Baton Rouge Wheelchair Tennis
| At the heart of the wheelchair program is Carlos Roldan who
started coaching wheelchair tennis in 1998. Starting with a nationally
ranked player in Argentina named Oscar Sotomayer, Oscar’s rank climbed from 8th
to 3rd, within a few months of coaching him. After working with Oscar
for 7 months, other players took note of the potential of Carlos, and he was
asked to be the coach for the Argentinean National Team. Carlos’s first
competition was in New York in 1999, where Argentina played their first
world team cup. Shortly after world team cup, Carlos was designated to be the national coach for every international competition held. Carlos coached the team until World Team Cup in 2001 in Switzerland. Carlos also coached the team during that period of competitions that were preparatory to the Paralympics of Sydney 2000. In the final event held in Buenos Aires, Carlos’ team was defeated, but with such a stellar performance they were designated a Wild Card for Oscar Diaz. This Wild Card, allowed Oscar to travel and compete in the Sidney Paralympics in 2000. Carlos’s last international competition as a National Coach was in Sion, Switzerland in 2001. In 2003 Carlos moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and started coaching wheelchair tennis in the Baton Rouge area. Carlos was invited to give a workshop for players and coaches in Lafayette in 2003 which spawned the idea of a wheelchair program. The Baton Rouge wheelchair program started in January 2004; then it consisted of only two students, Shane Theriot and Landon Maher. It has grown every year since and now has eleven regular players. Men and women from all ages have joined the program on varying levels of ability – juniors, beginners, A, B, and C players, and open. We have players with Southern, National, and International rankings. This free, year round program meets every Saturday from 10 AM to noon. Promising, new programs have been started in Lafayette, LA (2003) and in Jonesville, LA (2006). Shane was the highest ranked player in Louisiana last year (2006 season). Also in 2006, representing LSU for the first time, he won the National Collegiate Tennis Tournament. In January of this year (2007) Shane decided to compete in the open division: He became a professional player in January 2007. Because of this higher level of competition, Shane is offered the opportunity to practice every day of the week, in addition to the Saturday practices. When tournament time nears, he usually steps up his practice and hits twice a day. That adds up to a total of ten hours per week of free instruction in our facility, the YMCA Lamar Tennis Center. Carlos’s program also invites players from other states to come and practice. Players from Mississippi travel to practice with us every other week. In the last few weeks two new players, one from Texas and one from Pennsylvania, contacted me regarding the program. They have decided that they will be moving to the area for the opportunity to participate in the program. Through the Southern Section of the USTA, Carlos was hired as the Chairman for Wheelchair Tennis for Louisiana to give clinics and to involve more players and coaches. If you are interested in joining Carlos’s program you can contact him at the following address, or give him a call. He welcomes all interested in wheelchair tennis and his passion for the sport is evident in his successes as a coach. You may also visit
www.louisianatennislessons.com to see about other programs in the Baton
Rouge Area.
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