Q & A: Serves and Volleys

In An Exclusive Interview, New Director Shares Plans for Palisades Tennis Center

Andy McDonnell, the new Director of Tennis at the Palisades Tennis Center, has had a few months to get his feet wet and has already added a lot of energy to the public facility at Alma Real. The spring session started this week and McDonnell was eager to tell the Palisadian-Post about his experiences so far at the PTC… PP: You’ve been at the PTC for three months now. What’s it like to go from traveling around the world with Andy Roddick to coming to Pacific Palisades? AM: I won’t lie. Traveling around the world wasn’t terrible, but that was his career as opposed to mine. The PTC is one of the most renowned tennis centers in the world and it’s a blast coming to work everyday. The clients are amazing. Actually, it reminds me a lot of Atlanta where every restaurant is filled with league teams still in their tennis garb. I see so many people at restaurants who all met in the workouts. There are people who are now married who met in a workout at the tennis center. PP: What do like best about working in the Palisades? AM: Again, the people at the tennis center are just great. Everyone has an amazing career and an incredible story. Tennis is a magnet for those who excel or are accomplished at something. Also, I love kids and we have 500 of them at the tennis center. PP: What do you like least about the PTC? AM: I wish there was a pool, a weight room, a locker and more parking. PP: What has been the hardest part of your new job? AM: There hasn’t been any one thing that is hard, but the amount of workouts is unlike anywhere in the country. So managing the sheer volume is the hardest thing. There are over 100 workouts a week. Most places have one or two a day. Most pro shops have one type of men’s shoe and one ladies shoe. Our tennis center has over 50 different shoes from adidas, Nike, K Swiss and Wilson. Most pro shops have a black outfit and a white outfit. We have more clothes, especially for women and kids, than I’ve ever seen before. I’ll bet we have more kids clothing than any tennis shop in America. PP: What changes are you going to be making? AM: I’m going to ramp up activities outside of just workouts and do more stuff in-house. We’ve been in leagues with other clubs around town and there was never the level of commitment that we had. It stinks having our team of 13 travel to play another country club where four kids showed up. We’re going to have a lot more tournaments, ladders and leagues. A lot has gone unexploited. Liveball was invented right here at the PTC. It’s now played all over the country. We’re going to have a lot more liveball tournaments and a new dedicated liveball website is coming online shortly. Also, I want to focus on getting new players on the court, especially kids. Too often people think tennis is too hard to play. Granted, you have to hit a little ball going really fast a long way but under the right learning environment the game can be picked up easily. The PTC has proven that. PP: Do you have any goals for the junior program? AM: I want to get 100 Palisades kids nationally ranked. That sounds hard, but it really isn’t. It’s just a function of getting enough kids playing in the right events. Because Southern California is the top tennis market in America, it’s possible to get a great national ranking without leaving this area. PP: Why are you pushing for more girls to play tennis? AM: The opportunities for girls in tennis are really off the charts. Whereas there are 250 nationally ranked boys who are spectacular and only about 25-30 girls per age group. A girl could start playing tennis and in a couple of years be ranked in the top 200 in the country. The easiest way to get into a great high school is to be a tennis player. Basically, every spot on every women’s college team in America is a full scholarship. If you want to save a couple hundred grand and give one of the greatest life skills, put a racket in your daughter’s hand. Tennis is great for boys too, it’s just not nearly as easy to get a scholarship. For getting into the best high schools, tennis is the best way to get to the front of the line. In this market, every great high school wants to be the best in tennis. PP: Who are a few of the PTC juniors who are doing well? AM: We now have about 50 kids regularly playing tournaments. Walker Kehrer has a No. 1 national doubles ranking and is No. 15 in singles in the boys 18s. He still has another year left so he has a realistic shot at being No. 1 in the nation in singles. Clay Thompson is only 15 and is now playing professional tournaments. Last week, he beat a guy ranked in the top 500 in the world 6-1, 6-2. Daniel Moss will be playing for Pepperdine next year and Reece Milner will play for Virginia. Robbie Bellamy and Alex Giannini are playing doubles together now and have a legitimate shot at being No. 1 in the nation in the 14’s. They came within a few points of beating the No. 1 team a couple of months ago and it was one of their first times to play together. Robbie, Cristobal Rivera and Brandon Michaels have all held Top 10 section singles rankings and Josh Rosen has held the No. 1 spot. Eduardo Nava got to No. 2 in the world and had match point to get him to No. 1. On the girls’ side, Logan Hansen reached No. 1 in the nation and will be playing for Stanford. Elizabeth Profit has also held the No. 1 sectional ranking. I’m really excited about the group of 7- to 10- year-olds we have. There are about 30 of them who’ll tear up the junior circuit. When you go to a tournament now in Anaheim you see so many Palisadians in the draw. PP: How is the camp looking for this summer? AM: We’re trying to accomplish a few things with the camp this summer. First, it has to be the greatest experience the kids have ever had. We want to see them sprinting from their cars to get to the courts. Second, we want to build tennis players through our format of kids hitting tons of balls and having tons of fun. Third, we understand that summers are busy and we’re really trying to customize the camp so it works from a time of day perspective for parents. Thomas Dawson is the camp director and it’s going to be awesome.