PAT ON THE BACK

GAIL DELOZIER
Named the girl athlete of the year in her home state of Kentucky, Gail at 14 gives promise of entering the portals of big-time tennis. Rated with the top 10 players in the country in the 15-and-under division and ranked as the South's top girl player by the Southern Lawn Tennis Association, she has some 45 trophies in her growing collection. Now a petite (5 feet, 3 inches) freshman at Louisville's Shawnee High School, Gail began playing tennis at the age of 10, received her first lessons from her father, a former college player at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

MIKE RILEY
This young man of 11 has rolled up an enviable score in golf. Winner of 44 trophies in tournaments over regulation courses, he has already broken 80 a dozen times. A seventh-grader at Roosevelt Junior High School in San Diego, Mike started playing golf when he was 5. San Diego Junior Golf Association named him junior golfer of 1956 with an average score of 80.6.

GARY SIMONSON
An enforced year's vacation from active sports because of rheumatic fever was turned to victory by this 11-year-old from Lake Terrell, Wash. Gary took up trapshooting, and since last June has walked off with 10 awards, including some won in competition against adults. His sights are currently set on the national junior championships this summer at Vandalia, Ohio.

THREE PHOTOS