Proud Of Our Alumni!

Dear Coach,

As it is pretty much tradition for a graduated ATA player to send you an email about their first year in college, I decided to carry on the torch and let you know what was the most interesting and important about my freshman year at Notre Dame. First of all I just want to emphasize how amazing college life is. You have the absolute freedom to do whatever you want at whatever time you want with relatively few responsibilities. People often told me college was the best four years of their lives and now I understand what they meant by that.

I would like to start with the negative side of college first because the positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot. Personally, I didn’t know what to expect about the cold weather. As you might know South Bend Indiana is not exactly tropical. Even though I was absolutely mortified about the cold weather it really isn’t that bad. Unlike Texas (were one day might be 90 degrees and the next might go down to 30) you know it is going to cold and you are prepared for it. The snow is actually pretty, until it becomes dirty slush. The main problem I found was the fact that I had to dress and undress when I entered and exited every building because of the temperature change (it was a pain). The other part of college that I was scared about was how challenging it might have been. I thought that because I am probably at the lower end of my class’ SAT score, I was going to struggle; yet I found that the hard part is getting in this type of “prestigious” schools, because once you are in, it is very possible to be successful if you work hard. (I was surprised how incredibly unmotivated some college kids can be). Sleep was definitely another issue in college. I was used to sleeping at least 8 hours every night throughout my high school career; yet loud roommates, heavy workload nights, tests and weekend nights do not allow you such luxury. Personally I have gotten used to the lack of sleep by recharging batteries when possible, either with short naps or sleeping in on weekends.

Finally, as a tennis player, there are a few difficulties one has to learn how to cope of before being successful. One, you have to learn how to balance (and it is not the same for everybody) between your academics, tennis, and social life. These three are very important in college therefore you have to make sure you do enough of all keeping your priorities straight. It is obvious (at least for me) that school comes first, then tennis then tour social life therefore you have to make decisions every single day having in mind how it will affect you. It is very possible to make time for studying hard, training hard and going out and making friends and the key lies in Jack Newman’s favorite two words “time management”. I see people, who do not play sports, do not join clubs, do not study and don’t even go out and it seems like their days go faster than mine. As long as you know your limits, you can be very successful and I am grateful that the ATA has instilled such values in me that have allowed me to have a successful freshmen year.

What I really want to say is that the people who told me college is the best time of your life were probably right, yet they were usually not part of a TEAM. Playing and being part of a college team is by far the greatest part of college even though it can be hard and frustrating at times, it is very while worth it. Even though I saw little playing I was still able to make a huge impact on the team. I was probably on the hardest workers in the team if not the hardest working and a leader on and of the court and I was told these both my coach and my teammates. Even though I didn’t play much I feel people worked harder and got better because I was part of the team, therefore I take a lot of pride on our results and our round of sixteen finish at NCAA’s.

I would like to therefore thank you for giving me the opportunity to be in this kind of environment and giving me the tools to succeed and have the “best 4 years of my life.”

With much gratitude,

Your student and friend Santiago Montoya