SteelMaster State-Of-The-Art Ross School Tennis Facility

Hamptons.com featured the new SteelMaster tennis facility at the Ross School in East Hampton, New York in a May article.   

The Ross School is the only private K-12 school in the Hamptons.  It is a prominent school that has been home to several famous children through the years, such as Alexa Ray Joel(daughter of Billy Joel). 

SteelMaster was chosen to create a tennis sports facility on the Ross campus because of its strength and durability.  The new building is said to be, “one piece of what’s become of a sports revolution of sorts”( Hamptons.com).

Ravens Tennis Is All The Rage With New State-Of-The-Art Facility

New Era In Athletics At Ross

East Hampton - Three weeks ago, a new era in athletics at The Ross School began. After searching far and wide for time on public courts in the community, the Ravens boys tennis team finally was cleared to serve it up at the brand new clay-court tennis facility on the East Hampton campus. Its addition to tennis teams repertoire is just one piece of what’s become of a sports revolution of sorts at Ross.

“What we’re trying to build here is like a tennis academy,” said first-year coach Vinicius Carmo. “We want to bring in students and try to grow tennis, work with them in first grade, second grade, so people enjoy tennis more. We want kids to come to us from other schools and get better and also open it to the public. We always want to try to grow tennis.”

Sports as a whole have received a makeover at Ross. Just this spring, its varsity lacrosse teams made the leap from junior varsity to varsity. A brand new baseball field stands adjacent to the most hyped addition to the athletic department - six clay tennis courts. The structure has created a buzz around the program unseen in its history and Carmo is hoping to use it to develop talent and interest, not only for varsity athletics but for youngsters on up to adults.

“Sports have always been seen as weak here,” Carmo said. “I think this got everybody real excited about tennis. We had kids who didn’t play last year because tennis was always secondary. We had a couple of kids who just came back to the team.”

The future is now for the Raven boys team. On Saturday, sophomore Henry Lee became the first male player in school history to reach the Suffolk County championships, rolling through to the Division IV semifinals before falling to Southampton’s Jeremy Dubin. Third singles player Ian Combemale is an eighth grader and “is going to be unbelievable” said Carmo. The rangy Spencer Kuzon at No. 4 singles is just a sophomore. Their youth doesn’t stop there either: Carmo raves about a talent crop of sixth-graders.

What will help develop the Ravens’ talent is the freedom to train indoors 12 months a year, both before and after school. The facility opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. It will be covered by the bubble from approximately Oct. 15 to May 15 each year. Carmo is hoping that will aid in the development of players greatly and may lead to their participation in big tournaments locally and nationally.

“Courtney Ross has put a lot of money into the school and keeps putting in money from her own pocket,” Carmo said. “This is a great thing to offer to the kids. She wants us to bring more kids here to play tennis. The most exciting thing is that people who may never play the game can play now. It’s such a nice thing to offer. It’s amazing for both adults and kids.”

Carmo came to Ross full-time in the fall and coached the girls team led by Nadia Smergut, who won the Division IV championship as just an eighth grader. As a player growing up in his native Brazil, Carmo ranked in the top five on the junior circuit in his native Brazil and played professionally for a year before accepting a tennis scholarship to the University of Tennessee. The Volunteers were consistently ranked in the top 10 in the country during his stint. Carmo came to the Ross School for a summer job nine years ago and has been here every summer since, moving to the East End full-time seven years ago to teach at Sportime in Quogue and Amagansett. He has already worked with some of the region’s top players, including much of the team from East End power Westhampton Beach dating back to his stint at the Quogue facility.

For all the joy derived from their success in League VII, the season hasn’t been without controversy. After last month’s 4-3 loss to the Ravens, the team’s first in school history against its crosstown rival, East Hampton Coach Claude Beudert accused Carmo of “stacking,” or ordering his lineup not in descending order by strength but in a way that maximized Ross’ chances to win. Some would consider it gamesmanship; others believe practitioners of stacking exhibit a lack of sportsmanship. Section XI, the governing body of Suffolk County athletics, requires that ability be the sole criteria for ordering a lineup, for both singles and doubles. The accusation came as a surprise to Carmo and smudged the perception of the team’s success.

Nevertheless, the Ravens are a win away from sharing the League VII crown - a win Tuesday at undefeated Westhampton would do it. Considering just a year ago, they were just a solid team in the lowest of divisions, League VIII, even second place would have to be considered a feather in their caps. With a lineup of underclassmen, time is on their side.

The bubble came off on Monday; eventually the clay that hasn’t quite dried since the roof went up will give way to more honest bounces. The echoes of booming groundstrokes and serves will subside until it’s re-erected in October. The echoes from this season, between the varsity team’s surge in League VII to its coach’s ambitions to the sparkling new venue, are likely to resonate for years to come.

“Once we get everything together,” Carmo said, “I think everything is going to be really cool.”

                - Brett Mauser