Four Years Come and Go
I have written articles for Long Island Tennis Magazine and New York Tennis Magazine for the past five years. During that time, I have come in contact with many parents and juniors who read this publication with questions about the collegiate tennis experience. They can ask everything from how do I market myself as a potential student tennis player, to what can I expect from the academic collegiate athletic experience?
The junior tennis academies across New York State and the country specialize in getting aspiring collegiate players ready for the collegiate experience in the skills department. As a collegiate coach, I want to give you another perspective that should really resonate far more. You might be one of the better players on your high school team and a highly ranked USTA junior player. However, on most collegiate tennis teams, athletes with a similar resume also hope to make an impact. You will be competing with and against not only the new incoming players, but experienced upper classmen. You are a good player and your record in high school and in tournaments backs that fact up. However, there is a good chance you will not be the best player on the team. You will have to leave your ego at the door and start preparing yourself for the next level. If you can do that, something bigger and better comes along.
Just this season, I had a young 18-year-old male player come to the college where I coach. He came to us after a year of exchanged dialogue and a very good tennis resume that gave him a chance of being a very respectable collegiate tennis player. With hard work and commitment, to time management and academics, he would have blossomed into a fine addition to our program. He resigned after the first official practice. Apparently, the commitment to a collegiate tennis program was overwhelming after only a week into his educational experience. I failed to make the student understand the opportunity being presented to him and that the athletic experience could have had a highly weighted variable for him to stand out amongst his peers. I tried to impress upon him and other athletes that coming to college to play tennis is much more. Thank goodness I have had more successes than failures. This is the reality of what you are getting and the message parents, high school and academy coaches should be conveying.
1. Support from the coaching staff and fellow team members adds to the cooperation from professors
Coaches are "there" for their team members on many levels, from helping them through emotional slumps to encouraging their academic aspirations. The synergy between the locker room and the classroom is particularly effective on a small campus. A tennis player’s GPA on the average is significantly better than the average student body.
2. Easier socialization
Some studies have shown that the transition from high school to college is easier for student-athletes. Being part of a "team" as soon as you arrive on campus can jump-start the adjustment process.
3. Better fitness
Participating in athletics affords not only the benefits of regular physical activity, but a motivation to learn about and practice good nutritional habits as well.
4. Academic motivation
We often think of athletics and academics as two totally separate things. But in most colleges, students who play sports are required to keep up their grades. For some students, being required to stay on top of their studies so that they can stay on the team makes the difference between success and failure, not only in college but later in life, as well.
5. Professional opportunities
Only a very small fraction of collegiate athletes go on to play professional sports. But the social networks they develop through athletics and the team-building skills they learn on the court can give young athletes a head-start in the business world in establishing their professional career. Having been a team leader or a good team player in college not only prepares a student for the real world, it also speaks volumes to potential employers and graduate schools about a student's readiness for the professional community.
What is written below is from an anonymous college athlete which I would like to share to help you understand a how quickly four years of college goes and the importance of the experience:
"Four years come and go in what seems like a moment's time. You will look back and finally understand the full extent of the opportunity that I had. You will remember the times you killed yourself alongside your teammates. You will be PROUD of the moments you did it for THEM. As you re-live every suicide drill, every ounce of sweat you left on that court, you'll find yourself half-smiling almost in disbelief of what you once put yourself through. You will know that, even if you describe every detail in every drill you ever did, no other person will fully understand the amount of yourself you sacrificed each day for four years. You sit half-smiling because this is something you share with only your teammates, and something that not one person can ever take away from you. This pain, this secret and this bond will be what you remember. Once it's over, there will be no way to replace that void … that part of yourself you once gave to your teammates and your team. Once it's over, the physical pain becomes only a memory, and you'll find yourself asking for more.”
So, take it from me … sacrifice all of yourself for as long as you’ve got left. Four years is too short to hold back for even a second. I have heard from several graduating students in the past several years who share a common theme. That theme is “now that the working world has come I now know what these four years of college tennis meant both spiritually and athletically.” The experience paid high dividends in my post collegiate life.