A Sunshine Coast student and promising tennis player has scored a prestigious four-year scholarship to university in the United States.
Juliet Santitto, who completed Year 12 at Sunshine Coast Grammar School this year, has accepted an offer to study at the University of Oregon.
While other Year 12 graduates have been letting off steam at Schoolies Week, Juliet has been sorting out a visa and preparing for a tournament in Melbourne.
The 17-year-old will board a plane two days after Christmas to start university on January 5.
“At the start, it was pretty nerve-wracking but I’ve got used to it. I know it’s what I was really wanting and I know what to do,” she said.
Queensland’s top player in her age group for two years, and Tennis Queensland’s junior athlete of the year two years running, Juliet sees the scholarship as a step on the path to making the international tour.
She has been a part of Grammar’s Tennis Excellence Program under the direction of head coach Clint Fyfe but has played tennis since she was three.
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“My brothers started playing when they were around 10 and I was three and always went to their training sessions. I was always hitting the ball against the wall,” she said.
“I’ve just always loved the sport, really. I did soccer and touch (footy) for a bit but I’ve never really loved it as much as tennis.”
Juliet has been working towards a scholarship for the past couple of years.
“At first, I wanted to go on tour straight away but I realised I needed the education, just to mature a bit better for two or three years,” she said.
A coach from the University of Oregon travelled to Australia to see Juliet play and offered her a scholarship immediately after the competition.
She fielded offers from seven universities.
“I really wanted to go to a good school and that’s what the University of Oregon is,” she said.
She plans to study psychology.
“Originally, I wanted to do physiotherapy but I started studying psychology in my last two senior years and I thought, ‘I’m really enjoying this’,” she said.
“And it kind of helps with my training.
Describing herself as an aggressive player, she hopes the Oregon tennis program will help her develop more consistency in her game.
“Being an aggressive player, you do go for it a little bit more, take the risks. But you’ve got to make the right decisions. I want to improve on that a little bit,” she said.
