| Girls’ Tennis
Varsity
Laura Brantley, Head
Coach
Ryan Pagotto, Assistant
JV
Kate Sykes, Head Coach
The tennis season runs from mid-September through October.
Greetings!
The purpose of this letter is to provide a brief introduction to the Blair
Academy girls’ tennis program. Girls’ tennis has been a popular
sport at Blair, and we have had much success over the last decade throughout
the state of New Jersey. Blair won the Prep B-Division State Championships
in 1997 and then moved up to the Prep A Division. The Blair team ended the
2001 season with a winning 12-3 record for the second year in a row, and
a respectable third place finish in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL).
In 2004, the team posted a 13-3 record, and three varsity players earned
All-State honors. Over the past few years, the team has established itself
as a force to be reckoned with, which has allowed us to build a tremendous
schedule in which we face some of the toughest teams throughout the state.
Among those teams are Newark Academy,
Montclair Kimberley Academy, The Hun School, Lawrenceville,
The Peddie School and Princeton Day School. We are playing
23 dual matches this year in addition to the New Jersey State
Prep Tournament.
Our season begins with a rigorous but
fun pre-season camp at the end of August. All varsity candidates
arrive at Blair one week before other students and embark
on a practice regimen aimed at getting athletes into shape
and building a sense of team unity. Regular season practices
last for approximately two hours after school and include
conditioning, drills, use of a ball machine, videotaping
of strokes, and match play. Blair’s tennis complex
consists of nine Deco-Turf II hard tennis courts (same surface
as the U.S. Open).
An additional highlight of the Blair
tennis tradition is the fact that we are the founding school
of the New England Mid-Atlantic Tennis Invitational (NEMA’s).
The tournament, sponsored by Asics, Head Penn Tennis and
Coca Cola, has gained a reputation as one of the premier
high school boys’ tennis tournaments in the country.
Sixteen teams from seven different states participated in
the event last season. The tournament is entering its ninth
year and the competition is stronger each year. The NEMA’s
have heightened Blair’s reputation on the local and
national level among colleges and universities. Recent Blair
graduates have gone on to play tennis at Smith College, Kenyon
College, Lafayette College, Lehigh University and Brown University.
Entering her first year as the Head Coach,
Laura Brantley brings a wealth of experience to the Blair
courts. Coach Brantley graduated from Hamilton College (’10)
in Clinton, NY, where she was a captain and three-year varsity
letter winner. Coach Brantley’s enthusiasm and love
for the game of tennis will surely translate into another
successful tennis season this fall.
The assistant coach, Kate Sykes, is
a graduate of Penn State and brings a tremendous amount of
enthusiasm to the program. Coach Sykes is also a most effective
and popular art teacher and she is the Chair of the Art department.
Thank you for your interest in the Blair
girls’ tennis program! If you have any further questions,
please feel free to contact head coach Laura
Brantley via e-mail at brantl@blair.edu.
Laura Brantley
Head Girls’ Tennis Coach
|
Introduction