BYU Men's Tennis

All BYU Doubles Finalists - USTA/ITA regional!

2010-10-26T21:28:00.005-06:00

The winner of the USTA/ITA regionals tournament automatically qualifies for the National Indoor Tennis Tournament held in New York City! Because it was an all BYU final we received permission to play the final at our home courts! Thomas Shubert & Spencer Smith played Evan Urbina & Patrick Kawka in the finals.

The team before the match!

Patrick & Evan

Spencer & Thomas

We had a great crowd!

There was not a seat left and people were having to stand sit anywhere they could squish in!

It was great to have Cassidy, our team captain from last year, here to cheer on the boys!

It was a great match. Thomas & Spencer ended up winning 9-7!

Here are the finalists!

And the champions!

Next week Thomas & Spencer will go to New York City to compete in the National Indoors while Evan & Patrick will go to California to compete in the So. Cal Intercollegiates!

Go Cougars!

Viva Las Vegas!

2010-10-26T21:13:00.003-06:00

The guys just returned from Las Vegas where they played the USTA/ITA Regional Tennis Tournament! Our region consists of 15 teams. We had 4 players make it to the round of 16 and 3 of the 8 quarter-finalists were Cougars! Evan advanced to the semi's and we had an all BYU doubles final!

The guys!

Thomas, Evan, Roman, Ricardo, Tyler, Spencer & Patrick

Spencer, Josh & Patrick

Ricardo with his family who came up from Mexico to watch him play!

Josh & The Spencer's family

Ricardo, Tyler, & Roman

Thomas & Spencer

Spencer & him mom, Janice!

Ricardo, Josh, & Evan

Patrick & Thomas

The guys were able to go out to dinner with Ryan Wolfington in Vegas.

Ryan is Mr. Vegas!

Ricardo & Roman

The Loong's with the team

Patrick & his parents!

BYU Homecoming!

2010-10-26T21:12:00.003-06:00

Here are the guys in the BYU Homecoming Parade!

Go Cougars!

All American

2010-10-26T21:06:00.004-06:00

Spencer, Patrick, Thomas & Evan all were selected by the ITA, to represent BYU at the All American tournament in Tulsa!

Spencer

Thomas

Spencer & Evan

Racqueteer Day!

2010-10-12T10:53:00.007-06:00

We had a great turn out for our Annual Fall Racqueteer Day! The day started with the guys on the team pairing up with some of our fans and supporters for a round robin tennis tournament!

And some just came to watch!

Thomas & Harold Turley played in the finals against Glen Jaspering & Patrick!

Brad took over the chair umpire responsibilities!

Harold & Thomas came out victorious!

Which gives them the great honor of having their names added to the trophy!

After the tennis we went inside for brunch and to be introduced to the new team!

Here are the guys proudly showing off their MWC championship rings!

Spencer was the recipient of the "Doug & Joy Heiner Scholarship for Academic & Athletic Excellence"

And Thomas was the recipient of the "Harold & Elaine Turley Scholarship"

Welcome Back Party!

2010-10-05T21:57:00.002-06:00

We had our annual welcome back to school party! This is always a fun party where everyone is required to eat tri-tip until they are sick!

Daniel, Thomas & Cassidy

After dinner we have our annual game of sharks & minnows!

Don't tell anyone that they are holding hands (I think that is part of the whole team bonding thing!)

Daniel was the winner!

Spencer, Georgy & Daniel

Happy Birthday Patrick!

2010-09-28T08:08:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday to one of our new Freshman, Patrick Kawka!

The Boys are Back in Town!

2010-09-23T09:06:00.002-06:00

The Men's team kicked off the year with a hike to the Y above campus!

Daniel, Roman, Thomas, Halle, Spencer, Tyler, Josh, Patrick, Evan, Ricardo & Georgy

Here they are at the very top of they Y, they couldn't settle for anything lower than the very top!

While up on the mountain, it was announced that Evan will be the new team captain. He started off by giving a motivational thought to the guys!

The amazing view of Provo!

Home Sweet Home!

