Tennis star leaves McLean to pursue dreams

HIGH SCHOOL OR HARDCOURT?

Rising tennis star withdraws from McLean to focus on her sport

SANDRA CHENG, MADELYN FREDERICK & MADIE TURLEY REPORTERS

For sophomore Tatum Evans, there was only one thing on her mind as she walked into her first day of school. Feeling overwhelmed, she went straight to Student Service to fill out a form, withdrawing from school.

“As soon as I walked into school I just knew I couldn’t do it. I just kind of felt like there was somewhere else I needed to be,” Evans said.

Just a few weeks earlier, Evans qualified for the U.S.

Open Juniors, the biggest tournament of her career.

While she was finding success on the tennis court, academic pressures pushed her over the edge. Evans knew she had to choose: school or sports.

Evans’s path to success started at an early age. She started playing tennis at 8 years old, which is relatively late compared to most professional players. Since then, she has taken her career to new levels, furthering her skills at IMG Academy, a globally recognized sports institution.

Evans spent a few months training at IMG Academy before deciding it wasn’t the right fit, abandoning her full ride scholarship. For Evans, tennis has always come first.

“I realized that I wasn’t improving at the rate I wanted,” Evans said. “I was interested in receiving more specialized training.”

This decision is what prompted her to move to The Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. Although she had landed where she wanted to be, she had to come to terms with the intense off-court balance at an academically driven institution.

“Potomac was just too stressful,” Evans said. “I would come home after practice with four hours of work. It just wasn’t flexible when I needed to travel for long periods of time for tournaments.”

Nevertheless, she began dominating more competitions and started to realize that she had a shot at going pro. She worked with her new coach at 4-Star Academy, Bear Schofield, to create a training schedule to bring her closer to the elite level.

“We’re looking at the next steps of getting her fitter, getting her stronger and getting her to hit balls a certain way,” Schofield said.

Driven to make the pros, the pair worked on tailoring practices to her play style. Being an aggressive player, they found drills focusing on improving speed and reaction time. At the same time, Evans worked to boost her national rank.

“An intense day would be getting up at 5 a.m. to go to practice from 6-8 a.m.,” Evans said. “Then I would go to the track from 9-10:30 a.m. and have more training from 1-4 p.m. I usually hit with 18-24-year-olds to have more intense training at my level.”

Her training started to pay off when she began qualifying for international matches and competing in prestigious matches such as the Orange Bowl and Easter Bowl.

Her career only grew from there. Evans went on to win first place at the USTA National Hard Court Championships. During the match, Evans initially thought that she was done. Down 5-2 in the finals, she bounced back with fire.

“I was so proud of myself for fighting. There’s a lot of times [when] you just don’t believe you can win anymore but I kind of just stuck [with it],” Evans said.

This victory not only came with glory but also a golden ticket: an invitation to her biggest match yet, the U.S. Open Juniors.

“All my hard work finally paid off. The other girl had five match points, and so I honestly [thought I was] going to lose, but I was able to come back, and it felt so good to pull that out. I couldn’t even tell you how amazing it felt,” Evans said. “This is everything I worked for. I gave it my all and it was just a dream come true.”

Now at McLean High School and approaching her sophomore year, she was met with the same dilemma of balancing her on-court and off-court commitments.

“I just couldn’t stop myself from thinking about how I should be preparing for my upcoming tournament and that every minute I spent in school was time that I needed to spend training,” Evans said. “I just knew that tennis had to be my number one priority.”

After spending time in San Diego for a tennis tournament that cost her the first three days of school, Evans walked into her first day of sophomore year at McLean knowing that the following week she would be off to compete at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City for the Open.

“It’s hard because I’ve had a lot of people, especially my parents and coaches, tell me that school isn’t really a priority,” Evans said. “I started looking at school as something that was optional.”

As a result, Evans worked with her counselor to fill out a withdrawal form with the hopes of continuing her academics through an online program that would allow more flexibility as she prepared for the upcoming tournament.

“The U.S. Open was really my only focus. It was all I could think about,” Evans said.

Despite her laser focus, Evans lost both her singles and doubles matches within the first two days of the tournament. Yet again,

she was at a roadblock.

“I put everything I have into this sport and when I don’t get the results I want, I fall apart [and] I don’t know what to do,” Evans said.

The effects of rigorous training and prioritizing tennis caused her to neglect other important aspects of her life, such as her mental health and well-being. Her passion for tennis put her in a box.

“I went on the court and I quit. I started bawling my eyes out. It’s hard because you’re fighting against yourself to keep going, and it’s not healthy,” Evans said.

After prioritizing tennis for so long, Evans felt that she finally needed a break from the sport. She decided to travel to Texas and visit her grandparents, giving her time to reflect.

“I need to get away from [tennis] sometimes,” Evans said. “I felt so burnt out. It was literally eating me alive.”

This wasn’t the only time Evans seemingly had nowhere to go.

“It’s so hard for my mental health to see people on social media doing normal things,” Evans said. “I’d be in the middle of nowhere in Paraguay, sitting in a hotel room by myself. I want to socialize [sometimes]. I want to be normal.”

For Evans, this was a recurring theme. Training so hard her entire life, she often felt isolated from a typical teenage life.

“I feel like it’s very selfish of me [to want normalcy] because my parents and my coach put everything into getting me to the level I’m at and to the level I want to be at,” Evans said.

Although Evans is often hard on herself, her devotion to tennis is undeniable to everyone she knows.

“I admire her dedication,” said sophomore student athlete Manoli Karageorgeos, a close friend of Evans. “It’s obvious to anyone that she gives the sport her all.”

Evans’ coach sees her drive to continue improving herself.

“Tatum’s doing it because she wants it. She’s made the commitment. She has the desire. She deserves all the credit there,” Schofield said.

Evans has high hopes for her future tennis career, with big dreams to play among the best athletes in major tournaments such as Wimbledon.

“She can do it all. College, beyond that, it’s up to her,” Schlofield said. “She has a very bright future.”

I WENT ON THE COURT AND I QUIT. I STARTED BAWLING MY EYES OUT. IT’S HARD BECAUSE YOU’RE FIGHTING AGAINST YOURSELF TO KEEP GOING, AND IT’S NOT HEALTHY.” - TATUM EVANS TENNIS STAR

steady sportsmanship — Tatum Evans shakes hands with her opponent after a tough match at the Easter Bowl finals. Evans withdrew from McLean High School in August, at the beginning of her sophomore year, to pursue her tennis career.