Right off of Sea Cliff Ave. in Glen Cove, next door to the Sea Cliff train station, is the Robbie Wagner Tournament Training Center, a facility where children and adults alike have been coming to learn tennis skills for more than a decade, with several prodigies having gone pro. The center will host a Level 3 USTA Eastern Challenger this weekend, from July 25-27.
Tennis professional Scott Axler of Huntington runs all of the big junior tennis tournaments out of the facility, about 25 a year, including four national USTA events.
“The main thing in a level 3, is you want the kids to have a great experience,” says Axler. “We want them to have a positive experience; tennis should be fun. The tournament provides a good practice and the kids who get better move up.”
Formerly known as Glen Cove Tennis, the building has been around since the 1970s; Robbie Wagner took it over in 2002. Wagner has coached nationally and sectionally ranked juniors, top collegiate players and both men and women’s circuit professionals. Many of his students have gone on to attend and play on tennis teams at top colleges around the country. Axler has been with him since the beginning, helping to keep the program strong and organizing the tournaments. Kids come from all over Long Island, and even Westchester and Manhattan, to train at Robbie Wagner’s.
“It’s probably the biggest junior program on Long Island,” says Axler.
With about 30 instructors and 13 courts, the center offers camps for kids during the summer as well as programs during the school year for all age and skill levels. They also have several women’s leagues. There is no membership fee, just the cost of the programs.
Axler says the philosophy of their training is to not only teach tennis skills, but to also provide the basics for a disciplined and active lifestyle. They strive to help kids become “complete athletes” and really encourage developing the skills necessary for a college level career, if not professional.
The “wall of fame” on the inside of the center is indicative of their success, as it lists former students who have earned tennis scholarships to college.
For his own children, Axler says their tennis background help them get into elite colleges. His son was one of the top 20 in the country when he was in the program (and beat Andy Roddick a couple of times: “He never lost to him,” says Axler); he could have gone to Yale or Harvard, and ended up choosing Northwestern. His daughter went to Quinnipiac and got a full scholarship her senior year.
Axler himself has been playing since he was 12. “I was a USTA official for about 15 to 20 years, and I was also a referee, but I’m kind of retired from that now.”
Of course, to become a professional player, “you have to love to travel,” says Axler. A former program member, Scott Lipsky, 33, is still on the pro tour. As for the kids who come to the tournaments,
Axler says in survey, when asked what they wanted most fro a national tournament, the response was “we want a fair match.”
“We just want them to have a positive experience,” says Axler. “If they love it, they’ll play it for a lifetime.”
Robbie Wagner Tournament Training Center is at 60 Sea Cliff Ave., Glen Cove. Call 516-759-0505 or visit www.robbiewagners.com for info.
