When Joshua Wong visited Willamette (Ore.) while in high school, tennis wasn’t even on his radar.
"I didn’t even talk to the tennis coach on my trip," Wong recalled. "I think I listed tennis as something I did in high school and I got contacted by the coach after I left."
As a senior at Hilo High on Hawaii island, Wong’s focus was strictly on academics. His interests in different colleges had nothing to do with the quality of competition, facilities or possible playing time.
He just didn’t want to be a number.
"I wanted to go to a small school and have that good interaction with all of my professors," said Wong, who graduated from Hilo in 2009. "I wanted to be (treated like) a person. I wanted (professors) to know my name. It was something I valued a lot."
A second consecutive fourth-place finish in the high school state tournament was thought to be the final swing of Wong’s tennis career.
Fortunately for him, and Willamette, the school he chose because of academics also had a tennis program.
After some convincing, Wong decided to give tennis a shot in college — assuming he still had enough time to pull off the grades he wanted.
"I was pretty academic driven and was kind of hesitant," Wong said. "I wanted to see how the first semester goes, since that’s not during tennis season and thought that would give me a better judgment to see if I had the time to put in."
Much to his surprise, Wong not only could hang with his college teammates, he excelled.
By the end of his freshman season, he was the team’s starter in the No. 1 singles position.
Three years later, Wong, a three-time All-Northwest Conference selection, is the No. 6-ranked tennis player in the West Region and No. 18 overall in Division III by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
He opened the spring season two weeks ago, scoring the Bearcats’ only point against NCAA Division I Portland State in No. 1 singles.
He’s now 35-18 overall in singles and 27-10 in singles matches in conference play.
"I don’t know if I’d call it a breakout year, but I’ve definitely put in my time over the summer and during break this past year," Wong said. "I think that’s been helping me out."
Admittedly, Wong didn’t practice year-round his first two seasons, but has changed his attitude and become one of the veteran leaders on the team.
"Once I became an upperclassman, I definitely took things more seriously," Wong said. "I don’t really have a set goal this year, but knowing this is my hurrah, I want to leave it all out there and have no regrets. I can handle losing a match if I know I put myself in position to go out there and play my best and do the best I can."
One of Wong’s biggest tournaments will be his last, when he competes in the Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament at the end of April.
As a junior, he advanced to the round of 32 competing against some of the best players from around the world and not just those in the Northwest Conference.
"I think that’s always really fun because you don’t know who is in it like you do in conference and you get to see how you stack up to the best competition," Wong said.
A rule limiting players’ playing days each season almost cost Wong a chance to compete in the event.
Wong was set to participate in an exhibition match against the University of Oregon club team on Sunday, but decided to sit out at the last minute.
His cousin, Steph Matsuura, a freshman on the women’s tennis team, competed in the same exhibition a day earlier.
He noticed the women’s No. 1 singles player didn’t play in the exhibition and Matsuura explained the rule to Wong, who then checked with first-year head coach Rick Wood.
Had Wong not found out about it, he would have been ineligible for the Ojai Valley tournament at the end of the season if he didn’t sit out any other tournaments.
"I still could have sat out another tournament during the year if I found out about it," Wong said. "But I got lucky."
