Trey Hilderbrand's Run at US Open Juniors

Summary

Lisa Stone records this short bonus episode live from the 2017 US Open after watching Trey Hilderbrand (17, Texas, committed to UCF) lose in the third round of the US Open Juniors. Trey received a last-minute wild card after a strong run at a Grade 1 ITF in College Park, and this was his first Junior Grand Slam and first US Open appearance. His father Mark Hilderbrand coaches him and was on-court during the match. Trey is 6’4” and plays a serve-and-volley style inherited directly from his father’s era. Mark’s coaching philosophy is built around long-term game style consistency, refusing to give his son an “out” for his height, and accepting that a net-rushing game style loses matches at 12 but wins at 24. The episode documents the parent-as-coach dynamic, the first-Slam emotional experience, and Coco Gauff (13 at the time) is referenced as another junior competing at the event.

Guest Background

Trey Hilderbrand is a 17-year-old, 6’4” Texas-based junior who has been committed to UCF and who received a last-minute wild card into the 2017 US Open Juniors main draw. He trains approximately 5-6 hours per day on tennis and fitness (Tuesdays and Thursdays at school, Monday/Wednesday/Friday split between online school and full training), though on-court time is about 3-3.5 hours per session with 1-1.5 hours of cardio/fitness. He models his game on Marty Fish and Todd Martin (serve-and-volley players), not on contemporary baseline-dominant players. He cites Federer as his favorite player. He lost the third-round match in the US Open Juniors in three sets after dominating the first set.

Mark Hilderbrand is Trey’s father and primary coach. He played tennis through an era when serve-and-volley was standard. He started coaching Trey as a “come in a lot” player from the beginning, teaching drop shots, slices, and net approach tactics that he credits his own late start in tennis for developing — he had to compensate for weaker groundstrokes by being creative. He explicitly chose not to give Trey “outs” for his height (coaches who would say a tall player can’t do X were rejected), insisting on the same movement standards as smaller players. He has a process-minded long-term view: he wants Trey playing his best tennis in his mid-20s.

Key Findings

1. Last-Minute Wild Card — The Tournament Reality at Junior Level

Trey’s wild card into the US Open Juniors arrived by email approximately two days after a strong run at a Grade 1 ITF in College Park. This describes the unpredictable access structure of junior Grand Slam draws: players have no certain pathway, results at recent events determine wild card offers, and the two-day notice means players must be in physical condition and mental readiness at all times during the Grand Slam windows. For Trey, who thought he had a wild card into a college event, the offer changed his entire tournament week. Lisa Stone notes that watching 13-year-old Coco Gauff competing in the same draw was a window into the next generation of potential future stars.

2. Serve and Volley as a Paternal Inheritance — Deliberately Building a Non-Standard Game

Mark Hilderbrand made an explicit choice to build Trey’s game around serve-and-volley and net play from the beginning. His reasoning: “Because of his height, when you’re a tall kid, you just don’t have muscle, and then you’re slower than everybody else. So I wanted him to have answers.” Mark’s own late tennis start forced him to develop drop shots, slices, and hand skills to compensate for limited groundstroke development, and he deliberately instilled those same tools in Trey: “I just taught him to be able to do all those things.” The tactical logic: “He was going to win matches. If you didn’t like coming in, he was going to bring you in. Whatever it took.” The unintended consequence: Trey has become unusually “handsy” and needs to learn when to step in and hit clean rather than relying on hands — “a fine line that you have to be careful of.”

3. The “Don’t Give Them an Out” Coaching Philosophy for Physical Limitations

Mark’s management of Trey’s height as a coaching variable is instructive. He explicitly rejected any coaching culture that would excuse a tall player from movement standards: “I don’t treat him like he’s big. Whereas some people try to give them an out — they can’t do this or that. We just don’t accept that. We just make it hard on him and try to get him to do all the things everybody else can do.” The payoff: Trey’s balance and movement quality at 17 are notably better than typical tall juniors. The coaching philosophy is that physical constraints produce compensatory strengths if they’re treated as problems to solve rather than acceptable limitations. “It pushed him to places I didn’t want to push him, but I think it pays off.”

4. What a First Grand Slam Teaches — Confidence That Cannot Be Given, Only Experienced

Trey’s summary of what the tournament produced: “I know I’m able to compete with the best players in the world now, and it’s boosted my confidence a lot.” On what he would do differently to win the third-round match: “Probably being a little mentally better. A lot of points here and there — I could have screwed my head on better on a very couple of great points.” The first Junior Slam produces an evidence-based confidence recalibration that no practice environment or parent assessment can replicate. Trey’s answer to how he keeps himself motivated: “I’ve never really been like that [burned out]. I’ve always wanted to be the best. I’ve never really been satisfied with anything and I just want to keep getting better.”

5. The “Message Must Remain the Same” — Mark Hilderbrand’s Core Parent Advice

Mark distills the single most important thing for parents of developing juniors: “The message has to remain the same. You find out pretty early what attributes they’re going to have and you mold and find a game style to do that. Parents get lost — Johnny lost last month, then two months from now little Johnny grew three inches and the parent doesn’t see that. They switch coaches and get a different message. Next thing you know, your kid’s learning new things and becomes the jack of all trades, master of none.” Mark’s explicit acceptance framing: “It’s okay if your kid ends up number 100 in the world, or playing Division III tennis, or not playing tennis. Get your kid as good as they can get. And you have to be okay with that.”

