Former NA star headed to UCLA
Arthur Ashe played college tennis there. Jimmy Connors, too. A year from now, a teenager from Western Pennsylvania will do the same.
Ava Catanzarite, a high school senior and tennis ace, will take an outstanding forehand and lots of international experience to UCLA. She verbally committed there early this month.
This personable, charismatic teen attended North Allegheny High School before moving to Naples, Fla., in October of her sophomore year to train full-time at Gomez Tennis Academy. She takes classes online through Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.
Catanzarite was supposed to take an official visit to UCLA after playing in a tournament in San Diego back in March, but the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, she took a virtual tour online and did a Zoom call with the team and coaches. The Bruins are coached by Stella Sampras Webster, who has led the program to two NCAA titles in her 24 seasons and is the sister of tennis great Pete Sampras.
“I picked UCLA for a few reasons,” Catanzarite said. “First off, I really like Stella and assistant coach Rance Brown. They’re amazing coaches. Stella emphasized how family oriented the team is and how much they get along. It’s a group of girls I want to be surrounded by. Being part of such an iconic school and tennis program is something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Catanzarite is a big-time recruit. Tennisrecruiting.net ranks her the No. 17 senior in the country and No. 1 in Pennsylvania. As you might expect, she was in high demand. She took official visits to Georgia, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Wake Forest and Notre Dame, as well as an unofficial visit to Florida. Five of those six schools participated in last year’s NCAA championships. Georgia was the runner-up.
Earning a scholarship to play tennis at a Division I school isn’t easy, especially at one of the best programs in the country. Teams are permitted to have only eight scholarship players. But Catanzarite is a special player. One day, she hopes to turn pro, following in the footsteps of Peters’ Alison Riske, the No. 19 singles player in the world.
Catanzarite, the WPIAL Class 3A runner-up her freshman season, has been training in Florida for close to two years. The head pro and director of the academy is Rene Gomez, who has coached Monica Seles, Anna Kournikova, Jim Courier and Max Mirnyi, a former World No. 1 in doubles. Several other teens from Western Pa. train at Gomez — Venetia’s Ethan Muza, Wexford’s Calvin Baierl and Middlesex Township’s Zane Ford.
“It’s been amazing, pretty life changing for me,” said Catanzarite, whose dad, Jeff, led Monaca to a WPIAL football title in 1985. “I’ve traveled to so many new places, learned so many things about my game and myself. It’s really shaped me as a player and improved my game. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
There has been lots of traveling and lots of success. Catanzarite has won ITF junior singles titles in Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Martinique and Guadeloupe, and doubles titles in Mexico, Jamaica and Delray Beach. She has also played in tournaments in Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia.
Catanzarite was recently home for three weeks visiting family and friends. During that stay, she phoned Sampras Webster to tell her that she wants to be a future Bruin. It won’t be long before she will be.
“It’s going to be amazing and I’m so excited,” Catanzarite said. “Stella and Rance have been there for a long time. They’ve coached a lot of the good players coming up like Jennifer Brady. I’m really excited to be under their wing and wear a UCLA uniform.”
As cool as Iceland
In the land of girls basketball, Moon’s Emma Theodorsson is one of the top juniors in the WPIAL. She also has a close connection to another land — Iceland.
Theodorsson is a 6-foot-1 guard-forward who averaged 16 points a game last season when she helped Moon reach the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals. Theodorsson has seen her recruitment pick up this summer, and now has eight Division I offers. The first came from Duquesne when she was only in eighth grade.
The Icelandic roots come from her dad, Oli, who was born in Iceland and eventually came to the United States as an exchange student before his senior year of high school. Oli attended Point Park, where he played soccer and basketball. While there he met his wife, Lori, who also played basketball at Point Park. Oli was also the men’s soccer coach at Point Park for a few years.
Emma said that all of her relatives on her dad’s side, including her grandparents, still live in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital.
“We usually go out every other summer,” she said. “We’re supposed to go for Christmas this year, so hopefully we’ll still be able to go.”
Theodorsson also holds offers from Robert Morris, Youngstown State, Navy, Lafayette, Western Michigan, North Dakota and Colgate.
There’s another junior standout at Moon. Point guard Reilly Sunday has more than a dozen Division I offers, including Duquesne, Robert Morris, Massachusetts and George Washington. Sunday averaged 21.5 points a game last season.
“It’s so much fun playing with her. It kind of reminds me of Kobe and Shaq — the dynamic duo,” Theodorsson said, laughing.
The two are also AAU teammates on a Western Pa. Bruins team that includes fellow junior standouts Journey Thompson (Peters Township) and Ashleigh Connor (Mt. Lebanon).
Baseball commitments
Central Catholic’s Brett Palmer (Lehigh); Norwin’s Zach Potthoff (Swarthmore); Waynesburg’s Tyler Switalski (Gardner-Webb).