University of Richmond Athletics
California Kid Makes His Way East
09/26/2011 | Men's Tennis
The Spiders welcome Poway, Calif., native Dylan Trent to the team this season. Trent is coming off a perfect season as a senior at Poway High School, earning himself a position on the first team of the California Interscholastic Federation last year.
Trent began his tennis career at the age of seven. He can credit his parents for his start in the sport, which came in a roundabout way. "My dad was always playing racquetball and he wouldn't let me play with him and his buddies, so my mom signed me up for a tennis clinic and it just kind of went on from there," said Trent.
He soon began to advance in his career. He considers his greatest accomplishment reaching the finals of the California Interscholastic Federation his junior year. Another major moment in his career came at the California Bowl at age sixteen, which Trent won to capture his first national tournament victory. He acknowledged the win as important to his mindset moving forward, saying, "It [the win] was a big one for me because I wasn't doing so well before the tournament and then just kind of came back and won that." However, he stated that his greatest high school accomplishment was reaching the finals of the California Interscholastic Federation as a junior.
When asked about his approach to the game, Trent says that he always tries to move the ball around, forcing his competitors to leave a corner open. He rarely watches professional tennis and instead prefers to look up to a local star in Bradley Klahn of Stanford. He says, "Growing up in the city of Poway, he was always the top-ranked kid. We would train at the same place, so I always got to see him training and practicing and working hard. I always tried to match and model him."
Trent says the strongest aspect of his game is his forehand, and he hopes to improve on his backhand and speed. It has taken Trent a tremendous amount of hard work to reach this point in his career. He has always tried to gain as much experience as he could and was diligent about playing in every tournament possible and against the best competitors.
In terms of dealing with expectations to win, Trent says, "After awhile, they're not really there anymore. It's just another situation that you try to dig yourself out of. Actually, you do better when you handle every point the same instead of when you try to specify which points are important and which points are not."
Trent has traveled a long way here to the University of Richmond, which he was originally attracted to because of its business school program. He is currently considering a major in business administration with an emphasis in marketing and management.
The tennis program here was obviously a significant draw as well. He is looking forward to this opportunity to be a Spider. "I love the guys on the team and the coaches," says Trent, "so it just seemed like a great fit." He is also excited about the team atmosphere. This is especially true after playing in juniors, which he acknowledges "is a lot lonelier, and it's just you and no one else out there. But here you have a whole team backing you up. If there's any pressure, that takes a lot of it away."
Not only was the geographic transition a major one, but Trent also notes several differences between high school and the college level of play. He says, "It's harder and a lot more work. The time spent is the same, but the quality of the time is a lot different."
Despite Trent's success, he is unsure of the role tennis will play in his life after college. He explains, "Tennis for me was kind of like the golden ticket into a good college because I come from a blue-collar family opposed to the majority of people who come white-collar families." He adds, "The sport gave me a better opportunity to attend college, and that was one of the main reasons for me playing the sport. I also loved it, and now that I'm here I want to help out the school. After that I'm open to getting a real job and playing a little bit of tennis on the side, but not have it be a really big part of my life."
Trent opened his college career 3-1 after he and the Spiders competed at the East Carolina Fall Shootout. He went 1-1 in singles play and won the Flight B doubles with his partner, Aaron Wicker. Trent can next be seen at the University of Virginia's Fall Classic from October 14-16.
