Help with College Tennis, please?

[stotty]

I have an 18 year old kid at the club who instead of going to an academy in Spain wants to do the college tennis thing over there in the US. He is a very good player who has won futures tournaments and bagged his first ATP point last month. He is UK based.

How does it work over there? Which colleges are the best option for a good player like him? Do they develop the player or simply use them as they are to strengthen teams? It's the development side of things that worries me.

The kid went to the US a few months ago to play a tournament, and the father was swamped by coaches in the car park wanting to sign his son up. The father got the impression coaches aren't allowed to approach players/parents directly at tournaments...is this true?...how odd. He said coaches quickly found ways to approach him about his son despite this.

Any advice...names of decent colleges...would be most welcome as I know nothing about the college system over there in the US.

[bottle]

Brown, Wake Forest, Georgia, Michigan, Wayne State.

[vrc10s]

Pacific 12

Stanford, Cal, UCLA I know a west coast bias!

[stotty]

I am assuming you can't just walk into these colleges on the back of tennis? Don't you have to have the grades too? There's a pecking order over here when it comes to universities. Loughborough (in the UK) has a tennis pedigree, and great facilities....but you must have good grades to get in! It's grades first....tennis second.

I thought Stanford was for top academics? Can any dumb tennis player walk in?

[klacr]

Stotty,

Sadly, it really depends how good the player is. The better the player, the more "flexible" they are into getting them on the team. The top players will get athletic scholarships, not academic scholarships. Unless its Ivy League

Many schools will have a minimum score on the SAT or ACT that they will require for their top athletes. These scores are lower than the ones desired for general admission. I have a 2nd job as a SAT/ACT tutor, I worked with one young junior player who was interested in going to Duke. Duke is a good academic school but the head coach told my student she only needed "x" score on her SAT's. The score was ridiculously low relative to the average college board scores received by most Duke students. The desired score was met and she found a spot on the team.

The best thing for your player to do is make contact with these schools. All these schools have contact info of the coach or a prospective student athlete application. Good luck.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[bottle]

Very good information and advice. I'm impressed. Much better than I could have done.

[worldsbesttenniscoach]

I have had contact with some of the "best" American college tennis coaches. Do not expect Americsn college coaches to improve your son's game technically. However, in college, your son will have opportunities for daily high-level practices, many official match experiences, & access to college fitness coach.

[DougEng]

I have an 18 year old kid at the club who instead of going to an academy in Spain wants to do the college tennis thing over there in the US. He is a very good player who has won futures tournaments and bagged his first ATP point last month. He is UK based.

How does it work over there? Which colleges are the best option for a good player like him? Do they develop the player or simply use them as they are to strengthen teams? It's the development side of things that worries me.

The kid went to the US a few months ago to play a tournament, and the father was swamped by coaches in the car park wanting to sign his son up. The father got the impression coaches aren't allowed to approach players/parents directly at tournaments...is this true?...how odd. He said coaches quickly found ways to approach him about his son despite this.

Any advice...names of decent colleges...would be most welcome as I know nothing about the college system over there in the US.

Lots of factors. Some of the colleges below are quite random.
1. Academics. What are his SATs, ACTs, grades, courses. This will be a limiting factor for the better academic schools (e.g, Stanford, Harvard, Duke).
2. Level of play (doubles potential too) and coach's interpretation/vision will also make an impact since the coach needs to see potential. This will be important regarding which schools might seek him. He should be looking at the better Division I schools.
3. Yes, coaches are not allowed to speak directly at events, rather on campus.
4. It's a choice...he can look at lesser programs or top programs. Any program ranked in the top 75 (ITA rankings, go to itatennis.com, rankings) should be reasonable for him. Coming in as a freshman, he'd probably play #1-2 for a team ranked #60-75, #2-5 for a team ranked 30-60, #3-6 for a team ranked #10-30...this is an inexact estimate since teams vary in strength and I don't know exactly how good he is. For example, it is not unusual for a junior player being ranked ITF #35 with ATP ranking maybe 900 playing #3-4 for a team (in his first year) ranked #10-15. It sounds like he's slightly behind that level.

Below are end of last seasons top 40 teams. He can look up the rosters since he might recognize some names of opponents he has played against to get an idea of the level of play.

His academics will determine if he can get into some schools, but the majority, if reasonable, he can get in. Even some good academic schools will allow him because the conference rules don't restrict him. Ivy League is the most restrictive Division I conference. Generally he will need to fulfill the Ivy Index to be eligible.

As Kyle said, many schools offer athletic scholarships but a few Division I schools don't. Most notably are Ivy League where he'd get financial/academic scholarship
based on need (if he doesn't have enough money to pay his way) which is given to him if he gets in (it's better than an athletic scholarship since it is unrelated to playing). Some schools have had success and don't have either financial support.

He also needs to complete NCAA Clearinghouse paperwork.


Rank Avg School Previous
1 95.40 University of Virginia 3
2 92.09 UCLA 1
3 78.87 University of Georgia 2
4 76.29 Ohio State University 5
5 71.72 University of Southern California 4
6 63.56 University of Tennessee 6
7 59.79 Duke University 9
8 58.28 Pepperdine 12
9 56.86 University of Kentucky 8
10 56.47 University of Mississippi 7
11 54.72 Mississippi State University 10
12 54.72 Baylor University 13
13 54.54 University of Oklahoma 14
14 54.51 Texas A&M University 11
15 47.92 Vanderbilt University 16
16 43.72 University of Florida 15
17 43.57 California 18
18 40.02 University of South Carolina 17
19 37.55 Wake Forest University 19
20 36.48 University of Memphis 32
21 35.32 Clemson University 23
22 34.95 Louisiana State University 20
23 34.22 University of Texas 21
24 33.93 University of Illinois 26
25 33.31 University of Tulsa 25
26 33.12 University of Michigan 22
27 32.27 Drake University 31
28 31.40 Harvard University 27
29 29.83 Auburn University 24
30 28.85 Virginia Commonwealth University 30
31 28.49 University of Notre Dame 28
32 28.24 Northwestern University 36
33 27.91 University of Minnesota 35
34 26.51 University of Alabama 29
35 26.15 North Carolina State 39
36 25.54 University of Washington 37
37 24.53 Florida State University 33
38 24.19 TCU 34
39 22.36 Virginia Tech 41
40 22.15 University of San Diego 44