stacey fung

tennis school: Sentinel (West Vancouver) freshman’s future: Washington

From the moment Stacey Fung realized that her love for tennis could help pave her way to a university education, and some of the best post-secondary competition on the continent, she steeled herself for the time when the academic demands of senior year and the push-and-pull struggle of collegiate recruiting would intersect.

Earlier this spring, in the lead-up to April’s NCAA signing period, the three-time-Canadian-age-group-doubles champ found herself at those very crossroads as an in-demand commodity.

Fung made back-to-back-to-back recruiting trips over spring break, each complete with a return to her home in North Vancouver. First to Big 10 country and the University of Minnesota. Next to Big 12 country and the University of Oklahoma. And finally to Pac 12 country and Arizona State University.

Excited to make the visits, the senior at West Vancouver’s Sentinel Secondary had scheduled them all within a tiny window, so she could travel to Mexico and take part in a humanitarian mission, helping to build a home for an underprivileged family.

But in the back of her mind, Fung continued to hope that her firstchoice school, the University of Washington, would decide to make her an offer.

“It was crazy,” she says about receiving a text from Huskies’ head coach Robin Stephenson, stating that Washington was indeed interested. “My flight from Arizona State landed in Vancouver, and I went straight to a practice court to hit for her, and then she made me the offer that night.”

Fung called Stephenson the next day to accept, then immediately headed off to join the Sentinel party at a small, rural town on the Baja Peninsula.

“I was on such a high note when I left for Mexico,” says Fung, who for seven days wielded both a hammer and saw in her new identity as a carpenter. “I didn’t think I could be any happier.”

In the midst of her outreach, which took her through areas of extreme poverty, the contrast she had experienced over a span of just a few weeks was not lost on her.

“I had just came from places where people were offering me a free education,” says Fung. “Down there, trying to get an education is such a key factor in so many people’s lives.”

Stacey Fung has given her all to tennis, and in the parlance of her sport, the returns have been fantastic.