FLORIDA might be known as the flattest state in America, but it is where Bathurst tennis star Grace Schumacher hopes to take her game to new heights.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The talented Bathurst 19-year-old has been signed on a full scholarship by the University of South Florida, an institution which holds National Collegiate Athletic Association division one ranking.
It means that Schumacher will find herself competing against some of the best emerging talents in the world, players such as her keen to improve their International Tennis Federation ranking.
"She's just stoked, it's pretty hard to get those sort of offers. Everything is included and the tennis will be amazing over there, she'll get to play all the other division one colleges and the best girls her age in the world," Grace's mother Allyson Schumacher explained.
"She'll get it all over there, she'll come out with a degree if she stays for four years and she'll be doing what she loves to do and that's tennis."
As a junior, Schumacher reached a ITF ranking of 232. It was something which put her on the radar of US college scouts.
It was in March last year - after receiving offers for more than 12 months - that she decided college tennis was the path she wanted to take.
"A lot of the coaches now recommend you do at least a couple of years of college tennis. Unless you're an absolute freak like that Coco Gauff, it's pretty hard for young players when they first go on the pro tour because they are not earning any money and are very inexperienced as to how it all works," Allyson Schumacher said.
"The college is a stepping stone now from doing what Grace has been doing, that's junior tennis, to the full on professional side of things.
"They obviously scout players and she had a few colleges make offers early on, but you're only allowed to go and visit five colleges. She probably had like six guaranteed placements, so she was incredibly lucky."
Grace Schumacher and her father Rod made two trips to the US to meet with interested colleges. The five they visited were Tennessee, Tulsa, Missouri, Oregon and South Florida while the tennis talent also drew interest from Iowa and Florida State.
Those trips opened their eyes to how much importance is placed on college sport in the US and just how big an opportunity it was for Grace.
"It's huge, we didn't know how huge it was. When they went over there Rod said he could not believe the size of these colleges - most of them the campus is the size of Bathurst," Allyson Schumacher said.
"The tennis facilities in the colleges are on par with Melbourne Park, our national training facility. They have everything available at their disposal, they have physios, they have psych people, they pay for all her rackets, all her clothes.
"The highest offer she got was the 12th ranked college in America and that was University of Oregon, but she chose South Florida because it's important to gel with the coach and feel comfortable, and the weather."
While Schumacher was slated to leave Australia in June, the current restrictions in place due to the coronavirus have the family thinking an August departure would be the "best case scenario".
