Somewhere in the middle of the mess are Mosley's hopes for a college scholarship, a rigorous quest that has extended into her final semester of high school.

This isn't exactly do-or-die time for Mosley, a Girls 18s division singles player from Roswell, Ga., but she admits that there is now as much pressure on her off the court as there is on it.

"I see the clock ticking. As each (college) signing day goes by, I wonder when this whole process is going to be over with," Mosley said. "I notice other people signing, some of my friends, and I just want it to happen for me."
Welcome to the club, Janelle.

Despite a common misperception that anyone who plays junior-circuit tennis generally is rewarded with a college scholarship, Mosley is among hundreds of talented players at the USTA-sanctioned Copper Bowl vying for a ticket to the next level.

While tournaments like this ideally provide more exposure to college coaches, it is anything but a guarantee that a coach will spot someone like Mosley.

"It's kind of a crapshoot," said Courtney Rutherford, Mosley's coach at Total Tennis Academy near Atlanta. "You have eight or nine coaches looking at hundreds of kids at 12 different sites. Everyone is so spread out that a lot of good play can be missed."

Exhibit 1A of that theory was on display Wednesday at the Randolph Tennis Center, when Audrey Bulkley, a Girls 18s singles player from Springfield, Ill., rallied impressively to beat her opponent in the consolation bracket.

Armed with a nice forehand and mental toughness any school would covet, Bulkley erased late deficits in the second and third sets to advance.

There wasn't a college coach in sight, however.

"Sometimes it's hard. There are only a certain amount of coaches and a lot of players, so it can be frustrating," said Bulkley, a hearing-impaired high school junior who represented the United States at the Deaflympics in Australia last January. "Say you see a coach that you want to watch you, but they might be watching someone else.

"And then when they do come you feel the pressure to perform well, and you start playing bad, and then you don't want them to be there."
The added anxiety often transforms a normally competitive youth event into a scramble for the spotlight.

"Go to an 18s draw and watch those kids. It's not just a regular tournament anymore," Rutherford said. "It becomes, 'Well, I hope someone sees me and likes me.' "

Stacy Haines, one of Tucson's pre-eminent youth tennis experts, said boys players have it just as rough, if not more so, as the girls. Title IX has eliminated a number of men's tennis programs at the college level over the years, so the available scholarships to boys players can be scarce.

In a sense, a tournament like the Copper Bowl can be counter-effective for players whose college hopes have come down to the 11th hour.

"I remember a few years back when I had a couple of my girls showcase for a college coach that came to town," recalled Haines, the girls varsity coach at Desert View High School. "I had never seen either girl play so badly. You can see the pressure kids put on themselves to impress a coach."

Haines said that players like Mosley and Bulkley have a knack for rising above the muddle to get what they are after. Sometimes it takes longer than the players would like, but the wait is worthwhile.

"It's what you do when no one is watching that matters," said Bulkley's mother, Angie. "All the hours of practice and work that she puts in have to pay off. Coaches see the potential in her. It's just a matter of getting them to come around when she's playing."

By Tyler Hansen
http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/110033