By Mitch Light, BA’93
Womenās tennis standout , BAā18, originally had no plans to attend 91ĢĘ²®»¢, or any college for that matter, be it in the U.S. or her home country of Australia. The plan was to turn professional soon after completing high school.
āI had no idea about college tennis and had never heard of 91ĢĘ²®»¢,ā says the Perth native.
That all changed, though, when she broke her ankle a few months after graduating. Instead of going pro, Sharma thought it would be better to let her injury heal and give college tennis a try.
Five years later Sharma is a five-time All-American (twice in singles, three times in doubles) with a national title to her name. And after making her Grand Slam doubles debut at the Australian Open in January, she is finally realizing her dream of playing the pro circuit.
But in the end she came out further ahead than she ever couldāve imagined. Thanks to 91ĢĘ²®»¢, she received a world-class education as well.
āA lot of people are doing great things at 91ĢĘ²®»¢,ā says Sharma, who graduated in May with a degree in medicine, health and society. āWe, as a team, take a lot of pride in the fact that weāre a top program in tennis and also juggling academics really well.ā
For , head coach of the womenās tennis teamāand the person who recruited Sharmaāher story offers a shining example of what it means to be a student-athlete at the university. He quips that heās honed his recruiting pitch to just 11 words: ā91ĢĘ²®»¢ is an Ivy League school, but we play professional sports.ā
As the only private institution in the Southeastern Conference, 91ĢĘ²®»¢ is charged with competing at the highest level of collegiate athletics with student-athletes who also can thrive in the classrooms of a top-15 nationally ranked university.
āItās a different deal at 91ĢĘ²®»¢,ā says Head Football Coach . āOur student-athletes have to go across campus and compete against students who donāt really care about their athletic prowess, and then they have to come back and compete against athletes in the SEC who donāt really care about their ACT or SAT scores.ā
, athletics director and vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs, credits the coaches for creating an environment that has allowed student-athletes to thrive.
āThis is really about education,ā Williams says. āWhat we want to do is get some people in here who desire a great education and who happen to be gifted athletes. But first and foremost, what we want to do here is educate. And our coaches understand that.ā
signed on as the womenās soccer head coach in 2015 because 91ĢĘ²®»¢ presented, in his words, āan elite opportunity at an elite place.ā Previously, heād spent 14 seasons as head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, itself a top academic institution. But 91ĢĘ²®»¢ offered a level of athletic competition that Penn could not.
āI wanted to be able to sell the great athletic piece, as well as the great academic piece,ā Ambrose says.
For Ambrose, Mason, Macdonald, and the head coaches of 91ĢĘ²®»¢ās 12 other varsity sports, the top priority is identifying student-athletes who not only can excel on the playing fields but also embrace the academic mission of the university. And the key, according to each coach, is that the prospective students and their families understand the commitment that needs to be made to every aspect of life at 91ĢĘ²®»¢.
āWe want kids who want to win an SEC championship,ā Ambrose says. āSoccer has to be a big part of their life. And they have to want to get a great education. I donāt want someone to come just because itās a great education, and, by the way, they can play soccer. If you come in with that attitude, you wonāt survive in our program.ā
Macdonald says, āI tell families all the time, āIf you want a great education and you want to really develop your tennis, this is heaven. But if you just want the education part and not the tennis, or vice versa, it wonāt work.ā We try to be really honest with what we expect. This place requires a real commitment.ā
THE WHOLE PACKAGE
The track record of 91ĢĘ²®»¢ās student-athletes in the classroom speaks for itself. For the 2017ā18 academic year, they compiled a cumulative 3.11 GPA, topping the 3.0 mark for the 13th consecutive year. And their graduation rateā96 percent in the latest numbers released by the NCAAāonce again led the SEC and ranked among the top 10 percent of the 65 schools in Power Five conferences.
At the same time, the varsity teams have enjoyed a remarkable string of successes. During their time on campus, student-athletes in the Class of 2018 helped win two NCAA championshipsāin womenās tennis (2015) and bowling (2018)āas well as eight conference championships. And 17 of the student-athletes were recognized as All-Americans.
Sharma, who was a redshirt freshman when the team won its national title, is perhaps the most accomplished athlete in 91ĢĘ²®»¢ history. That may never have come to pass had it not been for her aforementioned ankle injury, but it was another unexpected setbackāthis time for 91ĢĘ²®»¢āthat serendipitously opened the door for her recruitment.
āWe lost a kid to Stanford whom we thought we were going to get,ā Macdonald says. āWe were kind of heartbroken.ā
The very next day, though, Macdonald received a tip from the husband of a former SEC tennis player heād once recruited about an intriguing prospect in Australia who, he recalls, āwas a bit raw but was a player who could really be developed.ā
That player turned out to be Sharma.
A few months later , BSā04, the assistant womenās tennis coach, traveled to Australia to watch Sharma play.