2010-07-15T16:00:00.005-06:00

We had a great trip to Europe and had so much fun. We saw so many things and spent a lot of time just laughing and enjoying each other's company! Harold & Elaine Turley were awesome to have a long, they were so much fun and made the trip even better.

The last van ride of the trip! Here we are headed to the airport in Rome.

And finally back home at the Salt Lake Airport!!!!

More Italian Open & the Roman Forum! Saturday, July 10th

2010-07-10T13:44:00.008-06:00

We started the day by playing tennis at the Foro Italico again. Here is a picture from the balcony of the clubhouse, overlooking some of the courts.

Even Brad got out and played today!

The group after tennis.

After tennis we went to the Roman Forum. This was where Rome was ruled from.... back in the day. We walked on the same marble roads that Ceaser would have walked on over 2000 years ago. It was really interesting to learn how everything in Roman history fit together!

In front of more ruins. Off to our right is the spot where Ceaser's body was burned after he was assassinated by some senator's. It was so hot here, that while we were looking around, we would go from one spot of shade to the next trying to stay cool.

Tennis @ the Foro Italico & more Rome! Friday, July 9th

2010-07-09T15:31:00.007-06:00

We were able to play matches at the Foro Italico in Rome. This is the site for the Italian Open. It was amazing to get to hit at this site! We had a great time and the guys loved hitting on clay!

Zack, Evan, Spencer, Thomas, Cassidy, Daniel, Chris, Georgy, Harold, & Brad

Spencer

Thomas

Brad & Zack

Cassidy

Chris

Matthew

John

Evan

This is the old Center court! It is covered for a beach volleyball match that was just played here. It is a great setting, notice all of the statues around the grounds!

Zack, Chris, Cindi, Matthew, Vito, an Italian players mom, Harold, & Elaine

Vito is an ATP Tour supervisor. That basically means that he has been one of 2 key players in running the ATP tour. He has been doing his job for 30 years! There is no one you could meet that would know more about the players and who they really are!

Had to pose in front of the statue with the tennis racquet in his hand!

Daniel

Then we had a membership initiation to the "anchovy club!"

Brad was the 1st member.

Then we were able to hear some stories from Vito and ask him some questions about the "real" ATP Tour and the players!

Then off to St. Peter's and the Vatican! All I can say about this is that it is too amazing to say anything about! We started by going to the Vatican Museum and seeing the Sistine Chapel! But no pictures were allowed in there.

This canopy inside the church is 7 stories tall, that gives a little perspective on how huge this church is!

We hiked all the way to the top of the Dome on St. Peter's!

A view of the city!

In St. Peter's square!

David in Florence and then on to Rome! Thursday, July 8th

2010-07-08T15:46:00.031-06:00

Here we are in front of the Accademia in Florence. This building does not do justice to Michelangelo's statue of David in side!

Harold having a "teaching moment" with us on the street in Florence. Florence is his favorite city and he was able to teach us quite a bit about the renaissance and the artists from there!

On a bridge in Florence. This city is amazing, and the best part is you can walk everywhere!

Georgy, Spencer & Daniel in Florence!

Then we headed to Rome! Our first stop was to look for Gladiator's at the Colosseum.

Inside the Colosseum!

It was huge (used to hold 50,000 people)!

Outside the Colosseum in front of the Arch of Constantine!

And finally we found a gladiator. Harold is begging for his life!

Our guys weren't really a match for the big guy!

Janie, Chris, Spencer, Matthew, THE GLADIATOR, Cindi, John, Evan, Brad, Thomas, Cassidy, Harold, Daniel, Georgy, Zack & Elaine!

After the Colosseum we headed to the Pantheon. (ref: angels & demons)

Outside the Pantheon, there was a german TV station that stopped and asked Cassidy to do an interview for them. They wanted him to tell them his take on selling and buying fake purses,etc.

Then they grabbed Thomas for his take on the issue.

We had a great Italian Feast (really) at a little Bistro!

Our last stop was the Trevi Fountain. This is the only picture (we will try to go back in daylight) where you can kind of see the Fountain in the back! It is huge!

