Tennis: No burning the midnight oil

Richard Dunn

Two years ago, Corona del Mar High’s boys tennis team traveled to

Kansas City, Mo., for a national indoor high school tournament.

The event, used as a barometer for USA Today’s first year-ending

national rankings, featured top-seeded Peninsula, No. 2 CdM, No. 3

Cardinal Gibbons of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and No. 4 Rockhurst of Kansas

City.

“We came in second to Cardinal Gibbons and we needed to play until 12

o’clock at night (to finish),” CdM Coach Tim Mang said. “We had to play

three matches in one day. That’s one of the reasons why I started this

(tournament) here.”

Voila! You have the second annual CdM National High School Boys Tennis

All-American Invitational, a field twice as large as the now-defunct

Kansas City tournament.

In addition to winning championships and always hoping to beat

Peninsula, what keeps Mang on fire these days is running the CdM national

invitational, which is operated by the National High School Tennis

All-American Foundation, which has eight national district chairmen to

help Mang.

Mang, who started the nonprofit organization in 1998 to give high

school tennis more visibility on a national scale, also coaches the Sea

Kings during the tournament.

After last year’s inaugural tournament, all 16 coaches agreed that the

team competition was second to none. Mang’s quest, to make it “the

premier high school tennis event” of the year, came true.

It was hard to find anyone, from the club managers to the players and

parents, who wasn’t raving about the event at Palisades Tennis Club.”This

is a great tournament,” Palisades owner/operator Ken Stuart said after

last year’s event. “It’s got a lot of potential.”

After Peninsula defeated Menlo of Atherton in the finals, 7-1,

Panthers Coach Tom Cox said the tournament was a class act. “We went to

the national tournament in Kansas City (in 1999), but this one was far

superior to that,” Cox said.

Team unity, often a lost art in tennis, was also built for the two-day

span among the competing squads last year.

The CdM national invitational appears to be here to stay with Mang

working year-round on the tournaments, which includes a girls national

tournament in the fall.

Mang was hoping CdM High could host some matches, but Pepsi, which was

sponsoring the event last year through Pavilions, didn’t want to infringe

on Coke, which has the rights to the Newport-Mesa School District.

So Mang proceeded to knock on every club’s door and ask for

endorsements to his dream -- a national high school team tournament --

and the clubs came through.

In October, the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club hosted the first girls

tournament.

Five clubs in the area -- Palisades, BBC Racquet Club, Newport Beach

Tennis Club, Costa Mesa Tennis Center and Park Newport -- donate courts

to the tournament.

In last year’s inaugural event, 39 courts were donated on the first

day and 42 the second day.

Proceeds of the tournament go toward recognizing high school tennis

All-Americans, presented by the foundation.

In last year’s first round, third-seeded Cherry Creek of Englewood,

Colo., and fourth-seeded Dr. Michael Krop of Miami, Fla., were knocked

off. Krop also lost in the back draw. Neither team returned this year.

Of the 16 teams, 10 played in last year’s event. Defending national

champion Peninsula is seeded first, Menlo second, CdM third and

Brentwood, the defending CIF Southern Section Division IV champion,

fourth.

Peninsula returns two of its best players, Rylan Rizza and Jeff

Kazarian, both of whom are highly ranked nationally.

The inaugural Wilson Tennis Clinics are planned for March 23 at the

Palisades Club.

The club will be open to the first 120 people, free of charge,

beginning at 6 p.m. with clinics, drawings and gift prizes. Free hors

d’oeuvres will be provided starting at 7:30 p.m.

“It should be a beautiful affair,” club spokesman Irv Goldberg said.

Those interested in attending should call Goldberg at (949) 644-6900.