Bruce Schilling on ParentingAces

Summary

Bruce Schilling of New Balance Tennis and Bill Mountford of the USTA join Lisa Stone to discuss the inaugural New Balance High School Tennis Championship, scheduled for Boston in July 2014. The 128-player field (64 boys, 64 girls) uses a compass draw format that guarantees multiple matches for every player. Rather than selecting participants based on state championship status — which is complicated by NCHSAA eligibility rules — the event uses UTR (Universal Tennis Ratings) for selection, with geographic distribution as an additional criterion. The episode provides an early case study of UTR being used as an official selection tool in a major junior event.

Guest Background

Bruce Schilling is a representative of New Balance Tennis, the title sponsor of the inaugural New Balance High School Tennis Championship. He is responsible for the company’s investment in junior tennis programming and views the high school tennis championship as a strategic brand initiative that reaches an underrepresented segment of the junior competitive market.

Bill Mountford is a USTA official involved in the development and administration of the New Balance High School Tennis Championship. He represents the USTA’s interest in creating high-quality competitive opportunities for high school players who are not yet in the national rankings system.

Key Findings

1. High School Tennis Players Are an Underrepresented Market

The premise of the New Balance High School Tennis Championship is that high school tennis players — distinct from elite USTA junior players — represent a large, underserved competitive market. The 345,000 students who play high school tennis in the US include vast numbers who compete seriously at the state and regional level but have no access to a national-level competitive event tailored to their level and schedule.

2. Compass Draw Guarantees Multiple Matches for All Participants

The championship uses a compass draw format — a bracket structure that routes all players, including those who lose their first matches, into additional competitive rounds. This format guarantees that every player who travels to Boston gets multiple competitive matches, regardless of how they perform in the opening rounds. The format acknowledges that for most high school players, the journey to a national event is a significant investment that should deliver genuine competitive experience, not a first-round exit.

3. UTR as Official Selection Tool — A Landmark Moment

This episode captures one of the early instances of UTR being used as the official selection criterion for a major national tennis event. Rather than using USTA national rankings (which favor players who travel extensively to national events) or state championship titles (which are complicated by eligibility rules), the New Balance Championship selects participants primarily based on UTR ratings, supplemented by geographic distribution criteria to ensure representation across regions.

4. NCHSAA Eligibility Rules Complicate State-Championship-Based Selection

The reason UTR is used rather than state championship status is a structural complexity: NCHSAA (and equivalent state athletic association) eligibility rules complicate the ability of state champions to participate in events that might affect their amateur status or eligibility. By selecting based on UTR — which measures competitive performance without triggering eligibility concerns — the event bypasses this regulatory complication.

5. Geographic Distribution as an Equity Mechanism

In addition to UTR-based selection, the championship uses geographic distribution criteria to ensure that the 128-player field represents players from across the country, not just from high-density tennis markets like California, Florida, and Texas. This equity mechanism ensures the event is genuinely national rather than a regional championship with national branding.

6. New Balance’s Strategic Investment in Junior Tennis

Schilling discusses New Balance’s rationale for sponsoring the event: reach a tennis-playing population that is underserved by existing sponsorship, build brand affinity with serious tennis families, and establish New Balance as a credible player in tennis equipment. The high school tennis market is attractive because it is both large and largely unaddressed by premium tennis brands.

Actionable Advice for Families

• High school tennis players who are serious about their game should establish and maintain a UTR profile — it is becoming the universal selection criterion for events like the New Balance Championship and a standard tool in college recruiting
• Geographic distribution criteria in major events mean that players from non-traditional tennis markets may have better access to elite national events than players from densely populated tennis states — this is worth researching when planning competitive schedules
• The compass draw format guarantees multiple matches for all participants, making the New Balance Championship a developmentally valuable experience regardless of competitive results

INTENNSE Relevance

• UTR as competitive infrastructure: The New Balance Championship’s adoption of UTR as a selection tool in 2014 is an early validation of the rating system that has now become industry standard. INTENNSE’s own player selection and ranking systems should engage with UTR as a common language for evaluating talent
• Geographic equity: The geographic distribution criterion for the New Balance Championship reflects a commitment to making elite competition accessible beyond the coastal tennis markets. INTENNSE’s 10-team structure with geographic diversity reflects the same principle at the professional level
• Compass draw and guaranteed competition: The compass draw’s guarantee of multiple matches for all participants is a format design principle INTENNSE can apply at the arc level — every player in every match should have meaningful competitive stakes, not just the starting lineup
• Sponsorship model: New Balance’s sponsorship rationale — reach an underserved but serious tennis market, build brand affinity with committed tennis families — is a template for how INTENNSE should approach potential sponsors whose target audience overlaps with serious tennis families and players

Notable Quotes

“High school tennis is 345,000 kids. That’s a massive market that has been almost completely ignored by premium tennis brands. We think there’s a real opportunity there.” — Bruce Schilling

“We chose UTR because it’s the most accurate measure of competitive performance available and it doesn’t create the eligibility complications that using state championship results would.” — Bill Mountford