Commitment Announcement
Blue Devils Get Another Blue Chip
by Todd Holcomb, 9 February 2015
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Getting injured is no blessing for a sophomore tennis player looking to be recruited by a major Division I tennis program, but Nick Stachowiak of Cary, North Carolina, did the best he could to rebound from a back injury that kept him out of tournaments for five months last year.
Stachowiak didn't think the injury was serious, playing two tournaments with the pain, but he changed his mind before a match last February when he could no longer bend over to tie his shoes. He was told that he had two stress fractures in his lower back and couldn't hit tennis balls for three months.
"As a tennis player, that's something you don't want to hear, that you can't play tennis," said Stachowiak (pronounced Sta-KO-vee-ack).
"But I wasn't too down about it because I knew that I could use this time to get bigger, stronger and faster, and I could also begin to check out colleges. I had a lot going on. It was not like I was sitting at home doing nothing."
The good news was that he could work out to stay fit in ways that didn't stress his back. Stachowiak worked on strength and agility in Raleigh with his physical therapist, Jeff Vajay, who is also a physiotherapist with the ATP World Tour.
Stachowiak took unofficial visits to several schools in the Southeast, but Duke was always at the top of his list. He committed to head coach Ramsey Smith and the Blue Devils in December.
"I've been going to matches at Duke with my family since I was a little kid," Stachowiak said. "I have always loved the school. Academically and tennis-wise, for me, there's no comparison with any other place. Coach Smith and Coach Stokke [assistant coach Jonathan Stokke] are unbelievable, and the guys on the team are great to be around."
