Schools
Westlake High Star Tennis Player Signs To University of Louisville
Colton Buffington, a senior at Westlake High, signed a National Letter of Intent to play tennis at the University of Louisville.
Colton Buffington, a senior star athlete this year at , just recently signed a National Letter of Intent to continue his tennis playing career at the University of Louisville.
Colton first picked up a racket when he was 7 years old. His parents played recreationally and he decided to give it a try one day. It was love at first sight. His parents started putting him in lessons, but he has been largely self-driven for most of his career. He won the first match he ever played at the age of 8 when he entered a 12 and under tournament. He went on to win the entire tournament.
Colton said his coach, Doug Bloom, and his trainer, Mike D’andrea, are huge personal influences. Professionally, he looks up to Roger Federer.
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“He’s just a great athlete. He’s done some amazing things.”
For Colton, tennis is like a full time job.
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“After school I go and lift from 3 p.m. to about 5:30 or 6. And then I do speed work from 6-7, and then after that I do two to three hours of hitting. After that I do my homework.”
“I don’t have a lot of free time,” he said.
When asked about how it felt to have made his decision he responded, “It’s awesome. I love it. I had a problem choosing between two or three schools, and I got really stressed out. But I kind of took a step back and thought, What an amazing problem to have. It’s just a great opportunity to choose where you want to go to school. Being accepted though was awesome.”
Colton said the coaching was what helped him make his final decision
“The coaching at Louisville is unbelievable. [The coach] has been there for 22 years. He’s taken 17 kids to the pro-tour. The program is unbelievable. They’ve finished top 10 for the past couple years in a row now. I think I’m just going to excel there.”
Colton was going to major in athletic training, but a lot of coaches and players who have tried it told him that it takes a lot of extra work and hours outside of the classroom, which would cut considerably into tennis. Now Colton has decided to pursue a business major.