Jarrett Ferguson and Jackson Monroe, a couple of soon-to-be freshmen, the first at Norman High and the second at Norman North, were about to face one another in their Norman Open final last week at Westwood Tennis Center, when they opted to delay their match for a moment.

A reporter had a few questions.

The conversation veered toward Norman’s athletic landscape at large when Ferguson offered something few 14-year-olds have ever uttered in this town.

“I used to play soccer,” he said.

Time will tell if there are five more like him, 10 more like him or hundreds more like him, willing to go against the grain in a profound way. Because Norman’s a town full of soccer players who used to play something else.

Could the hardcourt put a dent in the pitch?

It has a shot if David Minihan, Westwood’s director of tennis, true believer and dreamer to boot, gets things going the way he hopes.

For years and years Minihan’s harvested young tennis players at Westwood’s ever expanding complex. And for years and years so many of them have ultimately moved on to something else.

All the evidence required can be found at the annual high school state tournament where, in No. 1 doubles, Norman North’s Kevin Boyd and Sam Geurkink ended the city’s 14-year state-title drought on the court. Mark Claudé, now Minihan’s first assistant, and Lando Hamlett won No. 1 doubles in 1995.

But that drought was before the Westwood Tennis Academy.

Over at Westwood, the clubhouse has been expanded and modernized, but the rest of the complex hasn’t changed much from last year or the year before.

The difference is what’s happening within it.



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The Westwood Tennis Academy, more than anything, is an idea.

“We feel like we have the facility now to train the players that are aspiring to get a district, sectional and national ranking,” Minihan said. “We wanted to make sure we offer more to our tournament kids.”

Westwood’s wheelhouse has always been its introduction of the game to local youths. That hasn’t changed. But with the academy in place, local court talent now have a program to turn to in the hope of reaching the next level, whatever that might be, from high school state champion, to earning a tennis scholarship, to competing at the highest levels of the sport.

Only launched in March, about 20 kids have enrolled in the program, all local. The cost is real, but hardly prohibitive when set against the cost of hundreds of already-established tennis academies across the nation.

Minihan can see the day aspriing players relocate to Norman to attend the academy the same way aspiring gymnasts relocate to be close to the best training. He believes he has the economics in place to expand his staff and resources in pace with demand for the academy’s program.

“We’ll never turn away a kid that wants to be in the academy,” he said.

In a few short months, the new program has already delivered.

Academy players, as of last week, had racked up 15 tourney victories this summer. In past years, said Minihan, that number would have been “about five.”

The program offers several options and services can be purchased a la carte, but at full service, the program operates something like this:

In a typical summer day, an academy student works with weights from 9 to 10 a.m. (the academy has a deal with a local gym), performs on-court drills from 10:30 a.m. to noon, returns from lunch in time to work on point play and match strategy from 1:30 to 3 p.m., after which the student might take a private lesson, or work on the court with a ball machine or repair to the clubhouse to do video work.

A fall schedule, taking into account a full day of school, has already been designed.

An additional feature of the program is college placement. The academy is designed to be an instructor to aspiring tennis players, and also an advocate.

Minihan said not only are players monitored, but parents, too. Westwood Tennis Academy is not in the burnout business.



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Beyond 15 tourney titles, the best proof Minihans’ again struck gold at Westwood is the testimony of those already enrolled in the program.

Because nothing is so exciting to a young athlete as the realization he or she is, clearly, getting better.

“I’ve never been this intense. And it’s really opened my eyes to how much I want to play college tennis,” Ferguson said. “I really want to play on the ATP Tour.

“You can realize your full potential,” said Monroe, who admitted previous concern toward the committment the academy required. “I was thinking, ‘That’s a lot of tennis,’ but I think I’m ready for it. I like improving.”

For Ferguson, playing more tennis and working on his game have made him want to play more tennis and work on his game.

“I didn’t know how far I could push myself,” he said. “It’s opened my eyes to see how good I really am and how good I can be.”

Perhaps he’ll play another sport here or there, because there’s a season for everything, but the one he’ll sacrifice for is clear.

Others are sure to follow if for no other reason than finally having a place and a program to extend that sacrifice.

“You want to be good,” Monroe said.

Who doesn’t?

Clay Horning

366-3526

cfhorning@normantranscript.com