Last Wednesday I attended the Rose Café event featuring coach Silviu Tanasoiu and I thought that it was very eye opening and informative. I learned that one of the main ways that coach Tanasoiu motivates his athletes is by constantly reminding them that there are very few tennis players in in the world and it is therefore a privilege to be playing in the Ivy League. I learned that at the beginning of every semester the tennis players design a schedule that includes all their academic time including studying, sport time, and free time. In order for the athlete to be successful both in the classroom and in the court he must follow that schedule religiously. I was really amazed at how much stuff goes into the schedule and thought it was really amazing that the gpa for the team is a 3.6.

I thought that recruiting was perhaps the most interesting part of the talk. Coach Tanasoiu said that he always tries to look at the athletic ability and character of a potential recruit.  He then gave an example of how he had his eyes on an athlete for a couple of months but when he went to check out the athlete’s performance at a tournament he noticed that he screamed at his coach. Coach Tanasoiu then said that after that he eliminated that athlete from his recruit list because he thought “If that student screams at the person that is with him in every moment of a competition giving him support, what makes me think that he is not going to do the same with me?” I thought it was interesting how sometimes potential recruits from other countries are not interested in going to college because they plan on going straight to playing professionally. I then learned that the US is the only country that offers students the ability to play a sport at varsity level in college.

Overall, I thought that the talk was great and I learned a lot about the recruiting process and just how much effort goes into balancing academics with sport time.