6. In-Match Coaching at Junior Slams — Permission and Protocol

The US Open introduced sanctioned in-match coaching in the juniors draw for 2017 (reflecting the broader trend toward regulated coaching visible in the Ten Pro and Sol Schwartz formats). Trey explicitly coordinated with his father-coach ahead of the match: “I just tried to tell him — please don’t be negative with me. I don’t need that when I’m on the court, and he did a pretty good job at this tournament.” Mark’s courtside coaching philosophy during the match: “I really don’t care where we’re at. I consider this tournament just like any other tournament — this is just practice. In the big scheme of things, even now, whoever wins this event, oftentimes they’re the ones that have matured faster physically. The end product is not there.” The explicit pre-match coaching protocol — player specifying what they need emotionally from the coach before the match begins — is a direct application of the communication principles that recur throughout the ParentingAces series.

7. Four-Year College Plan — Long-Term View on Height and Development

Trey is planning to go four years at UCF, coached by John (Coach Roddick referenced). Mark’s reasoning: “Because of his build and his height, I just think he’s a little more delayed. I think he’s going to need a few more years.” He frames the decision using Cameron Norrie as a model — a player at TCU who turned professional when it was “pretty obvious it was time,” having won a couple of Challenger rounds. The prescription: “If you’re challenging, winning a couple of rounds at Challenger level, I think it’s time. That’s my opinion. Until that time comes, we just plan on playing and learning.” The long-term view is explicitly built around Trey’s physical maturation timeline, not on results at 17.

Actionable Advice for Families

• Build your child’s game around a distinctive style from an early age and commit to it — Mark Hilderbrand’s serve-and-volley investment in Trey from the beginning created a genuinely differentiated game at a time when most juniors are indistinguishable baseline players; distinctiveness is itself a competitive advantage
• Coordinate with your player (or coach) ahead of any high-stakes match about what kind of emotional support they want from you courtside — Trey’s explicit request (“just please don’t be negative”) prevented the match from becoming emotionally complicated between father and son at a critical moment
• Accept that the competitive confidence a junior player gains from a first Junior Grand Slam appearance cannot be manufactured in training — make attending and competing at the highest available level a priority, not a reward for reaching a certain ranking first
• When evaluating whether a college-committed player should turn professional, use Mark Hilderbrand’s Challenger benchmark: winning rounds at the Challenger level (not just ranking numbers) is the signal that the professional circuit is ready to receive the player

INTENNSE Relevance

• Serve-and-volley players as roster assets: Mark Hilderbrand’s deliberate investment in Trey’s net game produces a game style that INTENNSE’s format advantages — the team format, substitution windows, mixed-gender rosters — are designed to showcase; players who approach the net are more visually dynamic, and INTENNSE’s analytics (65% net win rate vs. 47% baseline win rate) should motivate the league to actively recruit and develop serve-and-volley players
• Father-coach relationship as broadcast content: The Trey-Mark dynamic — father who is also coach, who has been invested from age four, who built a game style deliberately — is a story INTENNSE’s broadcast team should document for players who have similar parent-coach histories; the emotional complexity of the parent-coach role is one of tennis’s most human stories, and it resonates far beyond tennis families
• Physical typology as game style determinant: Mark Hilderbrand’s framework — identify your child’s physical characteristics early, choose a game style that maximizes those characteristics, and stay the course — is a player development model INTENNSE’s coaching staff should apply in player evaluation; identifying players whose physical profiles suit INTENNSE’s format (net rushers, big servers, athletic mixed-gender players) and investing in them from their junior years creates a pipeline
• Coco Gauff at 13: Lisa Stone’s reference to watching Coco Gauff compete at 13 in the same US Open Juniors draw as 17-year-olds is a future-player scouting data point; INTENNSE should have a scouting presence at junior Grand Slam draws specifically to identify players five to eight years before they would enter the league
• UCF as Southeast tennis program: Trey’s commitment to UCF (Orlando) situates him in the Southeast US corridor that is INTENNSE’s core geography; the Atlanta-based league should build recruiting and community relationships with UCF, Georgia Tech, Florida, and other Southeast programs that develop the pipeline of players who will eventually enter INTENNSE’s ecosystem
• “Just be supportive” as fan experience guidance: Trey’s courtside advice to parents — “look away, dad, just be supportive” — is applicable to INTENNSE’s fan culture programming; the league’s match environment should be trained around positive, engaged fan behavior rather than the partisan, intimidating atmospheres that juniors sometimes describe from USTA tournaments

Notable Quotes

“I know I’m able to compete with the best players in the world now — it’s boosted my confidence a lot.”

“Probably being a little mentally better. I could have screwed my head on better on a very couple of great points.”

“I don’t treat him like he’s big. We just don’t accept that. We just make it hard on him.”

“I want him to play his best tennis when he’s in his mid-20s.”

“The message has to remain the same. You can get lost — switch coaches, get a different message, and your kid becomes the jack of all trades, master of none.”

“Look away, dad. Just look away. Be supportive and don’t put them down as much. Keep their hopes up.”

“I’ve never really been satisfied with anything — I just want to keep getting better.”