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Matt Nadauld serves the ball during a wheelchair tennis match. | Photo courtesy of Kelly Nadauld Spinning power<\/p>\nThere may not be a more decorated high school athlete in the state of Utah than Matt Nadauld.<\/p>\n
He first began playing competitive wheelchair tennis less than three years ago. Since then, the 17-year-old junior at Bountiful High has hoisted three national championship trophies, having won his latest pair of titles this past September.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super competitive. Like, it\u2019s pretty bad,\u201d Nadauld laughingly told the Deseret News. \u201cIt\u2019s just cool to be able to go compete, push yourself to your max and kind of just do what you love. Tennis is just something I love, so it\u2019s fun to be able to do that at a high level and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born with a condition called spina bifida, Nadauld has been in a wheelchair his entire life. His love for sports and the outdoors led him to a Salt Lake-area wheelchair tennis camp a few years ago, where he interacted with professionals within the sport, including Marianne Orr, and made an immediate impression.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see right off the bat that he had really good hand-eye coordination, he was just excited to be there all the time and couldn\u2019t get enough of tennis,\u201d Orr said. <\/p>\n
\u201c… You could tell he had that drive and passion for the sport and wanted to take it to the next level. It\u2019s been fun to see his progression from when he first started to where he\u2019s at now, he\u2019s come a long way in the last couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The chipper, enthusiastic Nadauld \u201cquickly progressed beyond what we could give him,\u201d according to Orr, leveling up to play in adult camps before eventually starting to train with a coach, Quinn Allred, and hit the tournament circuit.<\/p>\n
Matt Nadauld serves the ball during a wheelchair tennis match. | Photo courtesy of Kelly Nadauld Spinning power<\/p>\n
\u201cHis strength, by far, is spin,\u201d Allred said. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard on his top-spin shots, and he hits some shots that have really hard, really high RPMs on there, so when the ball actually crosses the net and bounces, it accelerates and kicks up. His opponents have a really hard time handling the amount of culmination of power and spin that are on the ball, and it really kicks up high and it\u2019s hard to handle for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since debuting in March 2023, Nadauld has traveled all across the country to compete in various tournaments, playing in notable places such as Indian Wells in California and the United States Tennis Association\u2019s campus in Orlando, Florida.<\/p>\n
Leading up to these tournaments, however, Nadauld prepares with dogged tenacity. He gets in as many reps as he can, studies film to pick up different techniques and even faces able-bodied opponents to push himself as far as possible. Improving is an obsession.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not limiting himself on wheelchair tennis, he\u2019s always trying to play with whoever there is, whoever he can get his hands on, and he\u2019ll play with them,\u201d Allred said. \u201cWhen he goes to these tournaments, he\u2019s well-prepared because he\u2019s played a variety of players of all different skill levels and types.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pushing forward<\/p>\n
\u201cAs he\u2019s had success, he has\u2019t stopped (pushing himself), he\u2019s actually gotten hungrier to do more, be better, find even better opponents, no matter where they can come from.\u201d<\/p>\n
This past September, Nadauld won national championships in both junior doubles and singles in Orlando, having already won another doubles championship in 2024 as well.<\/p>\n
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Matt Nadauld poses with UTSA tournament director Grace Min, left, and USTA wheelchair tennis national manager Evan Enquist after winning a wheelchair tennis national championship. | Photo courtesy of Kelly Nadauld <\/p>\n
But in addition to the awards and accolades, Nadauld has found something even more valuable at these tournaments \u2014 friendships within a tight-knit, ultra-supportive community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to be able to go to these tournaments where there\u2019s other people like you. You feel like you\u2019re a part of something, this tight little circle of people, that don\u2019t let their challenges get in the way of life, they just make the most of it,\u201d Nadauld said.<\/p>\n
\u201c… It\u2019s just like a different bond, you can kind of relate to that person more. You try to beat them on the court, but then off the court, you\u2019re buds with them, you hang out with them, text them and just play with them whenever you can. It\u2019s very wholesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
A good sport<\/p>\n
The love Nadauld feels for his fellow players has proven obvious, as he\u2019s earned multiple sportsmanship awards at the different tournaments he\u2019s competed in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just speaks volumes about Matt, that he can go to these tournaments that are high pressure, high stakes, and just maintain the true person that he is and treat everybody the same,\u201d Allred said. \u201cEverybody just loves seeing him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Nadauld, \u201cObviously, tennis (success) is good, but it\u2019s cool to be able to be recognized for more than just tennis. I love tennis, and it\u2019s important to me, but it\u2019s more important to me to be a better person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life outside of tennis hasn\u2019t always been easy for Nadauld, however. Health challenges have been frequent, and at times, rather severe, having undergone dozens of surgeries including several on his brain.<\/p>\n
But amid the various trials, Nadauld hasn\u2019t lost any of his light. He\u2019s maintained his authentic, unfailing optimism and served as an example of strength and perseverance to those around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter what he goes through, he\u2019s always looking at the positive side of things. He sees everything as an opportunity for growth, development and improvement,\u201d Allred said. \u201cI wish I had more of that in me, and I wish I could find a way to teach more people to have that type of outlook, but really, it\u2019s just what\u2019s been instilled in him by his parents, his grandparents and his family, you know, what\u2019s been inside of him from birth. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just the kind of guy that always knows he can overcome anything that comes his way, and he passes on his positive energy to everybody around him. It\u2019s awe-inspiring for everybody that knows him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Everybody\u2019s friend\u2019<\/p>\n
Nadauld\u2019s mother, Kelly, believes his difficulties have resulted in a greater capacity for him to love others.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt school, he\u2019s everybody\u2019s friend. He just looks out for other people,\u201d Kelly Nadauld said. \u201cI think his life has given him a perspective to reach out to others. He\u2019s super happy, he\u2019s just honestly so positive. … His tennis is cool, but who he is is cooler.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nadauld, ever so humble despite his lengthy list of tennis achievements, credits his positivity, drive and hope \u2014 essentially what makes him who he is \u2014 to his faith in God.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is what it is, and life keeps going,\u201d Nadauld said. \u201cI have a bigger perspective from the gospel, knowing that this is just what it is for now and I can push through it and be better afterwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut while I\u2019m here, I have what I have, so I\u2019ve got to make the most of it, and I have the best people around me to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Matt Nadauld poses on a court at the USTA national campus in Orlando, Fla. | Photo courtesy of Kelly Nadauld <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There may not be a more decorated high school athlete in the state of Utah than Matt Nadauld.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[3125,99,428],"class_list":["post-459310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-news-feed-local","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}