Legend says if you toss a coin over your shoulder into the fountain you will be guaranteed a return trip to Rome! So here Thomas, Evan & Spencer are trying their good fortune!

Venice & Florence! Wednesday, July 6th

2010-07-07T14:42:00.015-06:00

On the water taxi to Venice!

In front of St. Mark's in St. Mark's Square!

Matthew, Janie, Chris & John heading out for a Gondola ride!

Matthew & Janie having a romantic moment!

Brad learning the tricks of the trade. It may not be as easy as it looks to be a gondolier!

Everyone in front of the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

And back at the train station!

Janie, Cassidy, Matthew, Daniel, & Evan

Brad, Harold & Thomas!

In front of the Duomo in Florence!

Birthday dinner for Zack! Happy 25th! He is enjoying his birthday lasagna.

The owner of the bistro came and serenaded Zack with the Happy Birthday Song!

We have already decided we will all meet in Spain for the running of the bulls on his 50th Birthday!

Elaine, Harold, Janie, Chris, Matthew, Zack & John

On our way to Venice! Tuesday, July 6th

2010-07-07T14:03:00.011-06:00

By far the most important and exciting event of the day was hearing at 5:15 am that Evan's little brother, Kaden Jacob Urbina was born! He was 8 lbs. 8 oz.

Congrats to the entire Urbina Family!

The guys headed back to Roland Garros for more matches, here they are having a "Right Stuff" moment walking out to the courts!

Brad and Zack overseeing the matches being played on Court 1!

Thomas

After playing at Roland Garros, we boarded a train that would take us from Paris to Venice overnight.

Georgy, Evan and Spencer

Thomas, Daniel, and Cassidy

Matthew after the bunks were folded down!

Zack!

The best part of the trip was going through the Swiss Alps in the middle of the night, it felt like being on a run away roller coaster!

Chris heading off to sleep!

Matches @ Roland Garros, Monday, July 5th

2010-07-06T08:56:00.026-06:00

We went to Roland Garros (the sight of the French Open and the French National Tennis Center to play matches. Here we are on the metro following the Roland Garros signs!

At the gate on our way in. The gatekeeper happened to be LDS and was quite excited to see a bunch of kids from BYU!

We were given full access to the French Open players areas (locker rooms; restaurants, etc).

On the red clay!

John hitting! Notice the BNP Paribas in the back.

Daniel

Thomas

We ran into Eric Winogradsky on the grounds, he is a good friend of Brad's from the pro-tour. He now is coaching Tsonga.

Harold hitting on Court 1! This is one of the showcourts from the tournament!

Brad & Matthew

Zack & Harold

Spencer & Georgy!

Georgy let us know as he was destroying everyone here, that "this is how he plays in Russia" said in a thick Russian accent! haha, we love Georgy!!!

Harold putting the guys back in their place!

Cassidy

Jessica & Janie even came out to try the clay!

In front of Center Court!

After the fun @ Roland Garros, we headed over to the Louvre.

On the bottom side of the pyramid (ref: Da Vinci Code). We were lucky (and this was by far the best part of the entire trip for me, except maybe the goodbye part) that Jordan and her companion were able to come join us to see the Louvre!

In front of the Mona Lisa.

The Obelisk @ Concorde

This was where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded, along with a lot of other people. Kind of disturbing, but I suppose it is a symbol of freedom for the French people.

This is us looking straight up under the Eiffel Tower!

From the top!

Evan, Thomas, Daniel, Cassidy, Janie, Elaine, Harold, Matthew, John, Georgy, Chris, Spencer, & Zack

In front of the Eiffel Tower

Church in Versailles & a fireside! Sunday,July 4th

2010-07-06T05:11:00.016-06:00

On Sunday we went to church in Versailles and attended the ward there. It was the ward where Jordan lived and it was fun to get to meet her mission president and his wife, as well as members of the ward that she had worked with.

After church we went and visited the Palace of Versailles! They say if you can only visit one palace in all of Europe that this should be the palace!

Here is Zack with a picture of Louis XIV who built & lived in Versailles!

Outside in front of the Gardens!

