Tara Chilton '20 Recruiting Profile

Hi there from Tara Chilton, I am a native Nevadan who loves to play tennis more than ski at Lake Tahoe.  My goals and aspirations include playing tennis at a competitive and selective school, while pursuing a top notch education.

For my freshman and sophomore year of high school I attended Bishop Manogue Catholic High School in Reno, NV.  As a 14 year old freshman, I was the #1 Varsity singles player for our HS team, #1 in the Northern Nevada region and ended up #2 in the State.  As a 14 year old, I was also ranked #20 in NorCal, my region in the USTA.  This pattern continued into my sophomore year.  That's when I decided I needed to "stretch" myself and grow my tennis outside of the Reno and Northern California area.

For my junior year, I left the comforts of home to go to IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL where I currently attend boarding school and play tennis internationally.  My goal was to spend a year building an ITF ranking.  My goal this year is to improve my ITF ranking and to add back some USTA into the mix so that I can also attend some top USTA national tournaments.  I've worked hard to move my UTR up from an 8 to a UTR 10, in just one year.  I love to play singles and really enjoy playing doubles.  People often say I have "great hands", I have quick feet,  I'm powerful at the net, and I'm always a good sport on (and off) the court.  I have a strong forehand and my "leftie" serve is tough on my opponents.  I would love for you to come watch me play at IMG or a tournament soon! 

It's not easy to squeeze in all the tournament travel with full time school and several AP classes.  It is important to me to keep up my GPA, so I continue to juggle it all.   I am telling you this, so that hopefully you will understand how committed I am to both - tennis and school.  I've made many sacrifices in efforts to pursue finding the right and perfect college coach and team.  I am hard-working, savvy, smart, optimistic, full of faith and persistent.  These qualities make me a great teammate, a reliable student and a good friend.  I hope to hear from you soon!