European College Tennis Showase 2019

In case you've been following our social media channels over the last weeks, you may have realized that we have partnered up with the recruitment service "UniExperts", who happens to be the organizer of the largest College Tennis Showcase in Europe. Why Europe? As a matter of fact, college tennis does see a lot of international talent coming in and as such, Europe is certainly a hotspot for coaches who make their way to the continent in order to look for the next recruiting class, which could include German, Scandinavian, British, Italian or Dutch players.

UniExperts has been organizing their Showcase for the last 5 years and spoiler alert: it's a good one :)
We are happy to be partnering up with them with the goal of promoting this event to interested athletes and coaches alike.
This edition of our Friday Scholarship Guide is therefore dedicated to the Showcase, taking in place in Germany in the summer of this year.

Why Attend a Showcase?

Let's start out with a few reasons as to why attending a showcase may be the right thing for you:

• Exposure to college coaches
• Understand what kind of school/team would be interested in you
• Create potential connections right away
• Learn useful things about college tennis & the recruiting process
• Meet like-minded people - see how you stack up

Also do keep in mind that - depending on your level of play - you may never get to meet a college coach in person before you hit the college campus months or years from now. True, if you are invited to a visit, you will certainly have the chance to go, see the school and meet the coaching staff, but that is not what all recruits can expect of their recruiting process. Otherwise, it's all about "e-meeting" through video calls!

The Event

So much about that, but how does it all work, actually?
A few of the key facts to give you a better understanding of the scope and set-up of the event:

Venue: TC Weiden Cologne (Germany)
Date: Juli 19-21, 2019
Event Homepage: https://www.tscgermany.com
Nr. of players in 2018: 130
Nr. of college coaches in 2018: 45
Airports: Cologne (CGN), Dusseldorf (DUS)

You can find a great amount of detailed information on the actual event website, but let us give you a brief intro of what the 3 days could look like for you:

• Match play (at least 2 singles & 2 doubles)
• Q&A sessions
• Guest speakers

But before we try to get you excited for the event in words, why not have a look at the video, which will probably get you much more excited than we could ever with a thousand words ;)

Why Do We Partner With UniExperts?

For us, the decision to help make the Showcase an even bigger event is pretty straight-forward:

1. Promoting college tennis as an attractive career choice.
2. Creating opportunities for young athletes who have their eyes set on gaining experience abroad. We've been young ourselves, spent a considerable amount of time abroad, and there's truly nothing better for you to broaden your horizon.
3. The more athletes and coaches, the better the event turns out for everyone involved.
4. For some of our registered athletes on Smarthlete, the Summer Showcase could be just what they are looking for.
5. The event is fun, informative, and very well-organized.

Chances are, you're still not convinced, due to the timing of the Showcase, another tourney you had planned on playing or simply whether it's worth the travelling hassle.
Perhaps, one of last year's article of our Friday Scholarship Guide series will help you arrive at an even more carefully considered decision: Top 3 Reasons to Attend a Tennis Showcase

In case it's the price tag of the Showcase that you're worried about, we may be able to help you a bit with that. ;)

Smarthlete users get a discount on the regular price and strong players may even receive a wildcard!
Check out the event website or email contact@smarthlete.com, if you want to learn more about these two options and we'd be more than happy to help you out!
We hope we were able to spark your interest for attending the showcase and what's it like living the life of a college tennis player.
And before we forget - why not sign up for our newsletter on the upper right side of this page & you'll receive the upcoming newest editions of the Friday Scholarship Guide straight in your inbox? Have a great weekend :)