Simon Johnstone is a junior men’s tennis player at Piedmont University. Coming from Wisconsin, Johnstone was looking for his opportunity to play tennis at the collegiate level.
Johnstone grew up playing all types of sports ranging from soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball and swimming. In high school, Johnstone reduced the number of sports down to three: soccer, volleyball and tennis.
“I went down to three sports because my passion for the three was exponentially higher than the others,” said Johnstone.
After COVID, Johnstone went into his senior year playing only volleyball and tennis.
“I wanted to play volleyball in college but found out quickly that I wasn’t tall enough,” said Johnstone, who stands at 6’3.
After realizing that playing college volleyball wasn’t going to work out the way he wanted, Johnstone focused on his studies and got into the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While at UW, Johnstone got back into tennis playing on the school’s club team. After four months, Johnstone was given an offer he couldn’t refuse. His mom found a program at the world-renowned IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for the second semester.
“I realized how much I loved tennis, and IMG provided me with the vehicle to follow my newfound dream to play collegiate tennis,” said Johnstone.
While at IMG, Johnstone was placed in the college placement fast track where he had five months to find a school, talk to the coach and apply. Within that semester, Johnstone was placed on a regiment and went to work.
“The regiment that IMG had felt like a perfect fit. Training in the morning and having school in the afternoon helped me work on my dreams and improve in academics,” said Johnstone.
After being there all semester, Johnstone was able to garner 10 offers ranging from DI to DIII. In those offers, Johnstone found Piedmont and visited in June of 2022. Once coming to campus, Johnstone fell in love and committed a month and a half later. Since then, Johnstone has been a key player on the men’s tennis team, leading the Lions in most doubles wins at the one spot.
“This season we’ve been very successful as a team, and I have high hopes that we will get a ring,” said Johnstone.