On Sunday night the team was asked to give a fireside for the singles ward in Paris! All of the missionaries were also invited to come bring investigators! The best part of that was seeing Jordan!!!!!!

Here are all of the missionaries and some investigators with the team! This courtyard is a square in front of the church.

Jordan & her companion with the team!

After the fireside we went to Le Entrecote on the Champs Elysees for a traditional french meal of Steak & frites!

Daniel, Cassidy, Evan, Georgy, Spencer, & Thomas!

A marathon day in Paris! Saturday, July 3rd

2010-07-06T04:02:00.027-06:00

We had amazing weather the entire time we were in London & then woke up to rain in Paris. But it didn't slow us down at all (except maybe to buy umbrellas)!

Our first stop was Notre Dame Cathedral! Some people (not to mention any names (zack)) spent a little more time looking for Quasimodo than he should have!

By the Bell inside the tower!

Daniel, Jessica, Brad, Janie, Georgy, Zack, Cassidy, Chris, Thomas, John, Matthew, Evan, Spencer, Elaine & Harold

Inside the cathedral!

Walking over the Seine River!

Evan & Zack getting a crepe in the Latin Quarter! I mean it doesn't get much better than this.

Outside theMuseum D'Orsay! We were able to see work by all of the famous Impressionist artist's in here.

Next we headed to the Rodin Museum, where the guys were all inspired by Rodin's "The Thinker!"

So inspired that I caught boy's "Thinking" the rest of the day!
Cassidy & Matthew

Brad & Cindi were inspired by Rodin's, "The Kiss"

And after 9 straight hours of sightseeing it seemed fitting to take a little break at, "The Gates of Hell!"

After we left the Rodin we were walking down the street and glanced over and saw the Eifell Tower, that was just too cool to not stop for a picture!

The night we arrived in Paris, Harold had his wallet stolen from a buttoned up pocket within about 30 minutes of us arriving. Getting on the train on the way to the Rodin museum I was trapped by 3 gypsies trying to force me to buy a bracelet (or so I thought). While I was being distracted and trying to get away from them, one of the gypsies had casually put her bag over mine and had her hand in my purse. Daniel & Cassidy were watching and saw what they were doing. Daniel grabbed the girls hand out of my bag and told her to stop (maybe a little more colorfully than that) and the girls disappeared. I was so lucky because I had 400 euros (about 500 dollars) in my wallet right on top inside my purse! So here we are reinacting the heroics of Daniel & Cassidy, with Matthew starring as the gypsy!

Next we decided to go on the "Sewer Tour." It helped a lot if you kept your nose covered and breathed through your mouth! In the play Les Miserables, that we saw in London, Jean Val Jean saves Marius by escaping through the sewers in Paris, so we thought we needed to go see where that took place!

Outside with the sign "Visit the Sewers of Paris," haha, for some reason that just made me laugh!

And even 3 hours later, guys still "Thinking!"

And FINALLY we visited the "Arch de Triomphe"

And once again hiked to the top, for some reason they don't believe in elevators here!

More Sightseeing & then off to Paris! Friday, July 2nd

2010-07-06T03:36:00.022-06:00

Here we are in front of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. It is the 4th biggest church in the world.

Zack, Jessica, Janie, Daniel, John, George, Cassidy, Spencer, Evan, Harold, Matthew, Cindi, Chris, Thomas, & Elaine.

We hiked to the top of the dome in St. Pauls! Lots & Lots of Stairs.

It had an incredible view from the top!

This is on the VERY top of the dome!

We probably crossed underneath every part of London at one time or another with the amount of time we spent on the "tube."

We had lunch & a little shopping time @Harrods, the largest department store in the World!

The guys have all kept an amazingly fast pace, with not a lot of sleep, jet lag & cramming in as much as possible in just a few days!

Everytime we get on a bus or train somebody nods off for a quick nap before the next stop!

Next we boarded the Eurostar to travel from London to Paris via the Chunnel!

