College Commitment
Countdown: Gregory Scott to UCSB
by Keith Kropp, 27 October 2010
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For young tennis players, growing up in Southern California has a lot of advantages. Great weather, a lengthy assortment of tournaments month after month and plenty of strong competition.
Greg Scott has seized on those opportunities to become a Top 10 player in USTA Boys' 18 singles in Southern California - and one of the top high school seniors in the nation in 2010.
Scott, a 17-year-old standout player from Manhattan Beach, Calif., is continuing to hone his skills this fall with an eye on the next step in his progression - playing college at the Division I level. The prized recruit has verbally committed to play at UC Santa Barbara for 2011-12.
In recent weeks, the Tenafly, N.J., native has done what many top junior players do - play the qualifying in USTA Pro Circuit Futures events and open tournaments. In many cases, that means going up against an established college player or even a tour player ranked in the 400s.
At the 2010 Costa Mesa Futures in September, Scott faced University of Washington sophomore Kyle McMorrow in the first round of qualifying, losing 6-4, 6-3. A few weeks earlier, Scott faced USC sophomore JT Sundling in an open tournament in Thousand Oaks, Calif., losing 7-6, 6-0 in the round of 16.
"Playing Futures is a great experience," the 5-foot-10, 156-pound Scott said. "The Futures are completely different than the juniors. Their games are a lot bigger. It showed me what level I need to reach in order to win matches in the future."
McMorrow, a fellow Southern Californian who also practiced with Scott a few times when he played USTA junior tournaments in Southern California, recognized Scott's potential during their match at Costa Mesa.
