We want to congratulate Pranav in his recent win at Queens Harbor two weeks ago as a Level 7 finalist. Pranav has been in our high performance Academy class now for 1.5 year. He is a brilliant student at Nease High School. His current UTR 3.45 in singles and 5.44 in doubles. Congratulations Pranav and we wish you the best of luck in the next tournament!!
Please congratulate Daniella (Dani) Estrada in her recent highlighted article in USTA’s Hispanic Heritage Month. Dani has been with our tennis Academy since she was 9 years old and now is a Freshman college student at University of South Florida. Dani accomplished her Professional Tennis Registry certification to become one of our professional tennis assistants for Juniors 11-17 two years ago. She was recently highlighted in this article to celebrate tennis players hispanic Congratulations Daniella Estrada, one of our own PTR tennis assistants at the Academy has been highlighted in this months Hispanic Heritage Month with USTA.
Congratulations Dani! We look forward to your accomplishments on the tennis court as well as off the tennis court in college.
Dani Estrada, Emily Kastleman and Molly Wannamaker pictured here with their green dot group for summer tennis camp 2020
Please register now for the upcoming red ball challenge which will include Saint John Tennis Academy tennis students and San Jose Golf and CC students for a fun, non- elimination, red ball challenge. We will have games, drills and round robin style of playing for all our red ball players. All levels are included!
You can register on our website under Fall/Winter Registration, fill in all the information and on the drop down menu select “RED BALL CHALLENGE”.
We will have a pizza party at the end of our event and a prize to take home.
Cost is $20.00 paid in advance of the challenge. Registration will close December 19th at midnight!
San Jose play Day was a success! 10 & Under players
I LOVE teaching this class! I have 6 ladies from our community who have now completed my 12 week series of “Love to Learn” “Love to Play” These ladies are ready to start playing doubles and soon will be playing league tennis. We have tons of laughs and they are so eager to learn and play. It’s really a Mom’s Night Out on Monday’s with me. I understand how important that is now an “Empty Nester” mom of 2.
The Magnificent Seven !
Kyra played her 3rd Grand Prix and won finalist today beginning her journey into local tournament play here in Jacksonville. This young lady has improved so much in Tennis this past year. We are proud of you Kyra and Coach Estella DePaula working hard on the tennis 🎾 court! Your persistence paid off today!
Each year our pros are involved in the gala for a fundraising event for our youth tennis in Jacksonville. Thursday we will attend a silent auction and on Friday participate in playing the ProAm tournament at San Jose Golf and Country Club
www.malwashington.com
Gala dinner fundraiser
Over $200,000 raised for MVWF and their new high school tennis facility, a second edition tennis center for tennis and education.
December 27th - 29th our Academy will be having our annual Christmas Tennis Camp 9-12 pm for 3 days which will include a tournament and pizza party with ornament exchange on the 29th. RSVP to heather.lester@me.com $100 check made out to "SJTA". 16 available spots. Levels intermediate to advanced only!
A weekend for Mali Vai Washington Foundation fundraiser. Our student Allie Bielski represented us at the Gala which brought in a record $310,000.00 of donations. Followed by the Pro Am tournament at San Jose Golf and CC.
Mark, Patrick, Heather & Mal
Allie Bielski and Mali Vai Washington
Team SJTA Ace Breakers competed in sectionals championship this weekend in Orlando at Red Bug Park. What a fantastic group of kids who played three days of tennis 25 matches.
Saint Johns Tennis Academy entered 8 teams into this weekends USTA Team Tennis Challenge weekend located at Boone Park. We had 4 teams entered in the U14 intermediate and 4 teams entered into the U18 intermediate. I am so very proud of each and every team with high efforts to play their very best tennis and displayed great sportsmanship in every match! I received several compliments from various parents and teams and pros from our local communities.
We had 2 teams come in 1st and 2nd place in our U18 intermediate flight - Team 904 won first place with players Landon Williams, Molly Wannamaker & Lily Thompson. We had 2 teams of ours in the playoffs of U14 intermediate "Team Highlighters" and "Team Uno". Team Uno won 1st place with players Allie Bielski, Carys Cook & Lily Davis.
We had a blast last night with all our students to celebrate Halloween tennis style. We had three contest winners for ; "Wackiest tennis shot"- Sam W., "Best Tweener shot"- Gabe S. , and "Best target serve"- Lily D.. We also had a dog fight in which our winner was Grace W. Pizza, drinks, awards and candy was enjoyed by all. Coaches Patrick Diegan and Heather Lester thank you for coming out to play in our 4th annual Halloween celebration!
Right now we plan to be closed for all tennis clinics Monday, September 5th for Labor Day
However, we are reserving this day for makeups for any day we may be rained out this week due to the tropical depression approaching Florida. Keep checking the website for announcements regarding this day. .
Take a look at the new court renovation at Mills Field. Today Coaches Patrick Diegan and Cheryl Keller took pictures of the paint being put down at Mills. We are still excited for the new surface for SJTA students.
Courts are being painted!
All SJTA students there has been a week delay in having Mills Field tennis courts ready for our fall clinics. Be advised that our first clinic of the season will be scheduled for Monday, August 15th. Please arrive on your scheduled day this week.
Coach Heather Lester & Coach Patrick Diegan
Our wonderful staff of PTR Tennis Pro's
For 6 years we have been teaching our seven week summer tennis camps at Creekside High Tennis courts because our kids outgrew the 4 courts at Mills Field tennis club. We have 8 tennis courts we can fill up for kids ages 4-18 years old, all levels of tennis play. For 6 years we have celebrated "Wimbledon Week" in which we all dress in white, commemorate with a professional group photo of Academy tennis players and PTR Tennis Pro's. We also have a tradition of a week long tournament play with a format just as you would have in Wimbledon and eat delicious Strawberries, which is a Wimbledon staple food. The kids learn about all the Grand Slam tournaments of the year and we teach nutrition, strategy and mental health for tournament play.
I will work on a collage of all 6 years of our photos so everyone can see how young and old they are - although in my opinion tennis players stay looking young because of how much Joy the sport brings them!
Our annual Academy players group photo - week #4 summer tennis camp "Wimbledon Week"
Three weeks out of our seven week tennis camp we facilitate a "Dog Fight" in which all our Academy players do several tiebreaks in a round robin format. Whomever has the perfect score is the finalist, these two tied and we ended up doing a playoff. Amazing long rallies from Grace and Cary's in this picture. These girls are training to play Level 6 & 7 USTA tournament play.
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