Thursday, June 25, 2009

Katie Oost - Scholar...Athlete... More

Another award for Katie, this time it's the Northwest Conference Scholar Athlete first team honor. Each of the 9 schools in our conference uses their own criteria to put forth one male and one female student athlete each year.

Katie finished her degree in Psychology with honors and was among the top GPA's for student athletes at Whitman, although she did rank 2nd on our team as Senior Alex Robinson led the way with the highest GPA on our team. At one point this year Alex told the freshman that there are times when all she does is study, sleep and play tennis. And Katie often uses school as an excuse to skip out on a party or social event. After a full year of working with them, I was very impressed by their work ethics and time management, but also found that they were both more social than they sometimes let on.

Ok, back to business. The link to the conference awards is http://www.nwcsports.com/information/awards/2008-09/0809scholarathlete1stteam and note that Katie is the ONLY TENNIS PLAYER, male or female, to be honored by their institution.

And more... Not only was I fortunate enough to coach Katie for a year, she'll be staying on in Walla Walla taking a break before grad school to serve as our Assistant Coach. Stay tuned for further news on Katie's new role and watch out because she is just as competitive in practices and eating contests as she is in the classroom and during matches.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Elise and Katie named D3 All-Americans

Ok, so this is no surprise since they had the honor wrapped up in September by winning the Northwest Fall ITA regional, but it is still super cool to see their names up on the ITA website. Congratulations to our first NCAA All-American's since 1988!

Link to ITA site: http://www.itatennis.com/AwardsAndRankings/AllAmerica/2009_ITA_Division_III_Women_s_All-American_Team.htm

More about these great student athletes:


Katie: Aka "Toast", Katie did not grow up with a racket in her hand. She started at age 15 and is just a phenomenal athlete and outstanding tennis player. With half our team gone for the fall studying abroad, Toastie stepped up to the top doubles spot and did not dissapoint. In just our few short weeks of tournament preparation last fall, she went from, "I never serve and volley" to charging the net on almost every point. I'm so glad such a hard working and fun player earned this honor.

Elise: Aka "Twitch", what to say about Twitchy, she's talented, intense, silly. When I got the job at Whitman, Elise gave me a 6 month grace period because she "likes new people". As a coach I think we made the most of it with a singles and doubles win in our first tournament followed by a trip to Alabama where she impressed coaches around the country with her ability while keeping every west coast player and coach entertained with her tennis IQ, skill with the disc, ability to climb battleships, and penchant for late night waffles. It is tremendously gratifying as a coach to work with a player who has such a well developed game but is open to learning more and is willing to constantly strive to be better; that is Elise.