kentucky were all here.  There was a boys 18 division and a boys 16 division.  Some of the guys had graduated this spring, but a majority are going to be seniors this academic year.  It was just awesome to see the level of play.  These guys are fighting their way through the draw and competing like it is Wimbledon.

Through this tournament, I made my list of recruits that I want to be in this program.  It is going to be an uphill battle because as I was watching certain players, I looked to my right and saw the Marquette coach, the Ohio State coach, and the Western Michigan coach.  Looking to my left I saw Purdue, Indiana, Butler, and DePauw.  These are all great programs, so for me to be going after the same guys proves we are heading in the right direction.

The next step is to get in contact with these guys and get them here for a visit.  Once this summer and then again for an overnight and football game.  As we all know, no one really understands Wabash unless you are on campus.  This is especially true for these recruits, because most are from out of state and don't know much about us.  

It is an exciting time talking to future Wabash men.  For any of you alums that follow tennis and and read this blog, please get with me so that if a recruit is in your area, maybe we can double-team him.  Have a great rest of the summer, I will be on the road continuing to build a nationally recognized tennis program.

Wabash Always Fights,

Coach Hutchison

 

Posted by hutchisj at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2008

Welcome to Summer - College Style

Another academic year is finished and I cannot believe that we are in the middle of May.  For those of you that don't know what coaches do once the students are gone, here is a little insight.  WE RELAX!  But not for long because the next recruiting cycle has begun.  We are all working hard at getting new prospects into our databases and getting the initial letters sent out in the hopes of having them come to campus for a visit soon.  Yes, vacations come along but we also take part in summer camps.  We either host them or coach at ones not on campus.  

My tennis camp runs for 4 weeks.  I have 4 different classes throughout the day ranging from 2nd and 3rd graders to High Schoolers.  It is fun and an excellent chance to see the future of tennis in West Central Indiana.  Soccer has a week long camp, wrestling runs two different camps this month and basketball has high school shoot-outs almost every weekend.

On top of all of that, there will probably be the breaking of ground for all of the new outdoor athletic facilities on campus.  It is going to be an exciting summer.  Having seen the drawings for the projects, this campus is going to have an entirely new look in a year and a half.  This will most definitely aid in the recruitment of solid student-athletes.  

Also there is a new Athletic Director.  Former Dean of Students, Thomas Bambrey has been named to that position.  Bambrey is an alum and knows the athletic department well.  His skills will serve us well.  I see a new, bright future for Wabash College athletics.  

So, for those you out there that think we (coaches) have summers off, think again.  Just because a majority of the students are gone, this place is as busy as ever.  If you have some time to come through campus as the projects start, I encourage it.  Nothing has begun yet, but I believe it will soon.  I am sure that we will keep our followers posted about the progress of the projects.

Have a wonderful day and I will talk to everyone soon!

 

Coach Hutchison

Wabash College Tennis

 

 

 

Posted by hutchisj at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2008

NCAC Championships

Good Morning Wabash Tennis Fans,

Today at 4:00pm the tennis team travels to Oberlin College to play in the Conference Tournament.  We are seeded #3, which is highest that a Wabash tennis team has ever been seeded since entering the NCAC.  We are motivated and ready and are not going to go and be happy with 3rd place.  We will see Wooster in the first round.  We beat them 5-4 in February, but I feel that we are a stronger team than we were then.  It will be a good first round match for us.  When we win we will more than likely see Denison in the Semi's.  We lost a very close 6-3 match in March to the Big Red.  The guys feel extremely confident that we can upset them this time around.  

This could be the end of the season for us, unless we step up and win the tournament which would put us in the National Tournament.  We have a good week of practice focusing on doubles and doing drills to take the stress off.  The biggest philosophy that I am giving the guys for this weekend is to go out and have fun, work hard and everything will fall into place.

We have had a long but successful season.  We finished with a 10-12 record.  I can only recall one match that we should have won and lost.  That would have made us .500, which with such a tough schedule and very young team is quite an accomplishment.  I am very excited to continue to build this program with some nice recruits coming in for next year and since I have no seniors, we will have pretty much the same team.

If you are on your computers this weekend, go to the Oberlin College men's tennis page and they will have the results and the draws.  Wish us luck as we leave for Ohio to break a Wabash Record by finishing higher in the conference than ever before.

Wabash Always Fights,

Coach Hutchison

hutchisj@wabash.edu

 

Posted by hutchisj at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2008

Spring Break and Season thus Far

Fans of Wabash Tennis,

I am apologize for the delay in the blog, but here is the latest news from the court.  At this point in the season, we are currently 6-8 and 2-1 in the conference.  Our conference victories are over The College of Wooster (my first as coach!) and Ohio Wesleyan.  Our only loss was to the highly ranked Kenyon Lords, who recently just beat the #5 team in the nation.  In my eyes, we only have one bad loss this season.  The other losses were against higher ranked teams and more experienced teams.  I knew that it would a tough year with the schedule that I put together, but it will pay off in the long run.  The NCAC conference and its coaches have ranked us to finish 3rd in the conference this season, which is the highest Wabash has ever been projected to finish in the NCAC.  I truly think we can finish 2nd and we will know this Friday as the Denison Big Red comes to campus for a very important conference match.  

