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Tournament champ focuses on home team
By TERRY JONES TAMPA PALMS -- As a Wharton High School freshman last year, Scot Seitz battled hard to earn the No. 6 position on the Wildcats varsity boys' tennis team. But by the end of the high school tennis season, he began to feel personal improvement while playing tough teammates. During the summer he trained six days a week, working mostly on his serve and forehand. He trains with his personal coach, Adrian Canencia, at the Tampa Palms Golf and Country Club. His hard work paid off July 20 and 21, when he captured the 16-and-under singles title in the Wailukuk Summer Junior Open Tennis Tournament in Maui, Hawaii. "I wasn't sure how I would do in a top tournament with some tough competition," 15-year-old Seitz said. "Being unseeded, I had to take each match one at a time starting with a hard match and ending with the hardest. The championship match was really tough. I beat Chase Corbe 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 for the title. He beat the No. 1 seed in the semis." Seitz, who lives in Tampa Palms, went 4-0 in his age group. He beat his first three opponents in straight sets. Although he has been playing tennis only four years, he says his interest in the sport grows each year. Playing the No. 6 position for Wharton last year as a freshman was no small achievement. The Wildcat boys were one of the top teams in the state with only two seniors on the team. The top two Wildcats are back this season, so Seitz will still be in the pack, probably in the starting five. "Playing with the Wharton team is probably the main motivation that has caused me to work so hard to improve," he said. "Our guys are all talented and have a good chance to challenge for the state championship in the spring. I can't wait. I plan to work hard with my coach and teammates and hope to be in the starting five. That is very important to me." Seitz said a growth spurt over the summer and a focus on his serve really helped him improve in the past three months. He said he had grown from 5-foot-6 to about 5-foot-8 this year, with more power in his serve and his shots. "The additional height gives me a higher angle on my serve and shots, which adds up to more power," he said. "The work my coach has been helping me with is not changes, but improvements. I am refining what I do, and I have discovered I still have a lot of room to improve. That is a positive thing." Between now and the spring high school season, Seitz plans to compete in the Cheval Christmas Bowl and perhaps another tournament or two. But his big goal is to move into the Wildcat starting five and help them win a state championship.
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