On Sunday May 22, Coach Newman introduced Payton Holden at the Capital Area Tennis Association (CATA) junior awards banquet and Payton was awarded the player of the year award.  Also, Sydney Gaskamp and Emily Cotton received CATA scholarships, Chase Bartlett and Kristin Kerrigan were ATA’s award winners and Marcus Sweeney was recognized as MVP for the Westlake High School team.
Coach Newman said that, “being able to introduce Payton Holden at the banquet was a great experience for me as many young players from Austin got to be inspired by Payton’s accomplishments.  And we got to showcase in front of the entire Austin tennis community what a player from ATA is capable of doing.” The following is what Coach Newman said to introduce Payton.
I have been coaching Payton since he was 9 years old.  Here are some interesting stats for you about Payton.
Payton champed up at the Georgetown ZAT in May of 2007, he was 9 years old and 1 month.
He supered up at the Laredo CMZ when he was 10 years old and 6 months.
He won his first SCMZ 4 months later.
In his time as a junior tennis player he has won a superchamp major zone in both singles and doubles in every age group.  He has won an excellence tournament in every age group, he has also won the summer grand slam in both singles and doubles.
Since he was 12, he has been ranked in the top 50 in the United States in each age group.
In his career, he has lost 386 junior tennis matches and won 650 junior tennis matches for a total of 1036, not counting this weekend in Houston.  That’s 10 year’s of 100 matches per year since he was 10 years old.
He is a phenominal athlete who can make any shot.  He had mastered the tweener by the time he was 11.  His volley skills are the best I have seen as a coach in 30 years of coaching elite level players. 
The thing that separates Payton from many other tennis athletes is his consistency.  He has rarely missed a practice or lesson in 8 years of training.  His practices are still very high level, high intensity and I believe he will be as successful a college player as he has been a junior player.
Payton could have played tennis for any College or University in the United States, he chose to play for Princeton, furthering both his tennis career and maximizing his college opportunity through being an elite level athlete.
Needless to say I am completely and utterly proud of him.
Finally, if you knew him when he was younger, you know he has gone from being one of the best players in Texas with the shortest hair, to being one of the best, with the longest hair.

Congratulations to all the ATA Winners!!!