Champions' TriBUne Archive

By: Will Little  
 
Champions' TriBUne is a special feature through Baylor Athletics that will give you the student-athlete's perspective and tell their story in their voice. A fifth-year senior on the men's tennis team from Joplin, Mo., Will Little has a career-best ITA doubles ranking of No. 2 in the country. Little has overcome a barrage of back, shoulder and hip injuries to earn doubles All-America honors and move into the top half of the singles lineups for the 10^th-ranked Bears:

Through all the adversity I've faced, my faith is the No. 1 thing that has really gotten me through everything. I've learned what it's like to have faith. I grew up in a Christian home, I always believed in God, and I was saved when I was a little kid. But, I never committed myself to Christ the way I should have until I had real adversity in my life, when it was really being tested.
 
What is it like to feel like you've let down your team?
 
What is it like to think that you will never play tennis again, something you've worked hard for your whole life?
 
On top of that, I had a lot of academic struggles, too, because I'm getting my master's in accounting while trying to be a tennis player. I give a huge shout out to my girlfriend Madi, too. She's done more than I could ever ask in helping me just to stay above water at times, being so positive. She's been amazing.
 
So, I would say my faith and my relationships have gotten me through it, and I've really grown a lot because of that. I wouldn't want to know where I would be today without my faith and those relationships.

I started playing tennis when I was around 5. My sister, Taylor, was playing, and I always looked up to her, and I just wanted to be a part of the family and what they were doing. When I was young, I had a really bad temper. I could barely play without getting so upset, so I took a break from the age of 5 or so, until I was maybe 8 or 9, when I was a little more mature.
 
Baseball was actually my favorite sport, probably still is, but coming from a small town like Joplin, Missouri, I just had it in my mind that if I played tennis I would have a better chance of making it than I would in baseball.
 
My dad had a childhood friend that he played tennis with, and his son was really good at tennis in the Missouri Valley, which is a five-state area. He wanted us to have a chance to be good, and he found this coach named Ken Goodall that ended up being my coach for nine years. He's just an incredible coach and an even better person.
 
I got really close to my coach, he's like family to me. The honest truth is that it would be impossible for me to have achieved anything without this guy.
 
I had a really good friend named Jeremy Lynn, whose mom was from Joplin. After his parents split up, his dad was teaching at Penn State. He would come in the summers to hit with Ken, and I convinced him to leave Philadelphia to come to the middle of nowhere in Joplin, and he ended up getting a scholarship to Minnesota. But, we had that team with me, Jeremy and coach.
 
From 12-and-unders, I was pretty decent, but I wasn't a standout by any means. I was not on track to play Division I tennis yet, but something my coach told me when I started at the age of 9 was, "Look, we're focusing on playing Division I tennis when you're 16. Don't worry about that right now."


 
Each age group, I made good jumps, but I made my big jump from 16 to 17. I started the year ranked outside of the top 100 in 18s and finished the year at No. 2. I don't know if I really was the second-best player in the country because a lot of guys were already playing pros. Maybe I was like the 10^th or 11^th-best guy, but that's really how I got to Baylor.
 
My sister, Taylor, was a freshman at Baylor, and I made a trip to play in a tournament at Waco Regional. I saw the campus, and I was like, "Oh my goodness, this place is unbelievable!" I had no idea. I didn't really know much about college tennis, to be honest. I knew what some of the best programs were, but I didn't really follow it. Then I saw the tennis facility at Baylor and was like, "This is literally the nicest place ever!"
 
Coach Knoll saw me play at the ITF and the National Junior Tournament that was here as well, so I got on his radar that way.
 
When I got to Baylor, I started facing a lot of adversity early on. They asked me to redshirt, and that was hard on me because I was playing so well and I would basically sit the bench for a whole year. Now that I'm a senior, I get it. College tennis is different. it's not really where your level is, it's also where your maturity is.
 
But, that year was really hard. I lost a lot of my competitive nature, I lost motivation, and I just focused on academics and meeting friends that year. It wasn't that I didn't try in practice, I just didn't have the desire to compete, and that was really damaging.
 
