Dani Farran '24 Recruiting Profile

Since the age of three, I started playing tennis actively, and at the age of four, I joined an elite program in a renowned club in Quebec, Canada. Over the years, I continued to practice this sport intensely, at a rate of several times a week and participated in up to 30 tournaments per year. At the beginning, my tournaments were mainly located in the province of Quebec, but gradually, and from the age of twelve, I started to participate in tournaments and championships at the Canadian and international levels.

For my secondary studies (age eleven to sixteen), I followed the “sports-studies” program at Collège de Montréal, which is a program that is conceived to allow athletes to combine efficiently their academic programs to their daily tennis training. This program which I started from the young age of eleven, allowed me to develop my time management skills and sharpen my ability to handle both my studies and my daily afternoon training at the same time, and in an efficient manner. In addition, this experience allowed me to develop my leadership skills, maturity level, and becoming more autonomous, through the travels I made, with my coaches for competition purpose.

In the past year, I took a big decision to move to the United States by myself, in order to complete my high school studies. The opportunity I had to join Smith Stearns Tennis Academy in South Carolina (SC) was extremely appealing to me, especially that it allowed me to complete my Senior year at the SC Hilton Head Preparatory School, while being able to train daily at this very prominent tennis academy. In fact, I now can train around six hours daily while combining a specialized fitness program that helps maximize my physical abilities and preparedness for tournaments. This opportunity allowed me to improve myself, not only on-court, but more importantly, outside the court as I find myself becoming more responsible, and able to take my own decisions with little guidance. I learned to live away from my parents, get along with new people, follow new housing rules, train at a new tennis academy, and adapt to a different country and a different environment.  During this year, I learned how to improve little things that made a lot of difference: I am a stronger, self-dependent, and more mature person. Also, this experience provided me with a first-hand exposure to the American tennis, travelling around the States for tournament with my new coaches and my new tennis teammates.

I am extremely motivated to continue my journey in tennis, competing at the American college level and even beyond

For me, tennis is a wonderful school that teaches one success not just on the court, but in everyday life. My experience in tournaments (more than 500 matches already in my portfolio since I started competing) has forged in me a personality capable of making clear decisions and more importantly, handling difficult and pressured situations in a calm and composed manner.  I am confident that I could be a great asset and addition to the college tennis team. I am an extremely disciplined student and athlete, and I am ready to put my maximum effort to compete in this great university!