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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Ore Selects Texas A & M to Help Him Prepare for Professional Tennis


Junior Ore has yet to visit the Texas A & M campus, but his conversations with Aggie coaches Steve Denton and Bob McKinley have convinced the 18-year-old from Gaithersburg, Md. that the path to professional tennis runs through College Station.

"Steve Denton and Bobby McKinley have a pretty strong background with tennis professionally, and I want to become a pro and they were pros, so I believe Texas A & M is a perfect fit," said Ore, who plans to join the team in January. "I believe I need more time to develop my game before I can go pro and college is just another stepping stone."

Ore also considered a number of other schools, including Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Oklahoma, Texas and Illinois and took unofficial visits to the first two campuses. But the conversations that Ore and his grandfather had with Denton and McKinley convinced him to select Texas A & M.

"They came to where I was training and they talked to my grandfather," Ore recalled. "We--my coach and I--were talking about the things I needed to do with my game, and they were doing the same thing as well, so it just worked out perfectly."

Ore spent many years at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., but since the U.S. Open Juniors, he has trained with former Princeton player Alex Vuckovic at Steve Smith's Academy in Tampa. Current Aggie senior Austin Krajicek also has trained with Smith throughout his junior and college career.

"I don't know the whole team, but I know most of the team," Ore said of the current A & M squad. "Austin just wrote me a message the other day saying welcome to the team."

Ore is in the process of changing some of his strokes, and wants to continue to work on those changes when he starts at A & M.

"My goal right now is just to work on my game, just tweaking here and there with my coaches and Denton," Ore said. "This summer I'm planning on playing in Europe on the red clay, just to play matches, not to go after points. I'll just keep practicing on my game and see what happens from there."

9 comments:

notbiased said...

Colette,

I was wondering why Dennis Novikov was not included in the honor roll for his future doubles win(Irvine)?

Colette Lewis said...

I forgot to add it. I will now. Thanks for the reminder.

Frank said...

Oh my! Even if you plan to turn pro, choosing a school without visiting and purely talking with coaches- not such a smart move. Maybe he thinks he will only play tennis and not attend classes.

iluvtennis said...

Wow, that is crazy, how can you pick a school without at least visiting. In addition, if you want to be a pro why wouldn't you go to a school that has actually produced a pro. Try Baylor, UVa, Illinois, USC, etc. Just me but last time I checked I don't see many players from A&M in the top 100 more or less top 500.

Forgot One Major School said...

iluvtennis

Why isn't Georgia (John Isner) on that list of colleges that has produced pros? He credits Manuel Diaz on his major development and John is Top 20 in the World and making millions.

You have written "etc" but Georgia isn't an "etc" I do agree with your comments on Texas A&M.

Knowledge Helps said...

iluvtennis. The coaches at Texas A@M are Bob McKinley and Steve Denton. Denton was no. 11 in the world in singles and #2 in doubles. Bob McKinley was 50 in the world and retired at age 23. Beat Jimmy Connors 17 times without a loss. They have been at A@M for just 4 years and have turned them into a top 5 caliber team this year. I doubt theres any school in the country with a better 1-2 combination when it comes to knowledge of the game and teaching at the college level. Manny has been around a long time. Tell me who he produced in his 1st 4 seasons. Same with the other schools mentioned. Like a lot of comments on here they are said with zero thought.

iluvtennis said...

Georgia would be a great pick and I just blanked on it. Isner is the best college player to play pro in a long time so that would have been a good choice.
Some good arguements there for A&M but still no results. Great players don't always make great coaches....in addition, those results are about 30 years old. If you want to learn to play with a wood racket, serve and volley and use a continental grip then I would agree.

Glad You Made The Move said...

I selected my university without visiting beforehand and went on to 4 successful years including the Dean's List. Like Mr. Ore, I was impressed by the sincerity and commitment to me, demonstrated by the people who recruited me. That is worth a lot. It worked out. You have to admire someone like Mr. Ore who is demonstrating a level of high character that is not found in many of his generation or any other generation in today's world of "show me the money". One has to admire him for making his own career decision (yes, tennis is a career) based upon the best opportunity for him, not the best opportunity for everyone else who has an opinion. Good luck and God Bless You Junior Ore. Prove the naysayers wrong! You are almost there. Change is good.

5.0 Player said...

I will give SOME credit to Manny Diaz and Georgia for helping John Isner develop his game, but not a truck load. When you have a 6 ft. 9 player who can serve 140 MPH and all he needs to do is grow into his body then it's really not that difficult to help him reach the pro level in 4 years. Only a very incompetent coach (and, sadly, there are many out there) could have blown this opportunity. So, let's not pin a medal on Diaz and Georgia for this no-brainer. I will be more impressed if they help someone make it on the pro tour who is not already a freak athlete coming into their program.