Michaela Pinto began competitively playing tennis freshman year, and she is now preparing to play at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa next spring.

She is the only senior committed to play tennis at the collegiate level this year. Michaela is one of a select number of seniors who are leveling up to a collegiate sport, students we are profiling as part of our Next Level Seniors series.

At Coe College, Pinto plans to study nursing, possibly pediatric nursing.

Pinto began playing tennis for fun when she was ten and has played competitively for four years. She didn’t know she wanted to play in college until the tennis coach at Coe reached out to her. “It wasn’t the first thing I thought about while choosing a school, but it was on my mind for deciding between the final two schools (Carroll College and Coe College). Coe College offered tennis at a D3 level while Carroll didn’t,” Pinto said.

Pinto wants to play a college sport to “continue playing what I love and to keep myself in shape during college.”

Pinto’s recruiting process was pretty simple. “It was probably one of the least stressful things in my life,” she said. Pinto clicked “Recruit Me” on the Coe College Athletics page and got in contact with the tennis coach. She was told about Coe’s tennis program and was invited to play.

Deciding on Coe College in January when she visited, Pinto “loved it instantly and knew this was the place I would go.” She then verbally committed at the end of March, a day after she had enrolled at Coe, when the tennis coach texted her asking if she wanted to play.

Some D3 schools require a letter of intent, but Pinto is not required to sign one for Coe.

Pinto’s favorite aspect of Coe is that “it is a very welcoming environment. It’s a small campus where the teachers know you, and everyone helps you. It had such a great atmosphere, and a beautiful campus,” she said.

On preparing to be a student athlete, Pinto said she is “mentally preparing” herself for the time commitment. “I am going into nursing which is an extremely competitive field, but the tennis coach is willing to work with me, and be flexible as long as I stay committed to playing. I’m excited for the challenge!”

Getting through high school has been Pinto’s proudest accomplishment. After taking on multiple honors and AP courses throughout the years, Pinto is proud of herself “for being able to take on the challenges of those classes while also doing extracurricular activities I love. It was a long four years, but definitely worth it, and I made it!”

For the rest of the year, Pinto hopes to receive good scores on her AP Biology and AP Calculus tests and “have fun during the last month of senior year with my friends.”

As she gets ready to leave for Iowa in August, Pinto is most looking forward to meeting new people and becoming more independent. “I’m going to be far from home, and I’m excited for the new adventures that will come,” Pinto said.

On advice to anyone looking to play sports in college, Pinto said, “[Y]ou don’t have to play at a D1 school in order to play college sports.”

“I am playing at a D3 school, and I am just as excited as those playing at D1 schools. What’s great about playing at a D3 level is that I don’t have focus my entire attention on the sport, but I am able to focus it on my career, and my sport.”

As she begins to play tennis at Coe, Pinto wants “to grow, and become better than I already am. I want to challenge myself to be more competitive, and to have fun.”

Photos courtesy of Sue Pinto.