Daniel & Georgy

Spencer & Evan

John & Cassidy

Thomas & Matthew

Zack & Chris

Jessica & Janie

Harold & Elaine

Brad & Cindi

LTA, British Museum & The London Theatre! Thursday, July 1st

2010-07-04T15:42:00.015-06:00

We went to play matches @ the Lawn Tennis Assocation in London. This is the UK's National Tennis Center!

The guys loved playing on Grass!

Brad & Zack decided to be the ball boys after studying how it was done at Wimbledon the day before.

Zack for sure has it down! It's always nice to know that he could get a back up job ball boying!

Everyone loved playing on the grass. Here is Janie & Matthew playing some points!

We couldn't get anyone to leave, everyone had a great time playing!

The team!

We have spent a lot of time on trains, planes & automobiles... or trains, buses and more trains!

Here we are headed down to the tube (London's Subway)

After tennis we went to the British Museum!

John, Daniel, Georgy, Janie, Matthew, Brad, Evan, Zack, Spencer, Elaine, Harold & Cassidy

The Egypt section of the British Museum was amazing! Here is Daniel in front of Ramses.

More British Museum! Zack, Matthew, Jessica, Janie, Elaine & Harold!

The museum has one of the biggest collections of mummies in the world.

Later that evening we went to the west end to the Queen's Theatre to see Les Miserables! Everyone loved it.

Then a one in a million chance, as we were leaving the theater we ran into our former players Dominik Kaufhold and James Ludlow on the street. Dom and his wife Lethe just moved to London for Dom to start a new job and James is in town to play some pro tournaments.

Here is Lethe, Dom, Cindi & Brad

Excuse the dark picture, it is all I have, but here is: Lethe, Dom, James, Cindi, Matthew, Brad, John, Patrick (James' little brother), & Zack!

Wimbledon, Wednesday June 30th

2010-07-03T14:58:00.010-06:00

We had an amazing day @ Wimbledon! Everyone (all 16 of us) were able to get onto both Centre Court & Court 1. We were there for Mens quarterfinals day. We saw Federer, Nadal, Murray, Djokovich, Tsonga, and Soderling.

Here we are in front of the "Last Eight Club."

In front of Centre Court!

We were court side to watch Nadal warm up. Evan said; "hey Rafa," and Nadal glanced up at him, but then ignored him when he followed up with, "como estas." hahaha

Here we are with Andy Rosenberg, he was the director for NBC for the Championships!

Evan & Matthew on Centre Court!

After Wimbledon we headed up to Wimbledon Village to an Indian Restaurant that a lot of the Wimbledon players frequent. We had a contest to see who could handle the most spicy food (a step up from vindaloo). Here is Evan trying to recover from his turn.

The two finalist were Brad and Evan, with Evan being declared the winner!

Everyone who participated in the contest were given membership in the "spice boys" club! Notice that they are all still nursing burnt mouths.

Lots of Sightseeing! - Tuesday, June 29th

2010-07-02T17:46:00.012-06:00

The team arrived in London on Tuesday! We started the day watching the Changing of the Guard @ Buckingham Palace. We have John, Georgy, Daniel, Chris, Spencer, Evan, Cassidy, Thomas, Matthew, Janie (our athletic administrator), Jessica (Janie's friend), and Zack! Harold & Elaine Turley were with Brad @ Wimbledon.

Then toured Westminster Abbey!

In front of Big Ben!

The guys needed a minute to rest, so we rode the London Eye.

Inside the London Eye, you can see some of the guys are handling missing a night of sleep better than others!

After the London Eye, we took a boat ride on the Thames to the Tower of London!

The "Beefeaters" gave an entertaining guide telling us of all the torture and history that went on at the Tower.

In front of the Bloody Tower! After the tower we went to Picadilly Circus for dinner & entertainment!

End of Year Awards!

2010-06-25T12:46:00.006-06:00

We had our end of year banquet to celebrate our year!

Thank you to everyone who came to share this evening with us!

Michael Eraso was the recepient of the "Doug & Joy Heiner scholarship for athletic and academic excellence!" This is given to the player with the highest GPA.

Thomas Shubert was awarded the "Harold & Elaine Turley Scholarship for Athletic & Academic Excellence!" This is given to a player who shows great acadmic as well as athletic leadership.

