[ad_1]
Mary Stoiana plays tennis six days a week and competes in tournaments around the country. His father Val first taught him to play when he was 5 years old.
Photo: Mary Stoiana
Mary Stoiana fell in love with tennis at the age of five.
He was fascinated watching the ball sail from one racket over the net to another racket and back and jumped on the field in between. It was enchanting, and he soon had dreams of becoming the best in the world.
Eleven years later, a Southbury native dedicated his life to sports.
He finished his personal schooling at Pomperaug High School and instead came to home school to leave more time for tennis. No more squeezing in after-school lessons or no classes from traveling to tournaments. Tennis became a priority.
Stoiana knew she wanted to be the best and knew what she had to do to get there.
Even if you miss some big older things like dancing and everything else when I think about what I have instead, it really makes it worth it to me, he said.
For the past two years, Stoiana has spent at least a week every month on the road competing in out-of-state tennis tournaments. He competes against junior gifts nationwide and internationally with a singles record of 51-15. Babolat ranked Shes junior class 11 players in class 2021 and New England and Connecticut number one. USTA places him as an American junior player.
His choice to jump into the sport to the fullest became a lifestyle change that allowed the current parent to pursue an ever-desired career, including the opportunity to play collegially at Texas A&M next fall.
It just keeps changing to keep up the path it wants, Marys ’mother, Kathleen Morrone, said. I’m very proud of him and I’m not really surprised in any way because he loves what he does.
The beginning of his trial
Stoiana built her passion for tennis against parents and the more experienced.
He learned to play by watching his father Val Stoiana teach his older brother, and he won his first tournament against opponents 2 to 3 years older. The constant disadvantage aroused in him the tendency to always chase high competition.
Mary Stoiana refused to play aged or younger, although Val told her that her ranking would be higher if she stayed within her age group. Nothing changed Mary Stoianas ’mind when she played older opponents throughout her childhood.
She called people who could be her babysitter, Morrone said.
Despite repeated losses against older opponents, he never gave up.
It taught Mary to be dominant and to defend herself. His opponents didn’t want to lose to such a young man and tried to trick him into scoring or ignoring his skill. He learned how to face them after questionable calls and when judges will be involved.
It was definitely a challenge. Mary ended up playing a lot of defense, Val said. It definitely shaped him as he is now. It just started with you having to defend yourself, gain the confidence to be in front of people.
Marys ’schedule tightened, the more she became passionate about tennis. His days consisted of attending class, doing homework, tennis lessons, competing in tournaments, teaching tennis to children, and playing saxophone in a school band.
He’s just one of those special people who just doesn’t go away and say, Oh my God, this is too hard. Sure, the shell is on his mind, but he’s very determined, said Steve Rogers, Stoianas ’current coach. He wants to succeed so much, is willing to accept failures, willing to accept successes, learn from both and move on.
But after getting a taste of traveling and playing in major tournaments across the country, he knew he had to defend his passion and make a decision about his dedication to the sport.
From public school to home school and beyond
After winning the USTA New England Level 3 Mixed Championships in June 2019, Mary flew to her first out-of-state tournament: the USTA Girls 18 at the Clay Court National Championships in South Carolina.
He won eight of his 10 matches and finished seventh in a 256-player draw. There, Texas coaches saw him first.
Mary then flew over the country to San Diego to play for the USTA Billie Jean King Girls 18 and Girls 16 National Championships. Despite finishing in Round 128, Texas A&M was still impressed with its dedication to playing high-profile tournaments.
Often when you look at recruitments, so many of them all look similar, in a way, to one-dimensional players, and with Mary, I just felt like she stood out from the crowd in a way, Aggies head coach Mark Weaver said. It was a little unreasonable that we wanted to offer him a scholarship.
Stoiana was going to her younger year in Pomperaug, and she had a hard time keeping up with schoolwork on most Mondays and Fridays tournaments throughout the year. He knew if he would like to continue to be researched by university coaches, he had to continue the competition.
So that summer, he made the decision to move into homeschooling, which gave him more time and flexibility to travel and play tournaments.
It just isn’t possible in any other way, he said. You need to be able to have your own schedule.
Stoiana has since played in Mexico, Canada, California, Florida and Texas. He misses the social life of a personal school and said it’s often difficult for self-discipline to do school work, but he feels his passion for tennis the most.
When I think about why I do home school so I have time to play tennis and compete in goods, it gives me motivation, Stoiana said.
Stoiana and Morrone travel to out-of-state tournaments once a month for one or two weeks at a time.
It is an expensive commitment to travel costs, Airbnb costs, rental car costs and tournament entry fees. Morrone interrupted her interior design career to help Stoiana continue her tennis career.
They spent three weeks in Mexico in February 2020 for the tournament and last traveled to Florida and Virginia in May.
In hindsight, I didn’t know what a lifestyle change it would be, Morrone said. That sorta took its own life. It just got bigger. It’s like a lot of things in life, you just fall into it and then you in it and then you’re like, Wow, here we are, and keep going.
Texas A&M provided Stoiana with a full sports study that included room and board, equipment and resources, and scholarships.
Stoiana, a five-star Blue Chip recruiter according to the Tennis Recruiting Network, committed to the program in September 2020 and helped elevate the future class to second place in the country.
I definitely know I couldn’t have done it and seen them and acquired the investments I made for Texas A&M to hire me by staying in public school, Stoiana said. It was definitely worth it.
The Home-School route has become popular among top high school tennis athletes over the past decade. Athletes can improve their skills by playing in major tournaments.
You’ll very rarely find top recruiters who actually play tennis in their high school, Weaver said. With sports like football and basketball [coaches] hear them [the recruits] play on their high school team and that’s just normal. For us, it is almost the opposite.
Stoiana trains six days a week for three to five hours a day in addition to cardio, agility and speed training.
In May, he won his first-class 4 ITF tournament at the World Tennis Tour Juniors in Florida, winning the singles and doubles title. His goal is to become the number one player in the world and win many many Grand Slam tournaments.
He knows this next step in Texas A&M will take him down this path.
It’s a little stressful because my whole life is changing and I live literally so far away, but I can’t help but be excited because of the amount of tennis I get to play and the amount of resources I can access, the new environment. That’s what I want to do, so I’m very excited, he said. I have a lot of faith in myself and I’m pretty sure I can get to that level.
[ad_2]
picture credit