Last Year’s Seniors Check In From College
Each Fall, the previous year’s Seniors and current college Freshman send us an update of how things are going. Below, please enjoy the check in’s from Payton Holden at Princeton, Jake Berber at Claremont, Hunter Bleser at the University of Virginia, and Chase Bartlett from St. Edward’s University.
JAKE BERBER – CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE
Thinking back on my time at ATA, I can’t help from getting a smile on my face. It’s such a special place and you’ve done an incredible job at making it a place of such family. As I’m writing you from my room in Wohlford Hall, room 111, there are a few things that come to mind when I think about what I would love to tell the current players at ATA.
First of all, try your best to make life long friendships. Personally, I was blessed with an incredible class of 2016 and I consistently keep in touch with many of my fellow peers. Obviously, the tennis is unbelievable and is the reason why everyone is there, however, the people there are just as special. Take some time to worry less about how poorly you are hitting your forehand and actually ask someone how their day/week/life is going.
Second of all, try your best to get to know the coaches. They may be annoying at times but each and every one of them has an incredible story to tell. Some of my favorite tournament trips were when I was rooming with a coach because they’re all extremely interesting and smart people.
Lastly, enjoy the amount of free time that you have now. Even if you are feeling overwhelmed with school, tennis, or whatever is taking up your time, trust me, it only gets more hectic. For the last 3 weeks, I had 6-8 am practice Monday-Thursday and midterms all of last week. Start working on your time management skills now before you get to college so that you aren’t feeling as if you have negative time to work with once you get here.
Hope all is well back home,
Jake
PAYTON HOLDEN – PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
“The tennis aspect of Princeton is very tough and hectic. Practices are always super fun, loud and competitive. My practice schedule for the fall is MWF 7:15am lifts with 4-7pm practice and Tuesday Thursday practices from 1:30-3:30ish. Then on top of that, in order to receive our warm ups (Sweat pants and sweatshirts) we have to complete certain things in our free time. For instance, to earn one of our pairs of sweats we have to play 4 singles sets, 4 doubles sets and 5 extra ab workouts on our own time. As far as tournaments go, I have played 3 out the 5 fall tournaments we have scheduled this fall. College tournaments in the fall feel equivalent to matches at grand slam; technically it is an individual tournament but the cheering and support is still extremely high. One of the highlights of the fall thus far has been the ITA grass court tournament. Luckily I was able to compete against players from Michigan and TCU in the first ever collegiate grass court tournament. Overall, ATA and more specifically ATACP prepared me very well for the rigorous practice and tournament schedule, it also taught me how to manage my time on the road, which is a crucial skill to have for college tennis.
Academically it is challenging but not impossible. As long as I am diligent with my work and study consistently it isn’t too bad. This semester I am taking Spanish, Micro-Econ, Calculus and a Writing Seminar. CP classes prepared me very well for all of my classes, I feel like I know all of the pre-requisite material needed for all of my classes.
One piece of advice I would give the younger players is to really focus on doing the little things, especially when they are tired. For instance, I wish I had done all of my homework right after practice/dinner when I was still tired, because there is hardly a second here where I feel “ready” or “energized” to do work. Often I am super tired and just have to grind through it.
Well I hope everyone has a great and best of luck to everyone,
Payton”
HUNTER BLESER – UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Hey ATA!
I am about to finish up my sixth week at school now and I just wanted to check in with yall and let you know a little bit about what college is really like and what ATA has taught me.
First off, time management is the major key component when trying to balance your academic and athletic life at school. You will not only have to schedule your days around classes and practice, but you will also have to take into consideration tutoring, conditioning, weight training, homework, etc. Those free hours that you have between classes at CP now, use them to get homework or readings done early. Make this a habit so that you when you move off into the next chapter of your life you won’t be overwhelmed.
Secondly, take advantage of CP’s environment and work on your communication skills. Professors and coaches really appreciate and idolize someone who communicates with them 24/7. Get in the habit now of “over communicating”. I promise it will help you out in the long run!
Lastly, take advantage of the advice and instruction your coaches at ATA are offering. They truly want the best for you and want to see you succeed in your endeavors. It may seem somewhat annoying now, but trust me, when you get to school, you’ll miss having them there every step of the way. The coaches and staff at ATA are truly your second family, whether you realize this or not right now. Love your family, because soon you’ll have to leave the nest and grow up.
I hope you guys are doing great! I still keep track of almost all of your results not twitter! Feel free to call, email, or text me if you guys have any questions about the college process or need some advice about anything! Can’t wait to see you guys here in a few months! Miss y’all like crazy!
Take care,
Hunter Bleser
Wahoow
CHASE BARTLETT – ST. EDWARD’S UNIVERSITY
Hey Coach,
Midterms are coming up, and since it’s almost halfway through the year I thought I would give you an update on how college life at St.Edwards has been so far. Fall semester has been interesting so far – I have changed roommates (my first roommate would get back at 4am on weeknights and wake me up, and I think he was selling drugs out of the room when I wasn’t there) and I now live with a good friend on the tennis team. Life is very similar to college-prep life. I set my alarm for 6:50am when I was in CP, and I still set my alarm at 6:50am in college. I feel like CP was a very smooth transition into a liberal-arts college – some of my classes are around 14 students, which is actually pretty similar to Coach Tommy’s English class. Additionally, the content is similar; this year there is an emphasis on community, which is really similar to CP’s focus on what it means to be a good citizen.
I’m not going to say that I find St. Edwards easy – I find it very challenging actually – but, I do think that it is do-able. I’m pretty happy with my choice of school; I think that going to a different school just because of a brand-name diploma would have been a bad choice, because the work load here is hard enough already and because I can’t imagine how much of a “better education” would be possible. I have a 4.0GPA so far, and have worked very hard to do so (I study between 3-5 hours daily). I get assigned about 8 writing assignments per week, and about 200 pages of readings. It seems like a lot, but when you get in college and you HAVE to do your work to get A’s, you figure out that there is a lot of time in the day that usually goes to unimportant things.
Tennis is good; the guys on the team are a lot of fun to be around, and Coach Strecker cares a ton about us and our program, which I think is the most important thing for a coach to have. Fall season was okay for me and for our team, I won one tournament in singles and doubles, but had to pull out of one because I had some sort of virus which lasted a week, and I went into regionals without having trained more than once. I’ve seen the level of competition though – I definitely belong here and have a strong shot at winning regionals next year. Training is interesting though, we are only allowed 25-something days of official practice (which means that we have been doing a ton of running and a ton of lifting). I have probably only spent 6 hrs on court for the past week or two, which is tough. I would tell anyone who is in CP right now to enjoy court time and have fun with it, because it’s much more pleasant to play tennis for 5 hours a day than to run until you throw up or write papers until your eyes hurt.
Overall, school has been good. I’m pretty happy with my choice so far, and hopefully I can hold on to my 4.0 through midterms!
Hope you are doing well and that everything is going well at the academy.
Chase Bartlett