This past Tuesday, the Austin Tennis Academy encountered its 16th ever “signing ceremony;” a time when the ATA community comes together and celebrates some of their athletes’ college decisions. This month, three athletes, Raymond Traweek, Taylor Shamshiri, and Colton Malesovas, signed their college letters of intent to Rice University, Washington and Lee University, and Whitman College, respectively. At this traditional ceremony, ATA coaches are able to speak about the athletes, and the athletes explain their personal decisions and motives behind them.

 

Ray Traweek, a recent graduate of Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School, made a commitment to attend Rice University. Though he isn’t going to be playing varsity tennis there, Traweek made sure ATA received the thanks and praise he felt it deserved. When describing his attraction to Rice, Traweek said “[the main reason I chose Rice] was because it employs the core values that ATA teaches: things like discipline, hard work, and accountability. If it wasn’t for ATA, there’s no way I would be in the position I am today.” Traweek plans to study medicine and become a practicing doctor after his time at Rice.

 

 

ATA College Prep student Taylor Shamshiri made the commitment to attend Washington and Lee University, a high-quality Division III athletic institution. Shamshiri hopes to get a law degree there – Washington and Lee has one of the top law schools in the nation. Coach Doug Davis (Shamshiri’s long time coach) spoke at the ceremony saying, “Taylor has always had this amazing ability to argue. And not only that, he can pick a side, not even agree with it, and still try and prove to you it’s correct. His ability to stand up for himself has served him well in tennis and it will definitely serve him well in his future career.” Like Trayweek, Shamshiri claimed that he was excited about taking the human qualities that he has learned from ATA and putting them to good use in his time in college.

 

 

Hailing from Waco, Texas, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal student Colton Malesovas signed his letters of intent to attend Whitman College and play for the varsity tennis team. Colton moved to Austin and joined ATA full-time when he was 15 years old in hopes of achieving his goal of playing college tennis.  In his speech, Malesovas thanked ATA for “all of the supportive people: Coach Davis, Coach Newman, and all of the other players. Even when things weren’t going to well for me in tennis, which they weren’t for a very long while, everyone still seemed to believe in me and think I could still do well.” Malesovas plans to be a pre-med student at Whitman College.

 

 

The ATA community congratulates all three seniors that signed their letters of intent this week, as well as wish them luck in their respective academic and athletic endeavors.

 

 

By Josh Hagar