On any given off day for the Arizona men’s tennis team, you can find Colton Smith fishing — anywhere within a few hours’ drive of Tucson.
Driving that far might not sound like a relaxing way for most athletes to spend their day off, but Smith has found the secret to balance and peace.
“Being able to make time in my schedule to go fishing once a week to once every other week is something that I look forward to that and it’s really just a good reset for me,” Smith said.
Smith
“If I’m not really taking that time, then I can tend to get a little run down. I think that’s definitely kept everything fresh for me and exciting and so I feel compared to last year in the fall, I feel very refreshed and it’s very eager for this rest of the season.”
Smith said that he was spoiled with the rivers in Washington, his home state. While he wouldn’t share the exact locations of the little lakes he’s found, but said they were definitely worth the drive to fish for trout and do some fly fishing.
The life balance is working. The junior is ranked No. 20 nationally in singles this week by ITA tennis rankings and No. 29 in doubles, along with teammate Jay Friend.
No. 10-ranked Arizona (19-3, 5-1) heads into the final match of Pac-12 play at No. 57 Oregon on Sunday at noon and are looking for more of that maturity and calmness from one of its leaders.
The Wildcats were in action late Friday night as part of the final weekend of the regular season. The Pac-12 Tournament is next week in Ojai, California.
Smith, who has been ranked as high as No. 5 this season in singles, takes an unconventional approach to the game he loves.
It all started when he was younger, growing up on a farm in Washington. He and his dad, Brodie, used to play ping pong all the time. Then, one day, his dad called him over to the TV when Rafael Nadal was playing and asked his son if that was something he wanted to try out.
Arizona's Colton Smith made the Pac-12 first-team last season after collecting honorable mention as a rookie. The junior's overall singles record is 74-31.
Weathering the odds
Colton Smith answered ‘Yes,’ to that question, but it wasn’t as simple as grabbing a racket and hitting a ball. With the cold and wet weather in Tenino, Washington, it was a challenge to find a place to play. There weren’t indoor courts in his hometown. He used a ball machine at home and at one point drove 45 minutes one-way just to play. Then, those courts shut down. That wasn’t the only time that indoor courts in the area would be open for a while but then suddenly close shop.
And yet, he still ended up as one of the most highly sought-after recruits out of high school. He was ranked the No. 2 recruit nationally by Tennisrecruiting.net in the Class of 2021 — the highest American recruit in UA history.
Even though he played in top tournaments prior to enrolling at Arizona — winning the Easter Bowl Championships in doubles and making the round of 16 at the 2021 US Open Junior Tennis Championship — he didn’t face the pressure that most young tennis players do. And he had that same calm composure he does today.
Arizona coach Clancy Shields calls it “the best frustration tolerance of any kid I’ve ever met.”
As Shields noted, in tennis, you’re often going to lose at least half the points you play.
“He’ll lose a match and of course, he’s bummed, but … he’ll get over it really quick and he moves on,” Shields said. “I think that’s that ability to do that is one of his greatest strengths. Tennis isn’t his whole life. He has a bunch of other interests. And I think that balance has helped him to not put all of his eggs into this basket.
“Like ‘if I don’t do well here, then this is this is all I have.’ He’s a really well-rounded kid.”
Some of this goes back to watching Nadal’s temperament — as Smith said, “You’ve never seen him smashing a racket” — but most of it is in his own DNA. From his upbringing on the farm in Tenino and the other part was finding the perfect coach in Jody Rush.
Rush, who is 79 and still playing in tennis tournaments, also takes an unconventional approach to the game. The word “tinkering” seems to come up a lot when Smith is talking about his process.
“My freshman year, last year and even this year, a couple of days before a big match and (Rush) will be like, ‘Hey, try this on your server.’ And I’ll go out and kind of change up my serve motion a little bit right before the match,” Smith said. “Guys are like, ‘Oooh, why are you doing that now? Your serve is fine before that.’ And I’m like, ‘It feels good.’ I think just constantly making those small adjustments, people can criticize that a little bit and be a little skeptical of it. But I think that’s part of the fun. That’s part of the whole trust the process mentality.”
Colton Smith runs down a forehand return in his doubles match against Boise State in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament last season.
Maturation on and off the court
Shields has had a front-row seat as Smith has matured on and off the court. He came in as a shy freshman and now is much more social. Much of that had to do with growing up in a town with only a few thousand people and being homeschooled for the three years prior to college.
On the court, Smith has seen a steady progression each season to get to this point. He led the Wildcats in singles wins during his first two seasons and is on his way to claiming that title this year.
He made the Pac-12 first-team last season after collecting honorable mention as a rookie. His overall singles record is 74-31. Smith also led the Wildcats to back-to-back Pac-12 regular season champions the past two years.
Smith is also more focused about all aspects of his game these days. Everything from his nutrition to always looking for little ways to improve and have an edge. One way that this has shown is winning two Pac-12 Player of the Week awards — the most recent one coming in the last month.
Smith said there is a direct correlation to his growth this season to how he spent his summer. He competed in tournaments and when he was home, he would train in the morning and fish in the afternoon.
“I felt like I had a really great summer just as far as personal stuff goes and I think the happier you are outside of tennis, the better you’re going to play — the more exciting everything is and so I think that was huge going into the fall,” Smith said.
Shields said Smith is still just tapping into his potential and sees him with a very good career as a professional tennis player competing for a top-10 ranking.
Ultimately, that’s on Smith’s set of goals, but for now he is focused on the small goals in front of him like winning the next match.
Although, he is thinking ahead to after his playing career is over.
“I don’t know if I’ll go back to Washington, but ideally, I’d love to retire one day on to a big ranch in Montana and just run a hunting and fishing operation off of that,” Smith said.
