{"id":26228,"date":"2021-08-05T15:01:44","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T05:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=26228"},"modified":"2021-08-05T19:40:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T09:40:05","slug":"a-blue-raider-eloise-swarbrick-signs-at-middle-tennessee-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2021\/08\/05\/a-blue-raider-eloise-swarbrick-signs-at-middle-tennessee-state","title":{"rendered":"A Blue Raider! Eloise Swarbrick signs at Middle Tennessee State"},"content":{"rendered":"

15,721km.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the journey that Victorian Eloise Swarbrick will make from Hawkesdale Victoria to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to play College Tennis for the Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders.<\/p>\n

Swarbrick began her tennis journey at the Gardens Caravan Park in Port Fairy, where she first picked up a racquet playing with her older siblings in the Summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first picked up a racquet when I was 5 and thought it was a pretty cool sport, then I started gradually hitting a lot more. Ever since I can remember I\u2019ve been hitting with my family. Living out in the country that\u2019s what you do on the weekend, pick up a racquet, and that\u2019s where my love of tennis and passion for it really started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swarbrick is proud to come from Hawkesdale, a town situated 40 minutes from Warrnambool in the South West of Victoria, with a population of just over 200 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community has about 30 or 40 houses, a post office, a rural store and a tennis court, living in a small community you have a lot of support, everyone in the community is like your family. The local tennis court was asphalt – when I was little I was used to the ball bouncing a metre above my head!\u201d<\/p>\n

