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Inaugural State of Florida Men’s Intercollegiate Championships a Success

TAMPA- Seven of Florida’s twelve Division I schools competed in the inaugural State of Florida Men’s Tennis Championships held at the University of South Florida’s campus in September 2011. The winner of the event was Moritz Buerchner from the University of North Florida, (shown above).

Florida State, Miami, UCF, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida Atlantic, North Florida, and USF competed in Tampa over the span of four days at the USF Tennis facility. In addition to the Division A singles, there was a Division B singles event and a doubles event as well. It was an individual competition, though, and no team title was awarded.

Wael Kilani from USF was the Division A singles runner-up. Leonardo Nahar of UNF captured the Division B title with a win in a tough three-set battle over FSU’s Andres Bucaro. The score of that match was 1-6, 6-4 (10-8). On the doubles side, it was the duo of Mitch Thams and Juan Bolona from UCF that came up with the title. They beat out Wael Kilani and Federico Sabogal from USF 8-4.

The North Florida coaching staff and team left Tampa and headed back to Jacksonville with the Bedford Cup trophy. The trophy will be in their possession for an entire year until next year’s tournament. The Youth Tennis Foundation of Florida sponsored the event, with moneys donated by the Edward T. Bedford Foundation. YTF Board of Director and current Florida Gulf Coast University Assistant Director of Community Outreach, J. Webb Horton was the catalyst to making the event happen. He was the coach of the Men’s team at FGCU for the past ten years.

Tournament director and head coach from USF, Don Barr, thought the tournament was a great success and is excited for the future of collegiate tennis in the state of Florida.

“Next year the hope is to have not only men compete in the tournament, and that all twelve teams compete, but also the women.” said Barr. “This tournament was a great experience for all of my players and all of the other men who competed. It was good for college tennis in the state. We were proud to have been able to host this event and we thank the Youth Tennis Foundation and the Bedford Foundation for their support.”

Written by Kelsie Eberly, Sports Information Department, University of South Florida.