Daniel Witherell

My love of tennis began in the summer of 1970, at age 8, when my mother pulled a couple of old wood rackets from the attic and sent me and my older brother to the local high school court to get us out of the house. Although my brother quickly lost interest I was hooked and would go to the courts at every opportunity to look for people to play or just hit off the wall.

At the age of 10 I started playing for the local Junior Davis Cup team traveling to other local communities for matches on Saturdays throughout the summer.

I played four years of varsity tennis at Dunsmuir High School(1977-1980) compiling a 39-1 league record. After high school I played two years at College of the Siskiyous at #2 singles and #1 doubles having my second season cut short by a torn rotator cuff.

In the years after the injury I played only sporadically, playing the occasional tournament and helping teach and train my two younger siblings both of whom had 4 year careers at Dunsmuir High.

In 2005 I found a renewed interest in the game while on vacation at Hedonism III in Jamaica playing a number of times with the resident pro and with some of my fellow guests. I began playing regularly again when I returned home, playing in local tournaments and enrolling in a recreational class at College of the Siskiyous. In 2006 we returned to Jamaica again, this time to Hedonism II where I played every day with both the resident and visiting pros over a 14 day period. In 2009 we returned to Hedonism II again, this time for 17 days, playing nearly every morning with the resident pro Garfield Gordon. At the conclusion of this last trip he suggested I look into the visiting pro program. I just recently returned from another 17 day trip to Hedonism II and was urged again by Garfield to look into participating in the visiting pro program through Sports International.

In 2007 my wife and I moved to Redding California and joined the Sun Oaks Racket Club where we now both play regularly and participate in USTA tournaments and Adult Leagues. I currently have a 4.0 USTA rating.