Beaufort's Larry Scheper claims pair of tennis national championships

Beaufort's Larry Scheper has a workout routine he sticks to each night.

When it's quiet, and there's no one around to distract him, he gets in 30 minutes of cardio and then he stretches before he goes to bed.

"Once you get a little older," Scheper said, "you've got to make sure that body is in shape."

In fact, the tennis instructor and Beaufort Academy head coach said his off-the-court workout may be more important than the work he gets in on the court.

And the results seem to back that up.

Scheper won the Men's 45 Singles Championship at the American Tennis Association's 98th Annual Tennis Championship the week of Aug. 2-9 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The title is Scheper's fourth in a row.

Along with Maurice Green of Salt Point, N.Y., Scheper won the Men's 45 Doubles title, as well.

Scheper plays in two or three tournaments a year, depending on his work schedule, he said.

"Sometimes I play the National Grass Court Championships (at Germantown Cricket Club) in Philadelphia," he said. "But it depends on what's going on, work schedule and all."

This year, his daughter, Jayda, 13, competed with him for the first time, losing in the quarterfinals of the Girls 14s. Scheper said he never really expected to be competing long enough to have a child play at the same event.

"I used to see people bring their kids with them to play," he said, "and I used to think, 'Maybe one day I'll bring some kids from Beaufort to compete, but ...' "

Scheper is ranked No. 1 in the Men's 45s singles and doubles and No. 4 in Open Doubles in the ATA, the oldest African-American sports organization in the U.S.

Founded in 1916 as the black equivalent to the then-all-white U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, later to become the USTA, the ATA is open to players of all races and backgrounds.

It was the main governing body for African-American tennis in the U.S. until Althea Gibson became the first African-American player to compete in the U.S. National Championships -- now the U.S. Open -- at Forest Hills, N.Y., effectively desegregating the USLTA in 1950.

Scheper is the owner and head professional at Scheper Tennis Academy, based at the tennis courts in downtown Beaufort across from the National Cemetery on Boundary Street.

Follow sports editor Mike McCombs on Twitter at www.twitter.com/IPBGsports.

This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 2:12 AM with the headline "Beaufort's Larry Scheper claims pair of tennis national championships."