Sports > Schools
Gans aces college decision
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@acnpapers.com
Plano Senior senior Thomas Gans’ commitment to Indiana University-Purdue University of Indianapolis was anything but a spur-of-the-moment decision.
In fact, the Wildcats’ tennis ace has been on the Jaguars’ radar since the spring of his junior year. Nothing shows commitment like persistence and that’s exactly how the IUPUI head coach Brandon Currie treated Gans.
From checking up on the Wildcat periodically to possessing a coaching style that clicked from the onset, Gans found a perfect match in pursuing a tennis career in Indiana.
“It’s a great fit,” Gans said. “It’s a big campus life and the biggest thing is they have a great school of engineering, which was one of the turning points. I really liked the team and that was what I was looking for all along.”
The academic edge held serve for Gans, who plans to major in biomedical engineering; a field that IUPUI excels in. Amid other strong points, the Indianapolis-based college has an atmosphere that should make the transition from Plano all the more comfortable.
“Going from Plano to there, it won’t be that big of a change,” Gans said. “Plano’s so big and it’ll feel like the same thing in college, whereas a lot of the schools I was looking at were really small-lifed campuses with 2,000 or 3,000 kids, which was something I just wasn’t used to.”
In deciding to commit to IUPUI roughly one month ago, Gans also considered Montana State, Gardner-Webb, Florida Tech and North Carolina-Greensboro.
But academically and athletically, the Jaguars won out in the end and that decision was made final on Wednesday at National Signing Day, as Gans more or less realized a dream.
“This is pretty much everything that I’ve always wanted,” he said. “You watch ESPN and see all the kids partaking in Signing Day and I’ve always wanted something like that since I was a little kid.”
In fact, the Wildcats’ tennis ace has been on the Jaguars’ radar since the spring of his junior year. Nothing shows commitment like persistence and that’s exactly how the IUPUI head coach Brandon Currie treated Gans.
From checking up on the Wildcat periodically to possessing a coaching style that clicked from the onset, Gans found a perfect match in pursuing a tennis career in Indiana.
“It’s a great fit,” Gans said. “It’s a big campus life and the biggest thing is they have a great school of engineering, which was one of the turning points. I really liked the team and that was what I was looking for all along.”
The academic edge held serve for Gans, who plans to major in biomedical engineering; a field that IUPUI excels in. Amid other strong points, the Indianapolis-based college has an atmosphere that should make the transition from Plano all the more comfortable.
“Going from Plano to there, it won’t be that big of a change,” Gans said. “Plano’s so big and it’ll feel like the same thing in college, whereas a lot of the schools I was looking at were really small-lifed campuses with 2,000 or 3,000 kids, which was something I just wasn’t used to.”
In deciding to commit to IUPUI roughly one month ago, Gans also considered Montana State, Gardner-Webb, Florida Tech and North Carolina-Greensboro.
But academically and athletically, the Jaguars won out in the end and that decision was made final on Wednesday at National Signing Day, as Gans more or less realized a dream.
“This is pretty much everything that I’ve always wanted,” he said. “You watch ESPN and see all the kids partaking in Signing Day and I’ve always wanted something like that since I was a little kid.”
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