Vanderbilt gives full scholarship for local tennis star Maggie Yahner December 2004
  
Maggie Yahner, a nationally ranked tennis player from Las Vegas, NV has been given a a full scholarship to play for the Vanderbilt women's tennis team according to Head Coach Geoff Macdonald.
 
"Maggie Yahner is an amazing success story." Said Ryan Wolfington of VegasTennis.com.  At the age of 9 years old Maggie's mom read an ad in the paper about Inner City Games/After School All-Stars. She went down for the beginner course provided by George McCall's program and then kept playing with her first coach Leon Vernon, who coaches tennis at Sunset Park.
 
 "She played her first competition at 12, and for a long time she lost everything she played, " her mom said. A local pro can remember Maggie coming off the court crying, but what would become her trademark was an unwillingness to quit. Soon she began winning, and in no time became ranked, and before you knew it she was a top player in the nation recruited by numerous colleges for a full scholarship.
 
Yahner was a winner of a USTA Girls’ 18 National Open tournament in El Paso, Texas last summer and a winner of Marty Hennessy's well known junior tennis tournament's in Las Vegas. "She is one player that always hustles, always gives 100% and that is often the difference between a great player and an incredible player," said VegasTennis.com's Ryan Wolfington. Maggie is currently ranked 7th nationally in the USTA Girls 18 classification.
 
Yahner, daughter of Rea Melanson and the late Ronald Yahner, is also one of the finest Girls’ 18 players in the USTA’s Intermountain region, which includes Colorado, Montana, Utah and Nevada. Winner of the Intermountain winter and Easter circuits in 2004, Yahner served as captain of the Intermountain Fed Cup squad.
 
"It is great to see the player with the most heart also become the most talented," said Wolfington. A lot has to be said for her mother, who's husband passed away when Maggie was young. Mrs. Rea Yahner then became a single parent, and always did what she could to support Maggie's love of tennis. It was not all hard work either, tennis is a after school activity and on weekends the tournaments became her social scene.
 
Soon she started training at Desert Palm Tennis Club where Howard Tubin took her under his wing. She became so good that she had to travel to Florida and train at an Academy.  At the time Las Vegas's tennis community only had a few nationally ranked kids.
 
Tennis grows in the Valley
 
Now a days Vegas Tennis has grown dramatically and boasts many nationally ranked players. In fact, at the recent Great Pumkin Sectional, with the best players from the 6 state Intermountain region, Nevada's girls won 3 of the 4 age groups and were in the finals of every age group.  "The growth of tennis in Las Vegas, especially with nationally ranked girls, has a lot to do with Andre Agassi's Foundation and the program they have put together at the Boy's and Girl's Club", said Wolfington. "Their excellence has awaken the whole valley, with everyone taking their game to the next level." Now kids train 3-5 days a week as the norm and tennis Academy's are throughout the valley. Now a player with Maggie's skill can live at home and train at an Academy in Las Vegas.
 
With the new 23 court Stacy Darling tennis center being built at Washington and Buffalo in Lynette Boggs McDonald's ward, tennis will be taken to a whole new level. There will be more sectional, national and international events coming to town. With that growth and great examples like Maggie Yahner, other kids will be inspired to take on the game, using it as a vehicle to get a college scholarship or who knows, maybe even be the next Andre Agassi.
 
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Vanderbilt press release at http://vucommodores.com/news.cfm?id=2865&template=WT
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Contact:
Ryan Wolfington
4316 Fortune Avenue
Las Vegas, Nevada 89107
702-822-1081
 


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