With the noose of its budget tightening around its throat, Arizona State cut three men’s programs: tennis, swimming and wrestling. Oh…and the cut of the programs also handily keeps ASU in agreement with Title IX. Darn lucky how that worked out.

But pretend that just wasn’t put out there. I don’t want to have this huge discussion. I wrote papers about it in college and it inevitably comes up when you work in athletics and I’m just sick and tired of talking about it.

Really I have nothing new to add to this tired-out argument, but I think a moment of silence is in order for those athletes who no longer have a team. I don’t think they woke up thinking today was the day they were no longer going to have a coach or teammates or competitions in the same uniform.

Sure, they can transfer. But transferring doesn’t always pan out. And what about the kid that had always wanted to be a Sun Devil tennis player? What if that had been his dream since he was boot high? Ohhh well. Budget cuts son, buck up. Title IX kid, get over it.

I think a lot of people in important places don’t realize just how far the effects of these decisions trickle down. Were they necessary? Meh, I don’t know. I’m not the one pushing numbers. But it doesn’t make it suck any less for those athletes who technically aren’t varsity athletes anymore.

She played three years of collegiate tennis for Arizona State University. Then she took a bit of time off. Okay, a lot of time off.

Sheila Johnson is the newest addition to the Grand Canyon University women’s tennis squad. She’s 60 years old, the oldest active collegiate tennis player in the nation. Johnson is 4-2 in doubles play and 4-4 in singles play. She may be spotting a few years to her opponents but what she lacks in speed and agility, she makes up for in finesse and experience.

The best line of the whole story though was probably this:

“Let’s raise a toast of Ensure to what appears to be a wave of college programs going old school.”

Ah, Ensure. Last fall, there was a 59-year-old linebacker playing for Sul Ross Univeristy, a Division III school.

It’s a rather unusual circumstance but if the lady can play, let her play. Apparently that’s just what is happening.

I was one of those college students. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in so I just picked something. People kept telling me it didn’t matter what I majored in, as long as I got that piece of paper that said I wasn’t as stupid as I had been at the beginning of the four years.

If only I had gone to Ferris State University in Michigan. I could have majored in professional tennis management (PTM).

Ferris’ program is the first bachelor of science program in PTM in the world and the only 4-year program accredited by the USPTA. It boasts a 100% career placement rate.

All graduates from the program are certified tennis professionals by the USPTA by the time they graduate.

Ah, if only I had known I could be holding a piece of paper that says I’m a tennis professional. But instead, I bumbled around through my years of college and hold a piece of paper that says I’m less stupid.

There is a song by the Beatles called “All the Lonely People.”  And in that song is a line that says, “All the lonely people, where do they all come from.”  Switch out ‘lonely people’ for ‘tennis players’ and ask that question again.

Where do all those professional players come from?  Where did Roger Federer come from (and all of the rest of the top-ranked players in the world)?

They didn’t come out from underneath a rock, that’s for sure! I was just reading a story about the Notre Dame men’s tennis team posting a 26-14 singles record at the Tom Fallon Invitational. Irish junior Brett Helgeson was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and has a fall singles record of 8-0.

Sure, he’s a collegiate player.  But great players come from somewhere, don’t they?

It may be a bit odd to start off a tennis blog with collegiate tennis - women’s collegiate tennis at that!  I’m sure many expected me to start my soon-to-be extremely awesome tennis blog with something important. But what is important?  Another spiel about how awesome Roger Federer is? About how many weeks he has been dominating the number one position?  Or maybe yet another post about Maria Sharpova’s on-court wardrobe? They will be covered, believe me.  But not right now.

Right now, I want to talk about women’s collegiate tennis. I was at a match the other day at Washington State University and was a bit surprised that I was one of a handful of spectators. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised - no, I probably shouldn’t have been. But I was.  At the very least, where were all the young gents to take note of the short-skirted ladies? (Extremely sexist, I know…but - I’m a woman so I can say that…right?)

It was a decent match in the No. 1 bracket.  I take that back, it was a horrible match-up, a complete blow-out.  But the hitting was good, the shot making was good. She found the corners, the hit it low and hard. It was quite beautiful for a young college lady. She wouldn’t last long against Justine Henin but neither did the Williams sisters.