Nicholson following the American dream (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Nicholson following the American dream

1:00pm Wednesday 7th September 2011 in Tennis

TOTALLY Tennis performance player Jack Nicholson is the latest player from the club to be living his American dream, with a tennis scholarship at the University of Nebraska.

Nicholson will be following a four year degree course majoring in Sports Administration at Nebraska.

He follows in the footsteps of other former Totally Tennis performance players Tanya Hasking, Adam Flintoff, Simon Taylor, Sammie Moreton, Emma Retter and Stephanie Catlin, who all gained tennis scholarships to American universities.

Inspired by the Totally Tennis trip to Colorado four years ago, Nicholson started on his plan to play tennis and study in America.

In the summer of 2010, he travelled to the University Tennis Showcase Event in Florida, where he demonstrated his tennis skills to coaches from all over America at the same time in one place, with a view to obtaining a tennis scholarship.

Following the Florida event, Nicholson received several scholarship offers of varying levels and from these he decided to go to the University of Nebraska.

His place on the university tennis team includes three hours of practice every single day, alongside his academic studies.

Nicholson started tennis as a junior, playing at Totally Tennis for the last eight years.

During that time he has been a member of the performance squad programme, with one of the highlights at the age of 14 winning the club and county events of the Road to Wimbledon competition, which led him to competed in the national finals at SW19.

He has played in many tournaments in Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey over the years and his greatest results in recent times have been while playing for the Queen Mary’s College team.

They enjoyed great success including winning the National Mixed title in 2010, which won the team a masterclass with coach Judy Murray, mother of British number one Andy Murray.

Nicholson’s parents said of his achievement: “We are immensely proud of Jack. He has worked hard, but thanks must also go to everyone who has helped him over the years at Totally Tennis.

“It's not always easy to keep the enthusiasm for your sport going, especially with school and exam pressures, but with his friends and coaches around him, Jack has managed to stay motivated to reach his goal and now it is paying off for him.”

Tennis Director Nigel Long said: “We all wish Jack great success at university and I am pleased that tennis has helped him to realise his dream to study in America.

“Jack has been a great asset to both the club and the local college tennis teams, winning many trophies along the way”

“It’s great as a club to have so many of our performance players winning international tennis scholarships which enables them to study in another country whilst playing a high standard of university tennis.”