This has been, undoubtedly, a banner year for Thorpe Tennis and the schools and individuals with whom I get to share this great game. Every day I am thankful for the opportunity to share my passion for tennis with a great group of people in this paradise called Santa Barbara. As I plan for my next big adventure (read about it here), I’m already looking forward to all the exciting things that lie ahead in 2015, but before we turn the page…
A few highlights from the year at Thorpe Tennis:
- Worked with 49 different players from age 8 to 56
- Spent over 1,000 hours on-court teaching lessons and coaching high school matches
- Saw three years of planning, campaigning, and finger-crossing come to fruition with the completion of the Furukawa Tennis Courts at Laguna Blanca
- Launched the Laguna Blanca Summer Tennis Camp to rave reviews
- Coached Laguna Blanca Boys’ Tennis to an 11-5 record, a second-consecutive CIF playoff appearance, the #7-seed in CIF Division 4, and a second-round showing in CIF playoffs
- Started a Laguna tennis tradition with a weekend trip to the desert for the BNP Paribas Open, where we got to see Nadal, Wawrinka, the Bryans and many other pros play
- Led Cate School Girls’ Tennis to an 8-5 record and another CIF playoff appearance, despite moving up two divisions and facing much stiffer competition. Cate battled through a wildcard round victory and made a strong 6-12 showing against future CIF finalists, Murrieta Valley
- Coached Julia Gan to several singles wins against nationally-ranked juniors and brought Gan and McKenna Madden together for a Tri-Valley League finalist showing in doubles, followed by a second-round appearance in CIF Individuals
- Enjoyed another successful year from Daniel Newton, who qualified for the Central Coast Grand Prix Masters and currently holds a ranking of #107 in California, plus more hardware for Alex Furukawa, despite an apparent blinking problem!
- Helped Ben Furukawa achieve a personal best #112 in California ranking. Fellow Laguna senior Tristan Prinz also notched victories over Jason Xiao (f0rmerly undefeated in Condor League play), Kevin Ha (currently #308 in the country), and scored the biggest victory of his career against Dimitri Colffer (recently ranked as high as #190 in the country) in his last high school match
- Had the pleasure of watching seniors from Laguna and Cate tennis programs go on to college at UCLA, University of Washington, Colorado School of Mines, Ole Miss, UPenn, Yale, and USC
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and here’s to another year of phenomenal tennis in 2015!
Trevor Thorpe
Thorpe Tennis
Thorpe Tennis 
HI TREVOR – you’ve really had a big tennis year – Congratulations on that! …and your coaching of Janine really paid off for her at college….
I’d like to respond also to your Ends of the Earth trip – have read it over and printed it out so grandpa can study it too – very ambitious and adventuresome…..however, you’re not quite to the Ends of the Earth – we’ve been there, twice in fact – to Ushuaia at the very tip of Argentina – Terra de; Fuego – it’s the southernmost inhabited town in the entire world – cold and windy even in January….we were there for taking the small ship to Antarctica – and also less than a year later on 35 day cruise around South America – grandpa actually swam around Cape Horn (in the ship’s outdoor pool – pretty cold!)…..so enjoy your adventure – we’ll be waiting to hear all about it….love, grandma
Point taken! You guys will have the edge by about 250 miles on us as far as South America goes and you will always have the edge on me with Antarctica! I don’t plan on starting a “Thorpe Tennis for Penguins” down there any time soon. -TT