Keen on Playing Tennis : Import Wants to Showcase Skills at Four-Year School

Although Santa Monica College freshman tennis player Jean-Bernard Keen recently won the state community college men’s singles championship, Coach Leon Singleton is trying to make sure that Keen does not return for his sophomore year.

It is not that Singleton wouldn’t like Keen to play for SMC next season. He believes that his top singles player would have a better future in tennis if he played at a four-year college next season.

Singleton said that Keen, a 24-year-old Frenchman, walked into his office in December and inquired about playing at SMC. A friend from France who is attending UCLA had recommended that he enroll at SMC.

Singleton’s decision to welcome Keen to the team turned out to benefit the coach and player.

Keen not only won the state singles title, but also led the Corsairs to a second-place finish behind Saddleback in the state tournament.

During the regular season, Keen was 18-0 in dual-match play as SMC won the Western State Conference championship with a 15-1 record.

Singleton said Keen was more than “a very talented player” for SMC. Because his teammates wanted to beat him for the position as the Corsairs’ top singles player, they “raised their play a notch higher. He was very inspirational.”

Keen’s age would seem to make him ineligible to play for an NCAA Division I team such as UCLA or USC. If an athlete enrolls in any institution of higher learning after his 20th birthday, he loses one year of eligibility at a Division I school for every year he or she is past the age of 20, according to Steve Mallonee, an NCAA spokesman.

The 5-foot-9, 145-pound Keen enrolled at SMC when he was 23, so he appears to have used his four years of Division I eligibility. But there is apparently no rule preventing him from playing at Division II or III or NAIA schools, Mallonee said.

Singleton says Keen has several qualities that make him a unique player.

First, he is left-handed, “which gives him a psychological advantage because there aren’t that many lefties. I figure (his left-handedness) is worth 1.5 points a game because he hits the ball with a different spin.

“He has stick-to-itiveness. He does not give in if he really wants to win a point, and he knows how to do that. He has determination. He may have been down in singles or doubles, but, if he wanted a point, nothing stood in his way.

“He has excellent ground strokes. There are players who have the strokes in practice, but once they begin to play, the great strokes seem to vanish.

“He is not only excellent, but he is also a thoughtful player. He knows how to place his shots, and that’s very important in tennis because it’s such a mental game.”

Keen said that it is necessary for him to receive a college tennis scholarship because his parents, who are subsidizing his current stay in the United States, would be unable to pay for his costs at an American university.

Keen wants to play for a U.S. college team so that he can sharpen his game against tough competition in hopes of someday playing professionally. He said that he is ranked between No. 80 and 100 in his homeland.

Singleton said that Keen, who has completed an obligation to serve a year in military service in France, may have gotten “a very late start, but he wants to go as far as he can (in tennis).”

Keen has not considered what he will do if he does not receive a college scholarship, Singleton said.

“It’s not even a part of his thinking that he’s not going to get one. He’s proved he’s a good player, the top player in the state from 106 community colleges. Certainly, there should be an opening for that caliber of player.”

There may be no doubt about Keen’s ability, but apparently some question his temperament.

Saddleback Coach Bill Otta says that Keen “started showing some maturity toward the end of the year” when he won the state singles title.

But Otta said that Keen displayed anger when he lost a match to Saddleback’s Esteban Saba at the Ojai Valley tournament. Otta also said Keen strenuously questioned an official’s call and had to default to Bill Terry of Bakersfield College at a community college regional final at Riverside Community College.

Singleton said he did not attend the Ojai tournament, but that Keen’s outburst at the regional final may have stemmed from a case of food poisoning and a shaky grasp of English.

Otta said that Keen “is an excellent player” but that, if he goes on to play at a four-year college, “he has to get under control better than he is mentally. He has to be able to stay concentrated and not let a bad call upset him so much.”

Singleton said that volatility may go with ability.