Trinity’s Kua headed to SLO
Prep tennis: Knights senior standout makes quick decision after official visit
Dustin Kua’s recruitment from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo reached its peak Saturday — literally and figuratively — at the top of a mountain in Morro Bay during his official visit.
It was there that Mustangs men’s tennis coach Nick Carless, surrounded by members of Cal Poly’s current team, informed the Trinity Classical Academy standout that the team was going to offer a scholarship him.
Kua didn’t need any more convincing following the mountain-top
display. After hiking back down, he phoned his parents and let them know he was ready to make a verbal commitment.
“That’s been the dream ever since I started playing — to continue my career at (an NCAA) Division 1 school,” Kua said Monday. “I had an idea they were going to give me the offer on the visit but I wasn’t 100 percent sure.
“It was pretty incredible to receive it that way.”
Kua, who’s the 21st-ranked men’s tennis player in California for the class of 2018, was also receiving interest from UC Davis, UC San Diego, Gonzaga and a host of Division 3 schools.
Cal Poly’s commitment to impressing Kua on the visit made his commitment a fairly easy one.
“They were such great hosts,” he said. “Just the fact they would take the time to do all that for me meant a lot. Then when I posted about my commitment on Instagram, players on (Cal Poly’s) team were commenting on it and stuff like that. That made me feel pretty accepted.”
Kua has reached the CIFSouthern Section Round of 16 in each of the last two seasons. He doesn’t expect his commitment to play a role in at least reaching the benchmark once again.
“It’s definitely a huge relief and a weight off my shoulders,” Kua said. “But I still want to prove to the coaches at Cal Poly what I can do, so there’s still that pressure to perform.”
That pressure will be a nice preview of what Kua can expect when he steps onto campus. The Mustangs, who last made the NCAA Tournament in 2014, employ a challenge-based practice style, in which spots on the starting lineup are based off matches against teammates.
“That’s one of the things that kind of drew me to them, too,” Kua said. “I like that you have to earn everything you get with them.”
Kua said he got a bit envious watching friends around the tennis community seal their college fates.
All he had to do was climb up a mountain to seal his fate.