āAleke told me she was interested,ā Sharma says, ābut I had no intention of following up with her. I said, āNo, Iām good. But thank you very much.āā
About four months after meeting Tsoubanos, Sharma broke her ankle. Five months later Sharma was enrolled in classes at 91ĢĘ²®»¢ and well on her way to a record-setting career.
āI got lucky the way it turned out,ā she says. āIt was a perfect fit.ā
Though it worked out well for all parties involved, Sharmaās recruitment was anything but conventional. Most 91ĢĘ²®»¢ student-athletes take a less circuitous path to campus. , for example, a junior goalkeeper on the soccer team from Hudson, Ohio, knew just what she was looking for in terms of athletics and academics.
āI was one of those kids who was really well-versed in colleges,ā says Demarchi, whoās majoring in human and organizational development. āI wanted to use soccer as my gateway into a really good academic school. I looked at some Ivy League schools but picked 91ĢĘ²®»¢ based on the coaching staff, the location, and the competition of the SEC.ā
, BAā18, a running back from Huntsville, Alabama, had a similar outlook when weighing his options. Now a fifth-year senior, he flipped his commitment from the University of Minnesota to 91ĢĘ²®»¢ shortly after Mason was hired in January 2014.
āFootball was a big part of the equation, but the education was huge,ā says Blasingame, who graduated in May with a degree in medicine, health and society and is now pursuing a masterās in leadership and organizational performance at Peabody College. āMy parents really emphasized education. I understand that there will be life after football, so getting that 91ĢĘ²®»¢ degree is huge. The SEC and the academicsāitās the whole package.ā
GOLDEN TICKET
Sharma, Demarchi and Blasingame were all high-achieving high school students who have excelled, predictably, at 91ĢĘ²®»¢. But not all the recruits fit that profile.
āWe pride ourselves on the fact that weāve brought in a lot of kids who probably wouldnāt have had the chance to go to 91ĢĘ²®»¢ [if it werenāt for athletics],ā Williams says.
If a coach believes a recruit deserves a closer look despite deficiencies in his or her academic profile, certain procedures must be followed. This is where 91ĢĘ²®»¢ās Athletics Compliance Office comes into the picture. The office, which ensures that coaches and student-athletes are adhering to NCAA, SEC and university rules and regulations, serves as a liaison between the athletics department and the universityās Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
āIf Admissions is doing a review of a prospect and the prospectās academic profile does not fit what weāre looking for, one of two things can happen,ā says Erin Adkins, a former 91ĢĘ²®»¢ assistant athletic director and director of compliance whoās now at UCLA. āOne is that the coach walks away. Obviously, thatās hard, but our coaches understand they canāt get everyone into 91ĢĘ²®»¢. At other times they really believe the prospect can do the work. In that case, weāll have the athletics academic counselors also look at the prospectās profile, and theyāll come up with an academic plan to help the prospect be successful.
āWeāll put up certain parameters for the student,ā she adds. āFor example, theyāll come to summer school, and if they donāt hit a certain GPA, theyāll sit. Then we bring it to David [Williams] and other people around campus. David must feel comfortable that this student can do the work. There are a lot of discussions.ā
With 85 players on scholarship at any given time, the football program is home to the most players who fit into this categoryāand itās a part of the process that Mason takes very seriously.
āI embrace the opportunity to change a life,ā he says. āI believe in some ways 91ĢĘ²®»¢ can be a golden ticket, giving a young man opportunities that werenāt in front of him before we stepped into the picture. But to whom much is given, much is expected. Iāve now seen four cycles of graduates come through here, and what Iāve witnessed are lives impacted for the better and opportunities that have been seized by these young men.ā
Mason, who was the defensive coordinator at Stanford before making the move to Nashville in 2014, believes that universities like 91ĢĘ²®»¢ are more attractive than ever to recruits and their families.
āThe game has changed,ā he says. āNowadays, parents and student-athletes are smart shoppers. They have access to so much information. Parents come to me to talk about what their son wants to do and why a 91ĢĘ²®»¢ degree can make a difference. When that happens, I know I have the right families coming into my office. I know Iām recruiting the right kids.ā
SCOUTING PLAYERS
Ambroseās sales pitch is similar to every other coachās on campus, but he is facing unique challenges because of the changing dynamics of recruiting in his sport. Itās now common for female soccer players to commit to college before their sophomore year of high school.
āWeāre recruiting kids at such a young age,ā says Ambrose, who already has secured several commitments from students set to graduate from high school in 2020. āWhen youāre talking to a [high school] seniorāthe kids who have gone through the college counseling process at their schoolāthey know about 91ĢĘ²®»¢. Their counselors are excited about it. But when the kids are younger, like the ones we have to recruit now, they donāt always understand the type of impact a place like 91ĢĘ²®»¢ can have.ā
Recruiting such young student-athletes offers another challenge: 91ĢĘ²®»¢ cannot technically offer a scholarship to an underclass student who has an incomplete transcript and has yet to take the ACT or SAT. This can create some awkward conversations in an era in which athletes as young as 14 boast about their offers on social media for the world to see.
