Designated for Success

With its new designation as a USTA Regional Training Center the MAC Academy is thriving

By Bob Albright

It was a pretty simple dilemma to hear Manchester Athletic Club’s Todd Carpenter talk about it.
“You’ve got all these regions throughout the country, so how does someone in Florida here about what a Nicole Frenkel is doing up here?” asked the MAC’s Director of Tennis.
Of course one could argue that unless you were a college coach who lived in a log cabin somewhere without a computer, you were bound to eventually hear about the precocious 13-year-old MAC prodigy who is currently playing full time at the USTA Training headquarters in Boca Raton Florida and who is climbing up the national rankings one blistering forehand at a time.
Still, Carpenter’s point is a good one for the simple reason that for every Frenkel there’s another whole array of aspiring players may not be headed to the 30-court complex in Boca Raton, but who might be able to turn their prowess on the court into college scholarships.
That’s always been the ultimate goal of Carpenter and MAC Academy Director Francisco Montoya and with the MAC’s new designation as a USTA Regional Training Center in January of 2011 that mission has only been enhanced. The diverse tennis club in Manchester-By-The-Sea was just one of eight programs across the country tabbed by the USTA after considerable evaluation of its long standing junior development success.
“I am thrilled that we are able to announce this broad expansion of the program," said Patrick McEnroe, General Manager, USTA Player Development at the time. "One of USTA Player Development’s goals is to reach as many of this country’s top coaches and junior players in a collaborative environment, and these new USTA Certified Regional Training Centers will help us continue to expand that outreach."
The designation, not to mention the fact that the USTA has required the club to make very few changes to its teaching philosophy, speaks volumes to the quality of the program and staff that is in place at the MAC.

“Opening doors”
”I think what it really has done is given us an affirmation that we have been doing things the right way to begin with,” Carpenter noted. “It’s almost like a pat on the back that we’re doing something right and let’s keep it going. I think like anything else it’s all about opening doors for our players. It opened up doors for Nicole and it will open up doors for others in the future.”
Montoya, who is now in his 10th year running the Academy in Manchester, has seen immediate dividends.
“We just had two players who were in California for a big tournament and needed some help,” he noted. “I just had to make one call (to the USTA) and they made sure that they got all the extra care that they needed to get them ready and comfortable for the tournament. Having those national contacts is big.”
It is not just the students at the MAC who have felt the impact of the new designation either. As a national training center, the USTA looks to the MAC and the other training center’s staff to fill their traveling faculty positions. While each training center is usually represented by one staff member both Montoya and the academy’s manager, Celeste Frey, have been tabbed for duty.
“No where in the country do you see a club with two teaching pros like that,” Carpenter noted.

The next Frenkel?
While there has not been a huge influx of talent making its way down 128 North specifically due to the designation, some like 11-year-old Magnus Johnson of North Hampton, N.H. have been brought into the fold.
As a regional training center, MAC now periodically holds camps to train and evaluate some of the best aspiring baseliners throughout New England and Johnson was one who decided to stick around after the camp was over.
“We were invited to a RTC camp and that’s how everything started,” said Johnson’s mom, Karen Kapelos, after watching Magnus finish up another four-hour day under the watchful eye of Montoya. She makes the one-hour trek twice a week to Manchester and doesn’t have to pull teeth to get Magnus to tag along.
“Wednesdays and Sundays are his favorite days, why? Because the next day he gets to come here.”
For the affable Johnson, who hit his first two-handed backhand sometime around his fourth birthday, it truly is a labor of love. Ask him what his favorite part of the academy is and his eyes get as big as some of the training balls some youngsters are hitting behind him.
“I just love coming here,” said Johnson, who is home schooled and currently ranked No. 5 in New England. “The people, the players, everything.”
Johnson, who recently won the sportsmanship award for from the USTA New England for his age group, has been tabbed by the USTA as “A Player of Interest.” To that end, Montoya is charged with keeping the folks up to date on virtually every drop shot and lob he hits.

How do you say ace in Spanish?
While Johnson is several years away from being able to jump over the net after each tournament win, the guy he sometimes trades forehands with, 6-foot-1 Jerry Lopez, is. Lopez, 17, is sponsored by the Mexican Tennis Federation, is a definite top 50 Division 1 school prospect according to Montoya, and is an example of one of the MAC’s greatest strengths – training and developing international talent.
With an extremely multicultural staff led by Montoya (Columbia) and Frey (Argentina), the international flavor is hard to escape off Atwater Ave, in Manchester. Students are housed in members’ homes and Montoya and other members of the staff start their day by carpooling all the diverse talent over to the club.
Montoya, who arrived at the famed Nick Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Florida from his native Columbia as an 18 year-old, is keenly aware of what an awesome responsibility he is being entrusted with by parents thousands of miles away. He also knows that the pressure cooker environment he got to know firsthand at Bollettieri’s 60-court tennis complex is not for everyone.
“It’s an interesting dynamic for sure,” says Montoya who assumes a father-figure type role for so many of the international students. “Some people won’t come here because they know we won’t tolerate some sorts of things and we’ve seen the opposite here as well where kids who have struggled at other places have come here and thrived because they are able to mellow down a little bit, while still working hard and having a good time.”
The success stories are the lone common denominator it seems.
“Our first student from Columbia eight years ago went to a college on a scholarship that we helped him get, then went to Harvard and got an MBA and is now back in Columbia running a company,” Montoya noted. “I still talk to him all the time.”

Home grown talent
The international program has also proven to be a great benefit to the MAC’s impressive stable of local talent. Not only do they get to hit with some top players from around the world, but it’s their interaction off the court that ultimately proves even more valuable.
“You go on the Facebook page of some of our local students and you look at who their friends are and they are from all over the world,” Carpenter enthused. “That’s really nice to see.”
Even with the thriving international program and the new USTA designation, Montoya and Carpenter are well aware that given their location perched near the end of Rt. 128, will always be developing their local talent.
Whether it is Beverly’s Veronica Corning, who is thriving at Division 1 Northwestern, Hamilton’s Chris Toner, Manchester’s Brittany Collens, Beverly’s Will Barry, or Marblehead’s amazing Noyes trifecta, Ashley, Chris, and Bradley, the MAC continues to develop some of the best prospects on the North Shore.
“We have two goals,” Montoya noted. “One is to bring in more talent, but the other is to grow more talent. We are in an area where there are a lot of young families and our goal is to continue to develop those players so that in time we’re just growing from within. Every year we add around 10 new students with three or four of those coming from our own club.”