Ball persons need to keep their heads in the game

From afar, it's easy to think of the U.S. Open ball job as something akin to a dog playing fetch.

Once the ball hits the net and is ruled dead, it's go time. With your eyes focused on that loose tennis ball, you sprint there, swoop up the ball in one motion and gracefully scurry to the other side of the court - a job well done.

Sounds easy, right? That's what I thought when I stepped onto Court 7 at the National Tennis Center in Flushing last week for the annual U.S. Open ball tryouts. Then I met Cathie Delaney.

She's the assistant director of ball s at the U.S. Open, and as the tryout day unfolded, her true intentions quickly became clear. She was going to try to get you to mess up.

The United States Tennis Association estimates that about 400 newbies try out for the ball person job every year, and only about half of them perform well enough to be asked to return for a more rigorous tryout in a few weeks. From there, only about 80 will advance to the real deal.

So when it was my turn to step on the court on tryout day, the only thought running through my head was that I had to make a quick impression - or else.

You start your tryout by standing in position on the side of the net. That means you're upright with your hands behind your back, looking straight ahead. And once you're ready, Delaney hits a ball toward the net, simulating a live ball in a real match.

If you're like me, you can't help but get caught up in the moment. It's so easy to take this instance and transform it into something bigger, like, say . . . poof . . . you're the ball person for a U.S. Open final with a huge crowd of people watching every point with hushed anticipation.

With the adrenaline now flowing, suddenly you can't wait to show off your rapid reflexes, lightning-quick first step and dogged determination to retrieve the next dead ball in record speed.

But simply by thinking this way, little did I know that I was playing right into Delaney's hands. And that is where she got me, and many others.

The first ball she hit me, well, it didn't hit the net. It flew right over the net, which as you know means it was still a live ball. So the ball person shouldn't have moved at all.

Doesn't matter. I was so excited anticipating a dead ball that I already had taken my first step onto the court. Upon seeing the ball fly over the net and realizing my error, I quickly tried to catch myself and stop my momentum, bumbling and stumbling my way back into position.

Too late. What I've done, if this was the real thing, is become a potential distraction to the players, and that's the worst thing a ball person can do.

Oh, and Delaney made sure I knew it, too. She pointed her racket at me, smiled and asked, "How do you think the players would feel right now?" She was good-natured about it, but she made her point. Lesson learned.

That's the moment I found out that being a ball person at the U.S. Open is so much more than chasing a ball. Hustle goes a long way in this job, but you're going nowhere if you don't concentrate at all times.

The age minimum to be a ball person is 14 years old. The majority are teenagers or college students. But Tina Taps, the director of ball persons, said the final roster usually features a wide range of ages. She said the oldest ball person last year was a 61-year-old retired lawyer.

So when you're watching the Open in two months, pay attention to the people retrieving the ball and give them their props. And if you happen to see someone daydreaming, well, cut him some slack. It's harder than you think.