From 0 to 49: My Journey in 7 Year Blocks - 15-21

 0 – 7 on the way to 49: 15-21

 A couple of weeks ago I woke up realizing I was turning 49 in less than a month. No, I am not worried about getting older, I was pumped because I was turning 49 and how cool it was to be a prime number. Oops, about three seconds later I realized that 49 is not a prime number and that neat phenomena wasn’t going to happen until I turn 53. However, the fact that 49 can be divided equally into 7 equal parts of 7 led me to realize that, with some minor overlap, my life has really worked well in the 7-year increments. So, to appease my own curiosity and to cathartically get it out, I decided to write about each of my 7-year segments leading up to turning 49.

 As I jump into the 15-21 segment this evening, I am coming to you from the beautiful city of Okeechobee sitting in a motel that caters to the Big Lake fisherman.  My beautiful wife and our daughter’s adopted dog are calling this place home for the night in preparation for the last FTR hare scramble of the season.  However, they are much later in this reflection and I need to stay focused on the task at hand.  When I first started this piece, I really did not think much about this seven-year stretch.  It was just busy, lots of travel, fun times at home, and some more shaping events, and then I realized a lot really happened.

 Early in the 15-year-old age I started high school at Winter Haven High School.  Tennis was a big part of my daily life.  This high school year was also where I met one of my nearest and dearest friends.  We would go through a lot of fun times together and some that just cemented our friendship.  Blake was not, and still is not, at tennis player but we bonded in Spanish class and the rest was history.  He was a worker, and I was a player, tennis player that is, but we started hanging out whenever we could.  Through that sophomore year of high school, we had our fun at school, ogled over the females, and kept anticipating when we would be able to drive ourselves around.  The high school tennis was really good, but we never could get past the juggernaut that was Lakeland High School.  My personal tennis was taking me all over the state and as my ranking crept up, the tournaments became further away.  I played a lot.

 Turning sixteen was liberating.  Back in those days having a car was freedom.  Thanks to my parents I was able to travel many places.  It was just a different time.  Tennis was even bigger in my life and travel was not just happening by car now, but I was catching flights, staying with host families, and trying to make it to the next level.  No, not pro, but the highest level of junior nationals.  I seemed to be just under the next step and so many of the guys I trained with were getting to experience those big tournaments.  Chris Muller and Russell Briggs were not only teammates but also some of my biggest targets.  They had the success I was striving for.  I got to go to some of the smaller nationals and they were a blast.  Much of the time I traveled with my dad and Stella but when the summer would come around my mom would travel with me to the local tournaments.  Because of Stella and her travel agency I was a fairly spoiled traveler.  We had great hotels and I flew all over the US to play in tournaments.  The tennis life was so much fun in our area during that time.  We trained hard, skied whenever we could, play lots of golf, and partied, well I did, whenever I was not playing tournaments.  Oh yeah, I played lots of tournaments.  I cannot remember which year it was during my high school days, but I played 36 tournaments.  It was crazy but I would not trade it for anything.  Thanks to Blake I never got in too much trouble.  I caused him a lot of trouble, and for that I will always be indebted to him.

 Senior year is supposed to be the best time before heading off to conquer the world as a college tennis player.  This is probably where I lost my way some.  There were so many good things that happened this year, but there were a couple that caused me some grief, humiliation, and taught me some lessons I still work on these days.  My dad and I had some great recruiting trips and I some interest from some decent sized schools.  Instead of keeping my foot on the gas, I engaged in a bit of senioritis.  Who knew that schools were still paying attention?  Tennis was going well, and I was still improving.  Between competing often and training with Jim Fitzpatrick daily, that part of my life was pretty square.  The senior year has so much happening that things can become a blur.  For me, that blur was caused by an inability to stop partying when I should have.  Blake saved me from myself more than once that year but one of the biggest gaffes was also super humiliating.  Prom; the ornate dresses, limos, expensive dinners, and a night at a fancy Disney Resort.  This was the plan, but I did a splendid job really messing that up.  I ruined my date’s evening and probably put a pretty large damper on our limo mate’s night too.  There was no way around it.  I screwed up royally.  The next morning was not fun at my house, especially since the limo driver had to help me to my front door.  My dad was so disappointed, not angry, and I believe my mom felt the same way.  Fortunately, my social life did not affect my tenacity on the tennis courts.  My senior year, the Blue Devils had a bad ass tennis team.  We qualified for states and finished second as a team.  This team would send players to Furman, Davidson, FSU, UCF, Stetson, and Lees-McRae.  I was fortunate enough to be slotted at the number five position in singles and number two doubles.  I won the state tournament in singles and doubles so that was a positive way to end my senior year.

 Turning 18 and heading off to college was a great experience.  Thanks to Fish Gupton, Coach Don Baker, who just recently passed away, and the entire tennis team at Lee-McRae for making me feel so welcome.  That year flew by.  I started working there during the summer camps and that set the tone for the remainder of my freshman year.  I met some great people, had some amazing experiences, and played some great tennis.  We qualified for JUCO Nationals in Tyler, Texas, and my dad and Memaw even drove out to watch us.  I really thought as I transitioned from a freshman to a sophomore and from 18-19 that I would run home for the summer and head back to Banner Elk.  Life happens and scholarships change, and that is what happened to me.  I never really figured out the details, but economics are economics and I ended up in Babson Park playing for the Warriors of Webber and for my Dad.  I really did not want to come home but the hoopla and excitement around playing for my dad seemed to be a good local story.  The best part of the summer was when my cousin, Ross, went to Lees-McRae with me to pick up all my things.  I was dating a wonderful tennis player who happened to be playing tennis at Southwest Missouri State so we thought we would just run over there to say hello.  Well 12 hours later we were there.  Only problem, I needed to be home for a photo shoot with my dad.  Well, off we took from Springfield, MO and started the “quick trip” back to Lake Alfred.  I needed to be home by 11am and I dropped off my cousin at 5:30 that morning.  It was a blast and was kept secret from the rest of the family for many years.  We had so many fun things happen in that 19 hours.  At one point Ross was seeing flying pigs, we could not get the windshield wipers to turn off, so we put the van in neutral, turned off the ignition, turned the wipers off, and then cranked it back up.  Oh yeah, all of this happened while doing 75mph down the interstate. 

 From 19-21 my time was spent at Webber getting my degree in Finance.  There was a lot of awesome tennis, many great parties, and some fun times with ladies.  Webber’s tennis program was coming into its own, Bill (my dad) worked us hard, and we had success all three years I had the privilege of playing there.  We went to Nationals two of the three years and for me I had some great personal success.  The only thing I forgot to work on while I was at Webber was my future.  That would hinder the next seven years, but they too were a lot of fun.

 Well, it’s time to go to bed so that I can go out and compete in this last race tomorrow.  One last thing, my nephew, MJ Yodonis, was racing today on his quad and we invited him to hang with us this evening, so we now have a full room and have been listening to dreams of his future.  He is currently in the age range that this little piece covered tonight, and I am doing everything in my power to help him not make those same mistakes that may hinder his ability to reach his goals.  Experience is often painful, but damn I had fun, most of the time, getting those scars.  Until tomorrow!!