The Philippine Tennis Academy (PTA) has brought in five recruits to restart its youth program.
PTA is a private initiative group sponsored by Rommie Chan, Oscar Hilado, Hanky Lee, Felix Barrientos, Raymund Suarez, Joey Torres and Tonico Climent.
The group has been supporting kids from all over the country who have the innate talent of playing tennis and help them hone their skills.
They also maintain training centers in Cagayan de Oro with Tibs Palasan, La Carlota with Rex Jalandoon and Davao with Doy Diong. With over 50 players, boys and girls in the 10-15 age range, are being supervised in the satellite network.
Every summer, the top five players from each training center are brought to Manila for training with PTA coaches Jun Toledo, Ken Salvo and Joel Cabusas. This year, PTA chose five top prospects to stay in Chan’s Alabang quarters to train and study.
The five prospects are Joewyn Pascua, 14, Angil Balaoing, 15, Jufe Ann Cocoy, 14, Maria Divinagracia, 12 and Khenz Justiniani, 14. While another one have managed to catch the attention of PTA, Heinz Carbonilla, 13, is arriving from Lanao del Norte to join the Alabang group last Feb. 9.
PTA also arranges for the players in the pool to compete overseas, improve their rankings and when possible, enroll in US universities. Iggy Alcantara is PTA’s most outstanding graduate and now plays for the country after an NCAA career at Pepperdine.
“It’s time to replenish our pool,” said Chan. “Now that Bryan, Khim and Iggy are gone, we’re rebuilding our youth core to find the next in line.” Toledo said PTA is also open to talent from beyond the satellite network.
One of the new recruits, Pascua was recommended to Chan by a friend and turned out to be a magical discovery. Pascua is from Dagupan and used to commute to Manila by bus to compete in tournaments. He’s 5-10 and still growing. “Bihira yung tall and a powerful hitter at his age,” said Toledo.
Also, the PTA have regard Divinagracia as their “secret weapon.” She was discovered from Beijing, where her parents Juvan and Espie are tennis teachers at AGTA Academy in the Haidian Foreign Language School.
The PTA surely have picked out, new outstanding youths as they guide and train them as they embark the journey to be known as future Professional Tennis players not just as in the Philippines but also around the globe.
Sources: philstar.com
Photo Sources: pihlstar.com, facebook.com–PhilippineTennisAcademy
