Living the dream! Lars Schouten left for the state of New York to study and play tennis for Marist College. At a young age Lars dreamed of making the step to America and that motivated him even more to successfully complete his VWO. In addition, Lars, together with coach Bjorn Graven of the Lewabo Lions in Beneden-Leeuwen, has trained hard in recent years to get to a good tennis level to make that dream come true. And that certainly succeeded!
The great thing about Lars’ process is that he was looking for the right school together with Pedro Mol and Peter Lucassen from Slamstox, but also played with their league team last season! So we spoke to each other a lot, both on and off the track.
Marist is not unknown territory among Dutch athletes. Well-known Dutch basketball player Rik Smits played college basketball at Marist before making the switch to the pros. Tennis player Joris van Eck has also played for Marist, and still works as a consultant for KPMG in New York City. Last March, Lars was allowed to take a look at the compact and beautiful campus of Marist, located on the Hudson River. After a warm welcome by the coaches and a number of training sessions with his new teammates, Lars was immediately sold and he knew for sure, I want to go there and I can’t wait anymore! Lars, the hard work both at school and on the job has certainly helped you and will take you much further.
We are all convinced that you can make big strides in tennis, so “let’s go and kick some @ss!” Good luck at the Red Foxes and we will certainly see you back at the club next year when you come to celebrate the summer holidays in the Netherlands, see you soon!
