Making an impression is what it’s all about when it comes to college showcases for student-athletes looking to catch on with a college team in the future. And while many of the 50 young tennis players who participated in the University Sports Program’s (UST) first college showcase in the Northeast at the Manchester Athletic Club last month were able to make an impression on the college coaches and representatives there to check out the talent, the MAC’s showcase made quite an impression all by itself.
Of those 50 players, some hailed from as far away as Indonesia, Peru, Mexico, Egypt and Argentina to take part in the tournament and showcase. There to find new recruits for their programs were 26 college coaches from schools like Harvard, BYU, Penn, Brown and Amherst College. Each match was live streamed so that those universities who couldn’t be present would get a chance to see the players in action as well.
The response for attendance was impressive, and prospects are even now hearing back from schools and making connections for taking that next step up in competition. The event was a success, and it looks like it could become an annual thing at the MAC.
“We definitely would do it again,” explained Francisco Montoya, Director of the Athletic Academy program at the MAC. “The guys from UST were very pleased that in the first year that we could get 40 kids, and all of them travelling from all over the world. Next year our hope is that it will be double in size.”
The MAC is uniquely suited for events of this type.
“Because we have indoor facilities, these matches can happen rain or shine,” Montoya said. “We can have late night hours if we want. We don’t have a limitation on time or anything like that.”
Programs of this type are important building blocks to the evolution of the Manchester Athletic Club, helping to broaden offerings from the organization.
“We want to be a full-service program so that if kids need tennis training, we have that,” Montoya said. “If they need fitness training, we have that. If they need competition, we have tournaments. We want to make sure we close the gap for them. The ultimate goal for the program is to get kids into good colleges, and being able to offer that bridge right there is important. We want to facilitate that so they don’t have to fly to New York or Virginia to do this.”
Of course, not every participant hailed from another part of the world. A handful of participants were from the North Shore of Massachusetts – some from as close as Hamilton and Wenham – giving some local talent the chance to make an impression.
Participants ranged from ages 15-19, and they were all divided into teams before competing in matches that were structured just like college matches. There were also presentations, and time was allotted during the weekend for athletes to spend one-on-one time with coaches to ask questions and get a feel for a certain school or play style.
“The kids have been telling me that they are now getting emails and corresponding with schools because the schools were here to watch kids play and got to talk to them,” Montoya said. “Pretty much everybody was connected to a school and followed up with.”
This bodes well for the future of these athletes, as well as the future of the MAC and programs of this ilk.
While it is common knowledge that the MAC property and building were sold to Cell Signaling Technologies of Danvers, it sounds like that should not affect the future of the MAC and programs such as these going forward.
“The owner of MAC sold the property that the MAC is on,” explains Jonah Feingold, Manager of Marketing and Sales at the MAC. “He still owns the MAC LLC, but we are now renting the space we are located on. As far as I know it will continue to be business as usual. I expect us to continue to hold events like the USP program we are discussing here.”
