Oct. 7, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's tennis team will host its third annual tennis clinic for the Blair and Centre County Special Olympics on Thursday. The event will take place from 6-8 p.m. at the Sarni Tennis Courts and is free for Special Olympians.
"We are really excited to do this clinic for a third straight year," said head coach Todd Doebler. "We are looking forward to supporting these local athletes. Every year this is a lot of fun for our program to give back and help the athletes become better tennis players."
For the past two years, the Nittany Lions hosted this event for the Centre County region of Special Olympics. This will mark the first year that Blair County region will be joining the clinic. Michael C. Wolff, Ph.D, an assistant clinical professor of psychology at Penn State, will join in coordination with the tennis staff. The clinic will run from 6-7:30 p.m. with refreshments to follow until 8 p.m. The rain site will be the indoor courts at the Penn State Tennis Center.
Doebler returns six players from last year's team, including four starters in senior Ryan Gormley (Las Vegas, Nev.), senior Guillaume St-Maurice (Saint-Eustache, Quebec), junior Eddie Bourchier (Hobart, Australia) and sophomore Jason Lee (Melbourne, Australia). Junior Jamie Cox (Acworth, Ga.) and sophomore Chris Hasyn (Lansdale, Pa.) round out the returning players. Former player Brendan Lynch will return to the team this year serving as assistant coach.
Doebler will have five new additions to the roster this season. Four freshman including Bryan Welnetz (Laredo, Texas), C.J. Griffin (Portland, Mich.), Guanhua Chen (DaLian, China) and Warren Hardie (Laguna Niguel, Calif) will begin their first year collegiate action. Taylor Cohen (Philadelphia, Pa.) joins the Nittany Lions after playing one year at Clemson, carrying a 5-4 record.
Penn State finished last season 14-13, the programs seventh consecutive winning season. Doebler carries a 46-32 record as head coach of the Nittany Lions.
Up next for Penn State this fall will be a trip to Norfolk, Va. for the ITA Regional Championships on Oct. 23. The Big Ten Singles Tournament is slated for Oct. 29-Nov. 2 in East Lansing, Mich.