South Georgia - In The Game High School Sports Magazine

In late 2009, Dylan Windom made Tift County High School history. Over the years, Tift has had its fair share of athletes play major college athletics. Several have moved on and played in the professional ranks, including three who made the NFL. Out of all those Division-I athletes who played in college and beyond, none have been tennis players.

Until now.

Dylan signed a scholarship to play tennis at the University of Kansas, becoming the first Tift tennis player to land on a Division I roster. Her success hasn’t happened haphazardly; Dylan began playing tennis with her parents when she was nine years old. For a few years she dabbled with other sports, but it didn’t take her long to realize that she needed to focus on tennis.

If you want to be a great tennis player you have to play 12 months of the year; just playing for the few months each spring of the high school season won’t cut it. For years, Dylan has traveled the country playing United States Tennis Association (USTA) tournaments and done quite well. After Dylan had been playing for about four years, her parents and coaches told her what it would take to play at the next level. “They told me I had to work harder if I wanted to get out of Tift County. I had to work out every day and dedicate myself if wanted to get ahead of my peers,” she recalls. Dylan took their advice to heart and began improving.

Still, there was something missing. As good as she was, she had to get better. The turning point came in the ninth grade. Instead of attending Tift County High, Dylan enrolled in Smith Stearns Tennis Academy in Hilton Head, South Carolina. The training, both athletically and academically, was rigorous. “You have to have a passion for tennis to attend,” says Dylan. She had to be in the classroom by 7:30 a.m. By noon, school was over and she was getting ready for tennis practice. Tennis started at 3 p.m. and lasted until 6 p.m. After that, it was time to finish homework and go to bed. Most players, Dylan included, didn’t wait until 3 p.m. to start playing; they headed straight to the courts immediately after class ended at noon. “You could be on the court from noon to 6 p.m. if you wanted to. It was pretty intense, but it was a very good experience. I wouldn’t have gotten a Division I scholarship if I hadn’t gone up there,” she says. “There was some good competition there. We wanted to win, but we also wanted to help each other achieve our goals.”

Dylan stayed at Smith Stearns for a year and a half. By the end of the first semester of her sophomore year she felt like it was time to return to Tifton. “I was getting burned out. It was the right time to come back,” she says. Dylan came home and immediately stepped into the No. 1 singles spot for the Blue

Devils. It’s a position she has never given up. With Dylan on the team, the Tift women won the region and advanced to the Final Four that year. The following season, the Blue Devils took the region title again and this time moved on to the Elite Eight. Dylan’s goal this year is to win a third straight region championship and return to the Final Four. At the time of this interview, Tift was well on its way; the Blue Devils were 7-1 on the season and undefeated in the region.

So how did Dylan end up with a scholarship to Kansas, of all places? Tifton’s Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College played a role, as did her coaches at Smith Stearns. Dylan had received a packet containing information about different colleges, including Kansas, from her Smith Stearns coaches. Dylan did some research and saw that one of KU’s assistant coaches, German Dalmagro, played and coached at ABAC. Knowing that one of her potential coaches was familiar with her hometown community was very comforting to Dylan. She immediately set her sights on Kansas.

In August of last year, Dylan was scheduled to play the National 18 Hardcourt in Berkley, California – one of the premier junior tennis tournaments in the country. She spoke with Coach Dalmagro before heading to California. He expressed some interest and made sure that he and the Kansas coaching staff watched her at the tournament. Dylan played very well, winning two rounds in singles and three in doubles. “They must have liked what they saw. They invited me out for an official visit,” she says. Dylan headed out to Lawrence and was impressed with what she saw. “I was looking for a family atmosphere, and [head tennis coach] Amy Hall-Holt is like a mother away from home. I want a good balance of academics and athletics, and I saw that at Kansas. They treat their athletes very well, plus the Big 12 is a great conference,” comments Dylan.

At Kansas, Dylan expects to play both singles and doubles. Though she plays singles in high school, some of her biggest USTA events have been in doubles competition. She won the Southern Bullfrog in Atlanta on the doubles side and finished fifth in singles. In Tampa, at another tournament featuring national-caliber talent, she finished fourth in doubles.

During her high school years, Dylan has balanced school and tennis very well. Playing junior tennis on a national level requires a great deal of travel; as such, she’s missed a lot of school. Her principal, Dr. Willie Miles, a former tennis player himself, has been lenient on Dylan because he knows the impact playing tennis will have on her future. In exchange for Dr. Miles’s leniency, Dylan has had to keep up her grades. She’s upheld her end of the bargain and will graduate later this spring as an honor graduate. “I don’t have a 4.0 by any means,” she laughs, “but I will graduate with honors. I have to keep my grades up. If I were to get hurt and not be able to play tennis, I’d need something to fall back on. Academics are always first, tennis second.”

The road to Kansas has not been easy. Dylan has traveled the United States and made new friends across the country, but she has paid a stiff price. Dylan has missed time with her friends in Tifton. She hasn’t been able to go to football games or Homecoming. Her social life has been compromised because of her singular focus on tennis. “I had to make a lot of sacrifices my first three years, but it was worth it in the long run. I got the scholarship I wanted,” she says. Since committing, Dylan has been able to relax and enjoy her senior year a little more. “The pressure is off. Committing was like a 20-pound weight being lifted off my shoulders.”

Dylan isn’t sure what her major will be at Kansas, though she is considering physical therapy or speech therapy. “I love helping people. Whatever I do, I want to be able to help others,” she says. Dylan has no illusions about playing tennis beyond college. “I don’t want to play professionally. That’s a lot of work and sacrifice.”

Dylan is very thankful for the opportunities she has received over the last few years. She isn’t the only one who has given up a great deal to become a great tennis player. “I never want to waste my parents’ time or money. I want to give 110 percent on the court. No matter what, whether I feel like it or not, when I play I give it everything I have. My parents have sacrificed a lot for me to be able to play tennis,” she says. •