Let me get into Spring Break a little bit.  Sunny Southern California (as the picture above shows) was a great experience.  It was our first week outside playing tennis, which showed in our matches.  We were used to the faster indoor surfaces and had some trouble competing against good opponents that have been training on slow outdoor surfaces.  We came away from the trip with 4 losses.  One of those was the bad losses that I mentioned earlier.  Regardless of the outcomes, I do feel many positives came out of the trip.  For one, I got to take everybody but one on the trip, so the camaraderie of the team was heightened.  The guys began to understand each other more and learned to support one another both on and off the court.  Another positive was that the bottom of my line-up became better tennis players playing against better competition.  The whole idea of inexperience was raised to some experience having played at that level.  Each player got a little better at their game.  

We didn't only play tennis.  Part of the Spring Trip for me is giving the team an opportunity to see things that they may never be able to see.  So on Sunday I/we met up with Coach Johnson's daughter, Becca(who I went to high school with), and she showed us around Hollywood and Beverly Hills.  The guys seemed to enjoy seeing that kind of lifestyle.  On Thursday night after our last match, we went to an LA Kings hockey game at the Staples Center.  Jay Horrey ('09) talked to his uncle who is a sales rep for Staples and got us VIP treatment for the game.  We had front row parking, walked right in, and watched the game in one of the suites.  While waiting to get in, we saw one of the stars from the show Heroes, we saw Matthew Perry (Friends-Chandler Bing), and then to make the guys night even better, we saw Maria Sharapova standing right next to us.  I should have asked her to take a picture with us, but we were all a little starstruck.  On Friday, we got up and I took the team to Laguna Beach (picture above) to enjoy their last day in the sun.  We also met some alums throughout the week that have relocated to the LA area, very cool for the guys to talk to former Little Giants.

Overall a great trip, but with traffic and cost of everything out there, we will probably not go back for a few years.  

Onto the rest of the season.  Since returning we are 2-1 with wins over Rose and Wartburg and a loss against a tough Luther College team.  The matches don't get any easier as we face Denison and Calvin this weekend.  Both are ranked ahead of us.  From there we have the Kerry Seward Invitational, Wittenberg, Earlham, GLCA Tournament, DePauw, and then Conference.  The next two months are huge and I will keep updated on how we do.

Oh yes...the latest rankings have come out and we are #17 in the Central Region, which is the highest that Wabash has ever been since the ITA has been doing the rankings.  Also, freshman #1 William Pelak is #10 in the singles rankings.  If he finishes the year in the Top 8, he will qualify for the NCAA National Individual Singles Tournament.

Keep following us and if you have anything to add, I love to hear from our fans.  Can we get some sunshine please in Indiana?  I miss sunny LA.

Coach

 

 

Posted by hutchisj at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2008

One week away

Happy Snowy Friday!

Nice to have a little time to get back on here and let everyone know how the first couple of weeks have gone at practice.  The guys are ready for some outside competition.  They have been beating up on each other everyday and need to see some new blood.  We are just under a week away from our first match with Franklin College and a week from tomorrow we have our first conference match in Kenyon College, the 2007 NCAC Champs and a nationally ranked opponent.  

I have no doubt in my mind that we will compete well against these opponents and I know that we are ready.  We are in the midst of challenge matches, trying to determine a line-up.  There are a lot of matches that need to be played and I am unsure of who is going to end up where at this point.  It is exciting though, the guys want to push each other to get better, but at the same time, the competition level is very high.  

It is going to be an exciting season and I can't believe that we are this close to our first match.  The preseason has gone by fast.  I hope that all of you can make it to some matches this fall to cheer on your Little Giants.  I feel strongly that we can beat teams that we are not supposed to beat.  

Every have safe travels today if you are in the midwest and I will talk to everyone soon!

Wabash Tennis Always Fights,

Coach

Posted by hutchisj at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2007

Happy Holidays from Wabash Tennis

Good Wednesday Morning Everyone,

I must say that it was quite a shock to come back from Naples, Florida to this cold weather.  I was at the ITA Coaches Convention from this past Thursday to Monday.  It was a great experience and I learned some important themes as well as meeting some big name coaches.  Truly a great time...helped that it was in Naples!  Going to this convention really got me excited to get going with our spring season.  It can't get here soon enough.

My guys are on their much needed winter break.  The fall semester seemed to fly by and I can't believe that Christmas is next week and that we are only a month away from our first practice.  The team did an excellent job of staying fit in the off-season, but I have a feeling that we are going to spend a good portion of preseason conditioning.  I hope that they are ready for it.  The convention showed me a lot of new techniques for getting fit and they do not look easy, should be fun.

I have added a very important match to this season, an alumni match.  This will be taking place on January 26 and I am very eager for my young guys to meet some of the prominent alums that will be attending.  Fred Emhardt has spearheaded this campaign and I want to thank him for getting this going again.  We skipped the last 2 years.  If any alums are ready this blog, feel free to get in contact with me if you are interested in attending.

I want to invite all possible to come to as many matches as possible this spring.  As I have stated in previous posts, we have a great chance for breaking records and getting to nationals.  Any support you can give this team would be great.  Our schedule is online at www.wabash.edu/sports/tennis.  

Finally I want to wish everyone a safe and happy Holiday Season.  I hope that all of your Christmas wishes come true.  Also have a wonderful start to the New Year!

Talk to everyone soon!

Wabash Always Fights,

Coach Hutchison

 

 

 

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