Georgy Batrakov was awarded the "Player of the Year Award."

He had a 24-7 record this year!

Cassidy was awarded the "Coach's Award."
This award is given to someone who has excelled in every area this year, leadership, playing record, academics, etc.
Cassidy was the team captain this year and did an amazing job! We will really miss him and his leadership next year.

The team was given sweatshirts from the 2010 NCAA championships!

NCAA Championships!

2010-06-06T21:23:00.004-06:00

BYU went to the NCAA championships this year. They played Fresno State First round @ USC!

The team played really well, but came up short in the match. The final score was 4-2. Spencer was still on the court and was expected to win! It was a really close match, the team was prepared and fought hard. The doubles came down to the last match, where we lost in a tie-break!

The guys had a great year this year! Way to go BYU!

Coach's of the year!

2010-05-26T21:00:00.002-06:00

Brad was recently selected at the MWC coach of the year! A few weeks later he also received the Region coach of the year award! Zack has been an awesome assistant coach & deserves assistant coach of the year awards as well. Brad & Zack have a great relationship and have really enjoyed working together this year.

Here is the entire coaching staff: Zack, Brad, Dean (the volunteer assistant), and Josh...the assistant-assistant coach. When Josh is around, he takes his job seriously and you won't ever see a guy on the court without his gator-ade cup completely full.

MWC Regular Season Champions!

2010-04-26T09:32:00.004-06:00

BYU had a great ending to their regular season! They beat Utah on Saturday to become regular season Mountain West Conference Champions! They will play in the MWC championships this weekend in Vegas!

After the match we had a celebration at the home of Harold & Elaine Turley! The guys had a great time eating awesome food & playing whiffle ball!

Y Awards!

2010-04-09T07:39:00.008-06:00

Every year BYU has the "Y" awards to honor student athletes. They have 13 awards, the athletes are nominated by their coaches and the administration narrows it down to 3 finalists for each category. This year Cassidy was a finalist for the "Ed Stein Outstanding Senior Male Athlete Award." "It is the oldest recognition bestowed upon a BYU male athlete; given to the senior who has most clearly desmonstrated high atletics and academic performance and sportmanship." Here is Ashleigh, Cassidy & his dad Mark before the program.

And the winner is...... Cassidy! Way to go Cassidy, we are so proud of you!

All of Cassidy's teammates came out to support him at the awards. Evan doesn't like to dress up, so we took this picture to remember the occasion!

Of the 550 athletes at BYU here are the winners of the awards!

The team after the program!

#23 BYU!!!!

2010-03-05T09:33:00.003-07:00

The new rankings just came out and BYU is ranked #23! This is the highest ranking BYU Men's tennis has had in 31 years!

This is Brad & Zack (the assistant coach). Brad has had so much fun working with Zack this year. He is a great coach, very competitive and not afraid to speak his mind. Brad loves all those things about him, together they have made a great team this year!

vs. #29 Boise State!

2010-03-04T14:30:00.008-07:00

Last Saturday we played against Boise State, they are ranked #29. We had a great match and won 5-2! We had awesome crowds. Here is Spencer & Evan with Cosmo!

The cheerleaders came for a while and helped with the introductions and threw prizes to the crowd!

Cosmo did a great job of keeping the crowd fired up!

Georgy was the first singles player done! Way to go Georgy!

Cass, Thomas, Evan & Georgy cheering on Spencer! And enjoying the victory!

In the team room after the match! Celebrating!

The BYU tennis team @ the BYU Basketball Game!

2010-03-04T11:08:00.005-07:00

The tennis team went to the BYU Basketball pre-game show and threw out sweatbands and t-shirts to invite people to their tennis match the next day! Here they are out on the floor of the Marriott Center!

Daniel throwing things! It must have worked, the next night we had standing room only at our match against Boise State!

The team after the show!

Vs. University of Denver!

2010-03-03T08:34:00.006-07:00

The team has been on the road a lot this year! They went to Denver and played against University of Denver & Drake!

