Sports Spotlight: Travis Jordan | Observer Preps

Dr. Phillips High tennis player Travis Jordan already is back to his winning ways this season for his team, as he looks to follow up last year’s success — which included a district title. The sophomore has been playing competitively for three years. His favorite aspect of the sport is also the most difficult — the mental toughness it requires.

How did you get into playing tennis?

I’ve been playing tennis (competitively) for three years, but I played when I was a kid. I played baseball for seven years, but I wasn’t having fun, so I switched over to tennis, because it was my second favorite sport. Every time I played it with my dad, it was the most fun I ever had. I feel like I have a better potential of going to college playing tennis than going to college to play baseball.

What’s one of your favorite aspects of playing your sport?

Tennis is not a team sport — you only have to rely on yourself; you don’t have to rely on anyone else, which I love.

What’s been your favorite part about playing tennis at Dr. Phillips?

Probably the people, my friends. Just seeing them after school, hanging out with them and going out to eat afterwards is probably the best part.

What would you say is the biggest challenge to playing this sport?

Every time you’re playing badly, your mind wants to tell you, “Just quit, you’re not going win this match. It’s over.” But you have to stay positive, even though you can get really negative when you’re playing. I get really mad at myself if I play badly, so that’s a problem for me — I play worse when I get mad at myself. It’s a mental thing.

What’s the best advice that you’ve been given by your coach (Nelson San Pedro)?

Honestly, it’s to just focus on the next point. Every single point just keep going. I remember last year, it was districts, and I won the tie-break 10-8, and I thought I lost the match so many times, but I just kept on fighting and somehow won.

Do you have any goals that you would like to accomplish this season?

I want to improve my (Universal Tennis Rating) a lot, I want to get noticed by colleges this year for tennis. For the school, I, of course, want to win states and beat Olympia.

When you graduate, what do you want to do?

I want to play D1 college tennis — if I could do that, that’s probably my main goal. Getting a scholarship for that would be awesome. My dream school is UF.

In your spare time, what do you enjoy doing?

Just going and hanging out at my friend’s house — I have a couple of close friends at this school. Anytime I can hang out with them is just perfect. 

Do you have any hobbies that you particularly like?

I’m really interested in real estate — I want to do that for my future job. Be a real-estate agent, create my own real-estate company, invest in stocks and all of that stuff. I feel like that would be a really cool job.