The Iowa women’s tennis team experienced immense roster turnover over the past year. The program is welcoming five freshmen to the squad and one transfer. Macey Howes is one of the new members of the team and is making her return to her hometown of Iowa City.
Howes took a different path than most collegiate athletes. She didn’t go to school in Iowa City; instead, she took online classes through the Iowa Connections Academy and went to multiple prestigious tennis academies in Florida. Howes’ path to playing tennis was unique, just like her path back to the University of Iowa.
Howes had been competing in gymnastics for eight years, and when the moves became more difficult and dangerous, the thought of getting injured became more real.
“I had gotten extremely scared while doing gymnastics. I was doing skills that 11-year-olds should not be doing, and I had a really scary fall and almost broke my femur,” Howes said.
Many Division I tennis players have had a racket in their hand since they could walk. The groundwork for many elite players comes at a very young age. Howes’ background in gymnastics provided her a unique skill set that made the switch to tennis much smoother.
“I started tennis when I was 11 years old, which is extremely late because I was an elite gymnast eight years before, so I switched almost immediately,” Howes said. “I did their summer camps and started working with my dad, and they basically said, ‘You’re not going to get any better here.’ We needed to move, so I moved to Florida, and I was at the Everett Tennis Academy for probably a year.”
Moving to Florida to fully commit to tennis was beneficial for improving her game, but it didn’t come without its drawbacks. Howes missed out on many traditional parts of high school to pursue the goal of becoming a Division I tennis player.
“I lost contact with most of my friends in elementary school just because I didn’t have a phone until I was seventeen,” Howes said. “The kids at the academy are always super nice until you beat them, so it’s just a matter of how long you’re at the academy, and how long you’re able to keep a friendship.”
Howes was training at these academies for up to seven hours and had to balance the workload of online classes. This time at the academies helped Howes get used to being on her own and accountable for everything. The time at the academies, and having to be responsible for herself, made the transition to the University of Iowa much easier for her.
Before going to Florida, Howes was a resident of Iowa City, and it made it easy for her to get into tennis right away. She started attending summer camps and getting familiar with the coaches at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Center. This laid the groundwork for her relationships with the coaches and staff around the facility.
“She had been in this building so often throughout her junior tennis career and came to a lot of the matches, and knew the players,” head coach Sasha Barros said. “I really feel like Macey and her family really understood Iowa tennis before she was a prospect, and when she was younger, just starting her career out, she often worked with assistant coaches from the program.”
One unique aspect for Howes has been playing on a team instead of just playing tournaments on her own. The ability to have other girls to talk to and lean on has been a pleasant surprise for Howes in her first season at Iowa.
“It’s really nice because if I’m having a difficult practice, I have eight other girls on the court uplifting me and giving me energy,” Howes said.
The nature of tennis at this level lends itself to recruiting internationally. Look no further than Iowa; the roster is home to five athletes from outside the U. S. Getting recruits with this kind of connection to the program has become increasingly rare. Howes provides the local community the chance to cheer on an athlete they may have known when she was younger.
“I am super excited for all the people who are going to come and watch. I’ve built really good relationships with all the people at the tennis facility,” Howes said. “They always wanted to know who I am, and if I was going to go to Iowa, and so now that I’m at Iowa it just feels really special, and I’m just really excited to see the atmosphere this year.”