The score with Denver is always close, as far as I can remember at home we have beat them 4-3 and at their home, we have lost to them 4-3. Here are the guys and the "waterboy" cheering on Cassidy!

Cassidy was the last guy on the court with the score tied at 3-3.

Here is Cassidy with the team after his heroic come back from behind victory! 7-6 in the third!

The team celebrating beating Denver at their home! The Smith's made the trip to Denver to support the team.

Boston!

2010-02-08T08:20:00.009-07:00

The guys went to Boston to play Harvard, DePaul & Mississippi State. Harvard always has a good team. The week before we played, Mississippi State was up 3-0 against Ole Miss (ranked #10 in the country), and had match points before eventually losing 4-3. We knew it would be a tough weekend with 3 matches in 2 days, but are proud to say the guys were tough and pulled through beating everyone.

We also made time for sight seeing, this is everyone at Boston Common.

In front of the Massachusetts State House!

With Paul Revere.

A close up, because I thought they all looked so cute bundled up, it was only about 10 degrees when they were sight seeing.

Here they are in front of The Old North Church (for more info, watch National Treasure)!

Michael & Brad visiting the Paul Revere Bookstore!

Roman with a statue of John Harvard! Made me wonder how he felt about being taken down by Brigham Young! Go Cougars!!!!

Feliz Cumpleanos (with a squiggly line over the n) Ricardo!

2010-02-04T18:05:00.006-07:00

We just celebrated Ricardo's Birthday! Here he is with a sombrero instead of balloons!

Here is the team helping him celebrate with churros!

First Match of the Season!

2010-02-02T21:53:00.007-07:00

We started the year off playing Utah State & Weber State. We had good crowds and even better, 7-0 victories in both matches!

Face Painting!

President Samuelson came and watched the match! It was such and honor to have him there.

We also had a visit from Cosmo!

After match victory party!

Merry Christmas!

2010-02-02T21:30:00.011-07:00

Here are the guys at our annual Christmas Dinner!

The "couples." It was great to have James & Abbie come back for the party!

The highlight of the party is Christmas Caroling! This is just something you would have to see to completely understand. I am working on getting the video on Youtube.

We told Spencer & Ricardo that we had a tradition of having all new Freshman sing a solo. So here they are with Roman (our german speaker), singing "Oh Christmas Tree in German. And now we have a great new tradition.

Our Grand Finale!

Ending the evening with a video about the True Meaning of Christmas!

Lloyd Newell & The Mormon Tabernacle Choir!

2009-12-07T18:20:00.007-07:00

On Sunday we had the opportunity to attend the broadcast of "Music & The Spoken Word." It is the longest continous broadcast in America, and has been on weekly for more than 80 years (it started as a radio program). We were able to attend as guests of Lloyd Newell, who is the voice for the program. Lloyd has been doing the show for 20 years. The conference center was decorated for Christmas and as always the Tabernacle Choir was amazing.

Here are the guys with Lloyd Newell after the broadcast.

(Notice the choir in the background)

The guys outside the conference center. This was the first snowfall of the year!

Here is the entire group.

BYU vs. University of Hawaii!

2009-11-22T21:07:00.025-07:00

We returned last week from a great trip to Hawaii. We played against the University of Hawaii over 3 days while we were there. They were ranked #41 last year and we managed to beat them decisively all 3 days. Over the 3 day period we won 27 of the 32 matches we played! The rest of the photos from the trip are posted on the BYU Men's Tennis facebook page.

Here are the guys practicing the day before the matches began. It was quite an adjustment with the altitude, heat & humidity! side note: The guys really are quite buff this year, but everytime I pull out the camera a lot of flexing starts going on, so don't let them completely fool you!

We stopped at Matsumoto's for shaved ice!

We were able to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center. I always make sure, whenever we have an opportunity that the guys get their cultural lessons in. The guys especially enjoyed the fire dancers at the night show!

With a guy from Tonga!

With their BYU Hawaii approved tattoos.

Thomas with his mom who lives in Honolulu!

Here we are with the manager of the hotel checking in.
His daughter is a student at BYU.

Thomas on our balcony! Enjoying the view!

