Sebastien Mathieu, a London-native on the Santa Clara men's tennis team, spoke with SantaClaraBroncos.com about his transition to life as a student-athlete in the United States and his outlook on the season in progress.
SCB: How has the adjustment from French education and training to that in the United States been for you so far?
SM: The adjustment from the French education wasn't too bad, as our French school gave us the option to study through the British system and I decided to take that route at the Lycée for four years, learning everything in English before coming over to the United States. On top of that, I spend most of my time talking in English with my family at home so I think that that also helped to smoothen the transition from French to English education.
SCB: How are you adjusting to the life of a collegiate student-athlete? How are you feeling about season thus far, individually and as a team?
SM: I think that so far I have adjusted well as a student-athlete. Of course at the beginning it was a bit tough to find a good balance time wise between work, play, and tennis but every week I have been feeling more and more confident on how I can manage my time between work and tennis.
Since coming in the fall quarter, I believe that I have improved a lot thus far and am very excited for this season. From a team perspective, I feel like we have all worked very hard throughout the fall and beginning of winter and have developed a great intimate relationship as a whole.
SCB: What are some of your goals for your freshman year as a Bronco? (athletically / academically / socially)
SM: As a Bronco, my goal athletically this year is to improve to be the best that I can be on the court and to make sure to stay positive and confident in my abilities in whatever situation I find myself in. As well as this, another goal for me this year is to devote a lot of my energy to my teammates on the court to provide them with support.
Academically, as a freshman, I would like to do well in all of my classes and potentially improve on my GPA through each quarter, especially in classes that I have a bit more difficulty with relative to others.
Socially for this year, I hope to discover things that will help me to develop into becoming the person that I want to be and that I would like to be. I also hope to continue on building new and good relationships with a lot of friends and hopefully keep these relationships for many years to come.
SCB: What upcoming match are you most looking forward to?
SM: To be honest, I will always be looking most forward to the next match. I believe that every match will be an exciting and a new experience for me.