Corey DiPaola '13 Recruiting Profile

Hi! My name is Corey DiPaola. I am currently in my senior year at Lincoln High School located in Lincoln, Rhode Island. I play #1 singles on the varsity team and my high school team is ranked Division 1. I battled hard on the courts last season and ended above 500, achieving Second Team All State and ranking 12th in the state, as well as, First Team All Division, ranking #4. I have since played the number 9th ranked player in the state and won 6/2, 4/6, 10/4. Tennis is my passion. Before playing tennis, I was an accomplished hockey and baseball player and was recognized within my community as a top athlete. I started playing hockey and baseball when I was five and was known for my stick-handling in hockey and pitching in baseball. In eighth grade I started playing tennis and it became my number one choice for my high school sport. Although I started playing tennis late, I am very athletic and practice every day. I started my freshman year as the #3 singles with a 14/4 season finishing up Second Team All-State. Sophomore year I was moved to the #1 single spot and junior year I became team captain; allowing me the opportunity to run most of the practices and work on my leadership skills. My team really bonded this year with the help of a new coach and the numerous pasta parties we had. I thoroughly enjoyed kicking their butts in the badminton tournaments at these events. I train every day and live to play tennis. Currently I am training with Sedgwick Gray, former assistant men’s tennis coach at Davidson College. I recently won 3 USTA tournaments boys single 18 tournament and achieved ‘runner-up’ at 3 others this summer. On Tennisrecruiting.com I am listed as a 1 Star, ranked 2 in Rhode Island, 52 in New England and 916 Nationally. I have beaten a 3 Star ranked 21 in New England 6-3 / 6-1 and a 2 Star ranked 22 in New England 5-7 / 6-4 / 10-2. I also work at the Agawam Hunt Club in Rumford, RI., helping train young tennis players. I attended two tennis camps this summer, one at Wheaton College under the direction of Head Coach Lynn Miller and the other at Lehigh University under the direction of Ed Krass, former head coach for the women’s tennis team at Harvard University. Check out my ‘Student Evaluation’ written by Coach Hendrix, Lehigh’s new head men’s tennis coach. It is posted below this summary. To briefly highlight the week at Lehigh, I helped my team achieve the most wins and claim First Place out of eight other teams. I played the fourth single spot and won the award of ‘undefeated’ at the graduation ceremony. When the team score was tight, I could be counted on to win my match and lead the team to victory. I had a great time at both camps and made a lot of new friends. Throughout the month of August I trained with Hugo Spratley and a small team of top players, five hours a day, three days a week and played tournaments on the weekend. Since school has started back up I have been taking private lessons with Sedge Gray and attending TennisXtra classes with Brian Lomax two times a week. When I am not touring schools on the weekend, I am playing in USTA tournaments. I am a good student and well-liked by all my teachers, maintaining a 3.3 GPA. I understand the importance of a good education and I work as hard for good grades in school as I do for wins on the court. I will continue working hard every day throughout my senior year and into college in hopes of playing tennis and acquiring a good education. I work as hard as I play. See ‘STUDENT EVALUATION’ below COLLEGE TENNIS EXPOSURE CAMP - STUDENT EVALUATION Team Name __Roadshow Warhawks_ __________ Written By ____Coach Hendrix_______ Name ____ Corey DiPaola ___ Hometown ________Lincoln, RI__________________ I. Technical Skills and Strategical Tactics A. Forehand & Backhand Groundstrokes Your groundstrokes are fool proof and very consistent. You have adopted the directional patterns very well. Need more acceleration of the racquet head on the forehand side in order to create more power. Your forehand grip is extremely western so you might want to flatten it just a little bit if you want to develop the forehand as a weapon. Great job avoiding unforced errors and playing smart! B. Midcourt & Volley Game Your midcourt and volley game has developed significantly over the past week. Don’t be afraid to follow a well-struck groundstroke to the net and quick pressure your opponent. On your low volleys you need to bend your knees a little more and keep your upper body straight. When you practice volleys make sure to go with the flow and use the directionals. When you serve and volley make sure to split step before you lunge to the volley. C. One-on-One Doubles Skills & Doubles Game Great job improving your one-on-one doubles skills. You get the concept of constructing the point and placing the ball in order to create an easy shot. Try to add a little more elevation and pronation to the overhead to make it more powerful. Work on snapping the wrist from up close to the net and build this into your overhead. You are a smart doubles player because the placement of your shots sets up your partner perfectly for an easy volley. You need to get a little more aggressive on the easy shots though, especially the overhead. D. Footwork & Movement Nice overall court awareness and anticipation. The technicality of your footwork is fundamentally sound. You need to improve your explosiveness and agility. The first step in the direction of the ball needs to be quicker. Your cardio conditioning is excellent. The longer the match goes, the greater your chance of winning because you can outgrind a lot of quality opponents. E. Serving You have a very strong sliced outside serve, which you also use very well as a body serve. This proves to be an effective weapon so keep using it. In the meantime you should start developing a bigger kick serve by tossing the ball above your head more and brushing up hard on the ball. Make sure to use a compact and abbreviated motion. When you serve and volley, the first step after the serve needs to get more explosive. F. Return of Serve You are an excellent defensive player and your return of serve confirms this. You are doing a great job of using the directionals on the return and making high percentage, high quality shots. The fact that you take the ball early allows you to dictate the point immediately. Build in a forward split step or hop step and your return will become even stronger. II. Quality of Concentration/Mental Toughness I really like your off court demeanor and on court composure. You seem to have absolute control over your behavior even in times of fatigue and adversity. Your conditioning is one of the main reasons for your calmness. You are classy towards opponents and supportive of teammates. This characteristic will earn you a lot of respect as a leader in the college tennis world. III. General Comments Thanks for a terrific week. I am really impressed by your thinking process and your composure. I think you improved significantly, especially at the net. It was a pleasure having you on my team and I hope you find a great school with a great tennis program – you deserve it!