Duncan Road Trip | Back in the days when the internet was still on the horizon, we had an end of season yearbook published. I found this in a box of old tennis stuff and I want to reproduce here. This was written about the Duncan road trip by Alex Korch, the second best junior boy player our program has produced. Alex was 12 in 1993 and his tennis success started to happen about two years later. He would go on to win two Canadian national junior age group titles, plus a tennis scholarship at a US college, and had success in the international junior tennis circuit. He moved to coaching and instructing after a limited time on the ATP Tour. He has taught in Florida, and was the head coach at a tennis club in Singapore for a few years. That was the last I've heard from him or about him. At our season ending club closed tournament in 1993, he came very close to victory in the final of the Boys U14 singles, but lost to the number 1 seeded Jeremy Salvo in 3 sets. Luck wasn't with him again in the Boys U14 doubles, when he and his partner, Rehman Esmail came second best. He was norminated with four other juniors for our club Most Improved Boy Award but lost out to Sheldon Hu. The following was written at the end of the 1993 season.
This year was the first year that I went to Duncan for the 5th Annual Junior Grass Court Tournament and can honestly say that I had a really good time. The fun started the moment we were in the planning stages for our 5-day trip. Our trip started by taking the ferry to Victoria and driving to Shawnigan Lake for a picnic. Unfortunately some of [our contingent] got separated and we met at Queen's Margaret's Boarding School later that day. That's where we were staying the whole time.
Video nights were always full of fun-filled pranks, but when 7 am the next morning arrived and we did our morning workout, a dose of reality hit us. When breakfast was served we sure missed that good home-cooking. Adrian's sandwiches though were out of this world. (NOT) Just kidding, we did appreciate it. A real team spirit was always present, especially when our teammates were playing matches. Rumours were going around that they [the tournament organizers] were going to change the name of the tournament to "The Coquitlam Open" because there were 39 of us in the cheering section.
If next year is just as much fun, then I really have something to look forward to. I also want everyone to know that our coaches are great team-leaders too. Watch out Duncan, here we come. Written by Alex Korch, 1993
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