Arnaud Valentin '13 Recruiting Profile

Hello coaches my name is Arnaud Valentin. I was born on June 2nd 1995 in Belgium. I lived in Belgium for 13 years before I moved here in Ridgefield, Connecticut in June 2008. I started playing tennis when I was about 4 years old. My parents are both tennis players. I spent a lot of time at the tennis club where my parents belonged so as soon as I was able to pick up a racquet I did and I started taking lessons and improving my game. I am currently 17 years old, I am 5ft 10in and I weigh 145 pounds. When I moved here I had no idea how USTA worked so I was not able to play tournaments right away which is one of the reasons why my ranking is not really high and it is also the reason why I only have 2 stars on tennis recruiting.
I know here in the United States winning against higher ranked players and playing in high level tournaments matters a lot. Personally I never won any high level tournaments because my ranking is not high enough to qualify but there is a win in my tennis career that I will always remember. One my most important accomplishments was when I was 9 years old and I was playing in the finals of a big tournament in belgium. My dad told me if you win this tournament I will quit smoking. I had a lot of pressure on me because I was playing one of the top players in Belgium. I ended up winning that match in the third set, it took a while for my dad to quit smoking but he finally did a couple months later. That experience shows that whenever I have something to achieve or whenever I have a lot of pressure on myself I can really focus and achieve, it really shows my determination. Another great accomplishment  for me was making the 1st All FCIAC (Fairfield County Intercholastic Athletic Conference) team as a sophomore.
I am a very dedicated athlete whenever my coach or captains says we are having practice that date at that time, I am always there ready to give a 100%. In Belgium unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to play tennis for a school and represent a school, but as soon as I moved here I realized sports were a big part of students' lives. Stay after school play your sport is just something that would never happen in Belgium. As soon as I moved here and heard there was a tennis team at my school I knew it was the time for me to show what I had and step up my game, so I went out there and showed my best. My first year in high school I played #3 and then halfway through the season I moved up to #2. My sophomore year I started at #2 singles and moved up to #1. 
I always wanted to go to Florida, that would be my #1 location because I always heard it was the #1 location for tennis. I want to go somewhere warm, somewhere close to a city where there are many things to do. I am looking for a school not too big but not too small. A school that will offer me what I want. I am an honor roll student, as of now i have a 3.5 gpa and i am trying my best to keep it up. I would love to play tennis for a Division 1 college. 
My goals as an athlete is to compete at a high level, I want to compete for a school, I want to make a school proud and work as hard as I can for that school. I would love to play throughout all my college career.