If you stay at something long enough, fun interweavings come about.
The first story that I ever got paid to write, nearly 27 years ago, appeared in the Marshfield (Mass.) Mariner. It was a feature on Chris Lapriore, a star tennis player from my high school. A two-time state champion, Chris was about to enroll at the University of Illinois. I vividly recall how rapidly Chris drove down my hilly driveway so that he could squeeze in our interview before he headed to the airport.
In fact, having consumed Sports Illustrated stories for the six years by that point, it didn’t take me long to realize that his dramatic entrance would serve as a fitting opening to my feature: “He arrived in a rush…”
A few years ago, as I was doing some PR on Hall of Fame tennis player Monica Seles’ visit to Five Seasons Family Sports Club in Northbrook, I chatted with the club’s head tennis pro, Manny Velasco. In the course of our conversation, I discovered that Manny had played with Chris at Illinois.
So it was especially satisfying, and with more than a little feeling of nostalgia, that I wrote my most recent tennis piece last week: a news release on Manny’s receiving Coach of the Year honors in the USTA’s Chicago District.
Makes me wonder what stories I might be telling in the year 2038.
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