College Tennis Personal Statement

Growing up all I ever wanted to be was a professional football player, my dream was to make it into the NFL and repay my parents for all they've done for me. My whole life I was told to find something I love to do and stick with it, that's when I knew that football could be my free ticket out of Hawai’i. As my knowledge grew, I started to realize the struggles college would put my parents through financially, and that's when I decided football was the way to take care of that all. But as a kid, you don't see the full picture and you honestly never will, but all I knew was that I hated school and loved to play sports. Growing up I've always had people tell me to take care of my school work and be a student first. As a kid, you understand what

I believe my talent is time management, working hard, and helping others. Being a student-athlete I had to develop time managing early. When I made the girl's varsity basketball team my freshman year I realized just how time-consuming it was. There were days where I woke up at four in the morning to do homework and study for tests, after getting home from a game at nine pm. Learning to handle this full schedule challenged me as a student. It gave me the confidence to go take harder classes after freshman year. Sophomore year I took AP World History and three Honors classes. Junior year, I did so as well. But I’ve really pushed myself this year, because I am taking four AP classes: Environmental Science, Psychology, Calculus, and Government.

I went from being one of the best players in New England to middle of the pack at a top academy. My classmates are from all over the world, including China, India and Venezuela. I work hard to keep pace, dedicate extra time with coaches and appreciate the structured time for our academic classes. These experiences have helped me to learn more than the game of tennis: balance, commitment, nutrition, preparation and teamwork. More importantly, these experiences have helped me believe in myself and look at challenges as opportunities. I would like to encourage other girls and women to build confidence and work toward their

I could be considered a hidden figure because I am a multi-faceted individual. I have a passion for learning and recalling information. For example, I have been the team captain for my Black History Quiz Bowl team which competes for 6-8 hours, Jeopardy style against other schools. I initiate contact with my school advisers and study groups outside of school hours. Other academic talents include continuous A-Honor Roll, scoring 5/5 in every subject for the state End of Grade testing. I was selected as the highest academic achiever in the 4th grade, thereby receiving honors and recognition at the UNC and Duke Football game as “All Star Achiever.” My next hidden talent surfaced as I attended an amazing summer camp at Clemson University. I built

“Oh no, please don’t tell me this is happening. Mom, can I just skip this tournament?” I pleaded, “There is absolutely no hope for me.” Being the dramatic person I am, I lamented the imminent end of my tennis career. I went into the tournament with an expectation of failure. I started the match by accidentally whacking the ball over the fence, tripping on my own feet rushing to end the point. The little confidence I had when going into the match dissipated within a few minutes. I continued the match pondering how to angle my racket to put spin on the ball. Every time I failed, I blamed it on the high skill level of my opponent. Unsurprisingly, I lost in an hour. When looking back on that match, I realized that it could have gone differently had I not brought myself down before. My lack of

My journey on my high school tennis team has been a peculiar one. Going into my freshman year I was touted as one the stellar players, one who was on the path straight to varsity. Unfortunately, I tore one of the ligaments in my right wrist and was sidelined for the months right before the tennis season. Going into my season, my confidence was low, I was worried about making the junior varsity team. I would end up making JV but not varsity. The next year I was back with more determination. Injury free, I had high expectations but lacked confidence. As I entered try-outs, I was shocked. My teammates were waiting for me. Each one of them came up to me and told me that they knew I was going to play this year, and that I was going to live up to

Writing a similar topic, Gabrielle Longo, a graduate of Johnson &Wales University, writes about her success, "Without tennis, I would never have succeeded as much as I have at Johnson & Wales, and would not have been able to graduate early...playing a sport has helped with my time management and organizational skills. I have learned about teamwork and have developed my leadership skills through my time as

“Vivian, we are the only two returning players on the team next year”, my co-captain for the Mira Mesa High School Tennis Team notified me.

Being ranked number one on the Vacaville High School Varsity Tennis Team was one of the most mentally challenging events during high school. I love tennis, but it was very difficult balancing all of my Advanced Placement classes, trying to having some sort of a social life and playing tennis year-round all at the same time. The only reason being number one was mentally challenging was because I was losing most of of my matches. I thought about quitting the tennis team more times than I could count. It was my first year playing in the number one spot and I was not ready to play against such high-level tennis players. I knew that if I didn't show up we would lose because the rest of the team would have to play against a player that is one level

His great success in tennis carried on into college, so he decided to play tennis for the Dutch and just so happened to be the best player on the team. He had an excellent scholarship due to his academic success and kept the scholarship throughout all of his years. Lucas wishes he would have studied more while he was in college instead of just getting by as easy as he could. He described college as one of the most fun times of his life because he did not have class all day so he could do whatever he wanted whenever, plus living with his friends did not urge him to be the most studious student. He also informed me about how much time tennis took from his college life, not being paid to play, he would have to practice a lot and would be involved in many things with tennis taking away time from his studies. However, it did not take as much time away from him as football players because Lucas informed that at Central that the football players were pretty much full time players. They had lift weights four times a week and practice even more. The tennis players did not have to put in as much time but he expressed how it was a pain taking so much time out of his day which could have been used for work, studying, or relaxing. Although, he did not want to take playing tennis for granted because he loved the sport and was extremely good at

Always willing to adapt to any given situation, I aspire to make things as convenient as possible for everyone. I have been an avid team member the varsity tennis team all throughout my high school years. Consistently playing mixed doubles with my partners all being upperclassmen, I had reached the point where I became the partner-less upperclassman. In need of a new partner, my coach and I discussed potentials, but reached no solid conclusion. Aware of a new tennis team member, an incoming sophomore, my coach turned to me as a guide and mentor to help him feel comfortable.

My ascent to the Baylor Men’s Tennis Team is a story of using relentless hard work to accomplish a goal that seemed like a long shot

As a member of the Varsity tennis team, I am no stranger to facing what seem to be impossible odds. Being a singles player, during a match it is all on me to figure out what is going wrong and make the adjustments to fix it. Halfway through a match, I found myself down one set to none against the seventh ranked team in the state. The break in between sets is time to reflect on the same thus far, and to think about what you are doing right and what you aren’t doing so well. At this point in the game, I was down on myself and I couldn’t get anything in my arsenal of shots going. Instead of continuing to try to hit shots that I hadn’t hit all game, I decided to go back to the basics and try to gain some confidence in my shots. My main goal was

The secret to doubles tennis is to find the right partner: one who compliments your game. Excelling at doubles tennis was hardly dependent on how hard I could strike the ball or how fast I was. What were important were good teamwork and an understanding of the game. Finding someone who complements your game is never an easy task but by building on these skills, my doubles partner and I were successful varsity tennis players.

At age 16 I was told that I was incapable of being an athlete, I was told tennis was not a sport, I was told I could never play “a real man’s sport”. That same year, I stepped onto a soccer pitch for the first time in my life, I lined up against young men who had been playing the sport for more than a decade.Yet, I went out there with confidence and challenged them along with the notion that I could not play a real sport. Although, I was scared to embarrass myself, I knew that this decision would be one of the greatest I would ever make because of the life experiences I would gain from leaving my comfort zone for the first time,