Then, during my redshirt freshman year I had a back injury. We don't really know what happened, but it was just a horrible injury because I broke my back in four places. I really felt like I let the team down, and it broke my heart. I did everything I could to be out there, but I had four fractures in my back and still had a future ahead of me, so it just didn't make sense for me to be out there anymore.
 
I saw a back specialist in Dallas, and he basically told me that I was going to be out six months minimum, and if everything goes well, I have a 50 percent chance to rebreak my back if I ever play tennis again. I was like, "Should I even play anymore? Do I want to be able to pick up my kids when I'm older?" Those were the kinds of decisions I had to make.
 
When I came back that fall, I was in my own words, terrible. I was so embarrassed by my level that I really didn't even want to play tennis anymore. Honestly, I was losing to guys that I wouldn't have lost to when I was 16. I had to look at myself and say, "What am I going to do? Am I going to complain about it, or am I going to take it for what it is?" I decided to start focusing on doubles. I was top 10 in the country the year before with Julian Lenz, but I told myself I wanted to be the best doubles player in the country.
 
I played with Juan Benitez toward the end of my sophomore year and we were All-Americans and made the NCAA quarterfinals. I started trusting my body a little more, feeling the court better, my instincts started coming back. But, I used doubles as confidence to be like, "Hey, I can still play tennis."


 
My junior year, while I was playing significantly better, I was still dealing with a lot of small injuries. I had a bad shoulder injury that kept me out a month and a half and tweaked my back again in late November or December. That was not good until maybe February. It was just small things, but I just haven't been that healthy the whole time. It was still a good season, but it wasn't where I wanted to be, by any means. Not because I wasn't playing at the top of the lineup – I don't care about that, I just want the team to win. Just because I wasn't achieving the results I thought I would be achieving
 
Coming back this year, I had the best fall of my career, probably, and for sure in college. And then, I'm playing in the third round of the ITA Fall Championships and honestly believed I had a chance to do something really special and tore my hip. It was an eight-week injury, but I'm still having to baby it. It just stinks, because I was playing really well, and that's the last thing I wanted to do. Now that I'm healthy for the most part, we're just excited to see what happens.
 
It was kind of a shock to everyone when Coach Knoll stepped down at the end of last year. You don't think, as a fifth-year senior, you're going to have to go through something like that. Coach Knoll is one of the best coaches in college tennis, ever, and he really put Baylor Athletics on the map.
 
Then Coach Boland comes in, and he's obviously been the best coach in college tennis more recently. They're very different styles, but they're both successful in their own ways. You have to adapt and be willing to take whatever he says to heart. I trust Coach Boland and the guys he's brought in. I just really have a lot of respect for him, because I believe he cares about us like we're his own family, which means a lot to me. 
 
I'll finish up my master's in accounting in May. It's a rigorous program, but it's very fulfilling. My freshman year, I had someone tell me that there's no way in the world you can do this and tennis, you're not tough enough. When somebody does that to me, it lights a fire under me. I'll be honest, it really bothered me. I obviously didn't major in accounting to prove them wrong, but I did want to prove a point. In my opinion, it's the best degree in the business school.
 
I'm not going to play tennis after college. I was joking with Coach Mike (Woodson) that if I'm in the top 10 in the country, I promise I'll play pro. So, I'm trying to stay at 11 the whole season. I just need to be strategic.
 
I do love to compete, it's a crazy good feeling to be out there, but I'm ready to move on. I'm not just looking back at the past, I'm excited about the future and whatever that brings.
 
For me, the Baylor experience has been unbelievable. I always say the people make up Baylor. You get a chance to develop lifelong friends here, which is what I've done on the team and off the team. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else just because of the relationships I've made here.



Previous Champions' TriBUne Features
Men's Basketball - KIng McClure (Jan. 17, 2019)
Women's Basketball - Chloe Jackson (Jan. 3, 2019)
Football - Blake Blackmar (Dec. 13, 2018)
Volleyball - Braya Hunt (Nov. 29, 2018)
Soccer - Jackie Crowther (Nov. 16, 2018)
Cross Country - Alison Andrews-Paul (Nov. 8, 2018)
Football- Ira Lewis (Nov. 6, 2018)