Commitment Profile
Countdown: Beatrice Rosen to Emory
by Todd Holcomb, 28 March 2012
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Manhattan Beach, Calif., native Beatrice Rosen is the highest-ranked player in the signing class of Atlanta's Emory University and one of the most improved players in the country over the past year.
The story behind her rapid ascent - to a high of No. 125 from outside the Top 200 - is one of hard work, but also one gutsy decision.
Rosen is a boarding student at
The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, but a little over a year ago, she made the bold move to drop out and return to California and make tennis No. 1 for the first time in her life.
"I wasn't feeling whole," Rosen said. "I know that sounds so cliché, but that's honestly how I felt. When I was at school at Hotchkiss, I felt like something was missing. I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest until I filled that hole. I wanted to get as good as I could get at tennis in a year. I just wanted to reach my full potential."
For a year, Rosen trained at Advantage Tennis Academy in Irvine, Calif., and home-schooled through the GATE program for Laurel Springs Academy online. Her coaches were Mitch Bridge, Brandon Fallon and Jimmy Johnson.
Her days were crammed with school and tennis. She was taking five classes online, three that were advanced placement. She lived in a house with 12 other tennis players. A typical day was practice from 7 to 9 a.m, two and a half hours of schoolwork, two and a half more hours of tennis, plus an hour of fitness. Then more schoolwork.
"I'd be up late doing homework, and weekends were tournaments," Rosen said. "I have never worked so hard in my life, I'm not going to lie. But I loved tennis enough to do it."
