Dylan Applegate '22 Recruiting Profile

In 2019, I was closing in on an amazing  year of tennis when I suffered a knee injury that  forced me off the court for eight months.  During my sophomore year I decided to play high school football because I believed that the weight training and speed work would be great for my tennis.  I was training harder than ever on and off the court, and I was getting stronger and faster every day.  My goal for summer 2019 was to have my best performance at Kalamazoo.  Unfortunately, I tore my ACL during football training in August right before nationals. 

This was a major disappointment for me.  I had surgery in September 2019 and, after working hard at physical therapy and in the gym, I started training again in March 2020 and competing in June 2020.  Due to COVID-19, I have been limited to Intermountain, ITA and UTR events so far, but I feel like I am back to 100 percent and playing great tennis again.  While the injury was a setback, the time I had away from the court and competition made me realize how much I love the sport, and that I really want to play high-level collegiate tennis.

I’ve always loved being involved in sports, and besides my passion for tennis, I played high level competitive soccer.  When I was 12, I decided to dedicate all my effort to competitive tennis.  For the last 5 years I have competed nationally with my favorite events being the team competitions, and those are the situations where I have played my best tennis. I love tennis and traveling to national tournaments to compete, but I think my favorite experience so far was winning the Utah high school state championship as a freshman in front of hundreds of people and then cheering for my teammates as our school won our first state championship in more than a decade.  High school tennis was cancelled last spring because of COVID, but I am looking forward to competing for my school again in Spring 2021.

I am also really looking forward to playing national tournaments again in 2021.  I’m an extremely competitive athlete with a deep passion for tennis, and I am a good team player.  I believe I could be a great asset to any team.