swiss university tennis association

The Swiss University Tennis Association (SUTA) is a non-profit organization actively promoting education and dual career among elite athletes, as well as supporting those student-athletes (specifically tennis players) who are already getting their university degree. Our mission is to provide these ambitious young people with reasonable options and opportunities in order to be successful on the court, in the school and throughout their life.

 

We are creating a 1.) purposeful pathway for motivated juniors. The outcome of the initiative will hopefully provide parents with a 2.) realistic vision of something that makes sense, motivation to support their child's dreams and 3.) feeling of more security about their future.

European athletes are often facing challenges trying to combine their sporting career with education. As a result, Switzerland and Europe loses most of its tennis talent and some intellectual potential to the USA. We therefore aspire to initiate a new culture and more positive attitude towards these student-athletes. We believe, that each European country should have at least few quality university tennis programs, offering appropriate training conditions, and allowing motivated student-athletes to further develop their game while getting their degree.

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CREATING next generation of leaders

Lessons learned in highly competitive sports have helped many graduates to succeed not only in the world of business. There are many benefits of being involved in competitive team environment. It teaches young people valuable lifelong skills, such as competitiveness, self discipline, accountability, teamwork, ability to perform under pressure, prioritising and goal setting. Those in the business world applaud another lesson from athletics — how to become a leader. Successful student-athlete graduates are therefore in high demand.

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CREATING NEXT GENERATION OF ROLE MODELS

Being a good student while sacrificing so much to be an extraordinary athlete, is inspirational not only to other students, but also motivates those, that perform sports on a recreational level to study and work even harder. Elite athletes symbolize an exemplary way of life, while being seen as a pride of the universities, cities, or countries they represent.

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PATHWAY FOR JUNIORS

Chances of becoming a professional tennis player are close to zero even for talented individuals with perfect financial situation and training conditions. Working so hard every day for 10-15 years and being very top at their profession, still only around 200 tennis players in the world end up earning more then an average high school teacher in Switzerland. Not only players, but mainly their parents must sacrifice a lot and are often forced to be over-involved in organizing everything themselves. There’s not enough competition of similar age and playing level for juniors. They lack the encounter and chance to compare with their international peers. Because of these and other obstacles, many talented players and their parents lose their motivation, seek better conditions abroad, are forced to quit prematurely, many transform from performance to recreational, and those few most persistent ones, hope to receive an athletic scholarship from some American university.

Swiss junior athletes need a pathway, and their parents need motivation. They need a vision of something that makes sense. Scholarships from our sponsors will allow them to focus on school and tennis. University Tennis will simply provide parents and their kids with more options, vision of something that makes sense, and feeling of more security.

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BECOMING PART OF A Legacy

Helping others to succeed by sharing, mentoring, or sponsoring is contagious. Next generation of leaders will give back to the society in many ways. Alumni engagement is just one great example.