Having played many sports from a young age including Basketball, Netball and Athletics it was Tennis that Swarbrick pursued, representing the South-West in Regional Team Events and the Victorian State Team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the sports I\u2019ve played from a young age (netball, basketball and athletics) have helped me improved my tennis including being light on your feet and doing short, sharp sprints. But I chose tennis because there was a pathway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pathway for Swarbrick began at the Tennis Victoria 10\/u Wayne Arthurs Cup, followed by the 13\/u Foundation, 15\/u Minter McNamee Cup, 17\/u and representing Victoria. Swarbrick also followed the schools\u2019 tennis pathway through School Sport Victoria which comprised of being state schools champion in Grade 5 and 6 right through to being in the 18\/u Pizzey Cup in 2019. Additionally, Swarbrick began playing junior pennant when she was 8 at Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club before playing full time until 16 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved representing the south-west and Victorian schools\u2019 teams and playing in a team environment, playing in those matches is such an important thing because its great for your growth, you respect the game more and I\u2019ve made lots of friendships along the way. Having a team around makes you feel comfortable and confident on court, especially when I played for Victoria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swarbrick then started training at the National Academy at Tennis Australia and followed a dedicated tennis and school schedule which incorporated 21 hours of driving per week across Victoria from Hawkesdale to Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cPre-Covid on Monday I\u2019d go to school, head down to Melbourne on Monday Night, then train on Tuesday and do national academy, I\u2019d try and fit another training session in at Kooyong on Tuesday afternoon then head home. Then do school on Wednesday (back in Warrnambool), then Thursday afternoon would be National Academy training, so we\u2019d come down to Melbourne for that, then Friday it depended on the school schedule but sometimes I\u2019d train at Kooyong in the squads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy school, Emmanuel College, were fantastic with my classes, they did a lot of my work online, sometimes I\u2019d zoom into the classes before we had all of this zooming now! I loved going to school because you could have a break from the tennis side or the sporting side of things and you could hang out with your friends, it was a nice balance of school, social and tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following this packed schedule, Swarbrick was deciding what to do next, and that\u2019s when College Tennis became an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned about college tennis and thought that\u2019s where I wanted to go and where I want to be. I didn\u2019t really know much about college, I thought they just existed in American movies and that was about it!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re naturally talented, you can go through the pathway with tennis. But I\u2019m looking forward to the college pathway because you can rely on the degree and after your tennis and you have something to go back to and I think that\u2019s why I was so eager to go in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swarbrick, with support of her family then set out to find a College Tennis program in the United States that best suited her. This involved sending footage of her matches and researching the different programs available.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long process, it took about two years, but I chose Middle Tennessee because of Coach Tayo (Tayo Bailey-Duvall). Coach Tayo was so relaxed, which made me relaxed and that\u2019s the relationship that you want to have with your coach, because you\u2019re spending nearly 24\/7 with them on court. It sounded like such a great school to go to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Eloise Swarbrick joins the Blue Raiders<\/em>
Photo Credit: blueraiders.com<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Swarbrick and Bailey-Duvall connected straight away, sharing their love of the country lifestyle and after promoting the opportunities that Middle Tennessee would provide, Swarbrick signed her letter of intent in February 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was talking to Coach Tayo for the first time she said we own a dairy farm so you can go down and milk some cows if you\u2019d like, and that\u2019s what got me to be honest!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that it\u2019s (Tennessee) full of country music, as soon as I heard the word country I thought that sounds like home and I\u2019ve heard the community is welcoming and friendly and it\u2019s a great environment. Also, I do chat a lot so if anyone is up for a chat it\u2019ll be the country people!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey-Duvall was also understanding of the situation that Swarbrick was in, knowing that as a potential student-athlete you\u2019re talking to many other coaches and schools, but her advice to Swarbrick was to do what you want to do. Once signed, the other girls in the team were just excited to quickly welcome Swarbrick to Murfreesboro.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been talking to the girls in my team and they all seem so down to earth, they\u2019re so eager to get to know me and I\u2019m eager to get to know them and play tennis with them over the next four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the best thing about college tennis, everyone comes from different backgrounds and walks of life; people from America, South Africa, India, and sharing our stories and knowledge of tennis being such a worldwide sport \u2013 I think we can all help each other improve our tennis too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The college pathway provides on court opportunities for Swarbrick, but also opportunities off the court. As part of the college tennis program, the student-athlete is required to select subjects and eventually a degree to pursue in the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve grown up in a teaching environment, Mum\u2019s a teacher, Dad used to be a teacher and my sister\u2019s a teacher \u2013 so I\u2019ll most likely do PE (Physical Education) teaching and Science. The other area I\u2019m interested in is working with athletes, either doing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, but I\u2019ll talk to my course supervisors when I start to choose my subjects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swarbrick has never been to America before and will leave in the middle of August 2021. Reaching out to the network of Aussie college tennis players in Victoria who have either been through a college tennis program or are currently experiencing it has helped enormously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to Josh Charlton a little bit, he\u2019s at Oregon (University) and Jasmin Starr at the University of Texas. I also spoke to Kate Maree Barnes who went to Clemson University. We played Pennant together back at home, she played college tennis and got a teaching degree and loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another familiar Victorian and friend that has played with and against Swarbrick is fellow Kooyong player Amy Stevens. Stevens signed just before Swarbrick at Vanderbilt University in Nashville \u2013 just 40 minutes away from Middle Tennessee. The pair will line up against each other in January as part of the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmy played for Barwon and I played for South-West so we\u2019ve been playing each other since 10\/u Wayne Arthurs Cup. We were really competitive when we were younger but we\u2019re friends now and having someone just up the road is like having family!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmy had signed before me at Vanderbilt and in the next few tournaments we played she said right, Middle Tennessee, El, you\u2019re going there!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the only Aussie in any other sports teams (Men & Women) so it\u2019s nice to have Amy just up the road. It\u2019ll be great to check in with another Aussie to make it feel like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before leaving Australia, Swarbrick will have a strict program lined up as she starts her college routine. The long days will have Swarbrick doing 6:00am gym sessions, on court hitting, conditioning, stretching and back out on court in the afternoon. In addition to taking classes and studying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be practicing daily at Kooyong, at the National Tennis Centre (in Melbourne) and doubles practice at Hampton, but off court I\u2019ll be doing conditioning and trying to get as fit as possible in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to have my level of tennis where I want it to be for college and prepare for the daily schedule, I think getting in a routine which you\u2019ll be doing for the next four years is really helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlus, Coach Tayo said as soon as you get off the plane you\u2019ve got a fitness test!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15,721km. That\u2019s the journey that Victorian Eloise Swarbrick will make from Hawkesdale Victoria to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to play College Tennis for Middle Tennessee State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6293,"featured_media":26245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6293"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}