We were able to visit Pearl Harbor. At first not all of the guys were overly enthusiastic about spending the time to go there, but I told them that I could not face their mother's if we were all the way in Hawaii and they didn't go. So we made the trip and everybody really enjoyed it.

The guys body surfing. We were practically the only people at the beach this day.

One of the highlights of the trip was this game of football they all played on the beach!

Still friends after the game!

International Market Place in Honolulu!

The day we flew out all of the guys decided to get up REALLY early and take a surfing lesson. As they were being taught the proper form, I had quite a few people come up to me and say that all of these guys looked like athletes and ask who they were.

Heading out to try the waves. They had a little crowd up watching them!

Here they are with their teacher Virgil. I am proud to say that every single member of the team (and both coaches) were successful surfing.

Thomas & Cassidy playing doubles.

And most important....The after match victory talk!

Congrats to AJ & Kelsey Young!

2009-11-19T22:39:00.002-07:00

Aj & Kelsey were married this morning in the Salt Lake Temple! Congrats to both of them!

Viva Las Vegas!

2009-11-04T11:32:00.007-07:00

The team just returned from the Regional Tournament in Las Vegas. We overall had the best finish of any team there, with 5 of our guys getting to the round of 16 or better. Spencer, Evan & Thomas all reached the round of 16, Cassidy the quarters & Georgy the semis!

Cassidy enjoying his victory!

Ricardo & Evan

Michael & Cassidy

Evan, Roman & Spencer soaking up the sun!

Georgy getting ready to play his semi final match!

A New Tradition!

2009-10-25T00:36:00.003-06:00

This year Brad started a new tradition with the team. On the 1st day of practice Brad gave an inspirational thought and then asked someone on the team to give one the next day. This assignment gets passed along daily and some thoughts and stories that the guys have come up with have been really inspiring.

University of Utah Invitational!

2009-10-24T21:17:00.009-06:00

Again, BYU had a great showing at the Utah Invitational. 3 of the 4 semi-finalists were BYU players with an all BYU Final.

Thomas & Spencer both made it to the finals. Thomas won a close match in three sets.

This is our freshman, Spencer Smith, shaking hands after beating Utah's #1 player! Go Spencer!

Early Morning Conditioning!

2009-10-24T21:06:00.003-06:00

This year the team has been doing early morning conditioning. They work out at 6:30 am on Monday, Wednesday & Friday. The trainers have started the "Cougar Country Club Competition." Our guys compete against the golf team in different activities.

Brad has committed to making it to all of the workouts with them this year, and is starting to get his own 8 pack.

For Brad, the toughest loss, so far this year, has been losing to the Golf Team in water polo. Fortunately, the next week we beat them in field hockey so he is able to sleep again.

BYU Fall Invitational!

2009-10-24T20:52:00.008-06:00

The first tournament of the year is the BYU Invitational. We had some great results from the BYU team, with Cassidy & Evan both earning a spot in the finals.

Georgy, Evan & Spencer.

One of our freshmen Spencer Smith with his parents, Janice & Nick.

Evan has been assigned the task of being our new style consultant for the team!

Georgy & Thomas in doubles action.

Fall Racqueteer Day!

2009-10-24T20:43:00.009-06:00

We had a great turn out for our Fall Racqueteer Day on Sept 19th.

Racqueteers were teamed up with members of the team for some fun doubles, followed by brunch.

Welcome to School!

2009-10-24T13:54:00.010-06:00

We had our team party to welcome everyone to school.

The highlight of the evening was having Andy Rosenberg come speak to the players. Andy has been a director for NBC Sports for years. He has covered the Beijing Olympics, US Open, Wimbledon, French Open and pretty much every other major sporting event you can think of. Andy spoke to the guys about what he has seen that successful athletes have in common. The guys really enjoyed his stories and what he had to share.

Spencer & Chris.

Cassidy, Roman, Georgy, Ricardo, Michael, Thomas, Matthew & Evan!

Our traditional game of sharks & minnows! Oh, I forgot to add that I can't remember for sure, but I am almost positive that Cindi won sharks & minnows, woo hoo, Go Cindi!