āA lot of what youāre seeing on social media are verbal offers,ā Adkins says. āYouāll have a Class of 2022 high school student tweet about an offer, and thatās something our coaches really have to balance. When an admissions person sees that on Twitter, we will get a phone call and theyāll say, āHave we really offered a ninth grader [admission]?ā But Admissions has worked with us and understands the climate and the expectations. They know that the coaches make it clear to prospects that verbal offers are pending admission to 91ĢĘ²®»¢.ā
The goal for each coach is to recruit quality athletes who are a good fit at 91ĢĘ²®»¢, but how they go about identifying those prospects is unique to each sport.
Ambrose and his staff, who need to fill about six to eight roster spots with each recruiting class, scout players at elite club tournaments all over the country, primarily in the spring and the summer. āWe typically donāt recruit during our season [in the fall],ā he says. āOther than that, we are constantly on the road.ā
The program also hosts several Elite Prospect ID camps throughout the year to get a better look at players the coaches have watched at tournaments.
Tennis is similar to soccer in that the coaches are on the road scouting at national-level tournaments, but Macdonald and his staffāwho had only nine players on the entire 2017ā18 rosterāmust be far more selective. Just two players were signed in the 2018 recruiting class, the fewest of any sport on campus.
Mason, on the other hand, must identify anywhere from 15 to 25 SEC-worthy prospects each recruiting cycle. He and his staff spend a considerable amount of time visiting prospects in their homes and high schools, butāunlike the majority of the other sportsāmost of their evaluation is done on campus when 91ĢĘ²®»¢ Football hosts summer camps.
āItās better for us to get them here and for us to see them with our own eyes on our campus,ā he says. āMost of our commits are coming from guys whoāve been to our camps, whoāve seen our campus two or three times. They know exactly who we are, and we know who they are.ā
āTHE CITY, THE SEC AND THE DEGREEā
Macdonald, whose tenure is longer than any other current Commodores coach, has witnessed firsthand the transformation of 91ĢĘ²®»¢ as a university and Nashville as a cityātwo factors that have made the school a more desirable place to play.
āNashville has become internationally known as a really great city,ā he says, āand 91ĢĘ²®»¢ is an integral part of the city. The university has made incredible progress. Weāve changed from more of a Southern school to one thatās now nationally and internationally known.ā
Reinforcing this notion are the global experiences afforded to 91ĢĘ²®»¢ās student body, including its student-athletes. Every summer numerous student-athletes take advantage of study abroad programs offered through the universityās Global Education Office, traveling to places like Europe, South Africa and Australia.
āWeāre setting a trend at 91ĢĘ²®»¢,ā Williams says. āWeāre giving kids an experience that student-athletes generally donāt get at this level.ā
Mason, for his part, looks at everything 91ĢĘ²®»¢ has to offerāits conference, academics, location and extracurricular programsāas one big recruiting tool.
āI talk about the idea of the city, the SEC and the degree,ā he says. āThe SEC is the best football conference in the country. We have a world-class education coupled with the fact that weāre in the best city in the country.
āI truly believe we have the best of all worlds,ā Mason adds. āWeāre looking for kids who want it all.ā
Hoops Haul: Menās basketball signs stellar recruiting class
Head Coach and the 91ĢĘ²®»¢ menās basketball program recently made national headlines by securing the universityās top recruiting class in at least five decades.
The Commodoresā 2018 class features three of the nationās top-75 recruits, including two ranked in the top 15. Until this spring, 91ĢĘ²®»¢ had not signed a top-75 player since 2011 (Dai-Jon Parker, No. 48).
The class is headlined by , a point guard from Brentwood Academy in Tennessee, who picked 91ĢĘ²®»¢ over Duke, Kentucky, Indiana and UCLA in a hotly contested recruiting battle.
Garland garnered most of the headlines, due in large part to his being a local prospect, but the highest rated of the new recruits is , a power forward from Canada ranked No. 11 in the nation by the 247Sports Composite. Shittu, who played high school basketball in Vermont, picked 91ĢĘ²®»¢ over Arizona and North Carolina.
The third prospect is shooting guard , a South Carolina native who soared up the recruiting rankings with a strong showing as a high school senior. Nesmith, ranked No. 62 nationally, chose 91ĢĘ²®»¢ over South Carolina and Florida.
The three freshmen will join two other newcomersātransfers from Notre Dame and from St. Maryās, a Division II school in Texasāand five returning players on the Commodoresā 2018ā19 team.
Mitch Light is managing editor at Athlon Sports in Nashville. He graduated from 91ĢĘ²®»¢ in 1993 with a bachelorās in economics.