In life, some people can figure out their passion quickly, but for others it can take a lot longer. In some cases, they never find it.
Connor Glennon, at the early age of four, was playing tennis with a friend on the street in his native England and caught the eye of a local professional.
“He noticed that me and my friend were playing and he thought I had a good eye for the ball and good hand-eye coordination,” Glennon said. “Then I went to a couple of local classes and it all kick started from there really.”
Today, Glennon is the all-time winningest tennis player at the University of Memphis with 60 singles wins in his career.
Though Glennon said he played various sports as a kid, he stuck with tennis because that was the sport he felt where he was most successful.
As he approached his teen years, Glennon had to make a decision whether to pursue tennis on a higher scale and play more hours or stay in school full-time.
“I guess different coaches from around the country came and watched me so they thought I had some sort of potential,” Glennon said. “From then I thought I was okay at it and my parents always tried to keep me grounded, they weren’t going to give me false hope or anything.”
Glennon said he originally wanted to turn pro immediately, but after an injury that sidelined him for a year, he opened up to the idea of going to America to play college tennis.
Soon after, the U of M began scouting him.
“Initially, my coach from back home was best friends with the previous assistant coach here and those two got in touch and there was a player like myself interested in American college,” Glennon said. “He (the assistant) flew over to watch me play and a year later Paul (Goebel) flew to just to see if they liked me playing and one thing lead to another and I found myself here.”
Despite the change in plans, Glennon said he never thought of college tennis as second-rate and that it wasn’t a difficult decision at all to cross the pond.
“I knew when I came here I didn’t think of it as a second-rate opportunity,” Glennon said. “I thought of everything here as first class and would enable me to go professional once I was done, I didn’t think it was a difficult one but it was the right one.”
Now in Memphis, Glennon said the biggest adjustments he had to make were cultural.
“I come from a really small village of 1500 people and coming to Memphis where there’s a million people here and in general coming to America itself is completely different,” Glennon said. “I realized that the humor isn’t the same or the way the people interact day-to-day is different and I had to spend time and watch people and try to fit in the best I could.”
As far as his first match for the Tigers went, Glennon said it’s arguably still his favorite moment in his U of M career.
“My first match was amazing we went to Knoxville we were unranked we probably 150th in the country knowing we were better than that,” Glennon said. “And we were up against 13th ranked Tennessee, we go 3-0 down and we think it’s over and we were match point down on one of the courts and we managed to win 4-3, plus I won my singles match and doubles match.”
Glennon said he had no idea how popular college tennis was in the realm of college athletics as well as the rivalry with the Vols.
“I just felt they were another school,” Glennon said. “You would never assume that going out there but that was a pretty amazing experience (to beat Tennessee).”
Glennon and the Tigers momentum built on from there as he was named Conference USA Freshman Player of the Year and the Tigers made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the 2011-12 season.
He said while winning individual awards are nice it’s the team’s success that is more important.
“Honestly it’s nice to get the awards but I really don’t care about the individual awards,” Glennon said. “The season would’ve meant the same whether I got any awards or not, we made the NCAA Tournament for the first time, and that was better than receiving any individual award.”
The following season, Glennon won C-USA Player of the Year and helped the Tigers reach another NCAA Tournament. Last season, Glennon continued his strong play making the all-conference team for the third year running and finishing No. 60 in the final rankings.
Now, being the only senior on the team this season Glennon said he has embraced his new leadership role.
“I’ve enjoyed it so far, since the start of August I’ve had a few months of trying to be a leader and not only by helping them but to motivate myself,” Glennon said. “To try to keep on straight and narrow on things like the stretching and the workouts we’re not necessarily made to do but benefit you in the long run and hopefully that will be instilled in the freshmen.”
So far this season, Glennon is 3-3, facing four ranked opponents and splitting those matches. However, he is coming off a disappointing appearance at the All-Americans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, two weeks ago where he lost in the first game in the main draw.
“The All-Americans was a little disappointing for me,” Glennon said. “I felt like I had a good shot I was playing some of my best tennis the previous week, but that’s how sport is one week you can be playing really well and I’ve done everything right and it wasn’t to be and it wont deject me for the rest of the season.”
Though the tennis team now has five freshmen along with Glennon, he said he hopes that he and the team can reach the NCAA Tournament for the fourth year in a row.
“In terms of myself I’d like the NCAA Tournament for myself, and so for me as a personal goal that is number one,” Glennon said. “But as a team to make the tournament and hopefully win a couple of rounds and make it to the Sweet 16. You have to be realistic with a group of freshman will we be more in tune as a team probably not, but that does mean we can’t have success this year no not really. We’ve got five really good new tennis players and we can go and do just as well as we did last year.”
As far as the future of his tennis career after this season, Glennon said it’s most likely he’ll be done with competitive tennis.
“I wanted to go professional when I first came here and that was my number one goal from my standpoint,” Glennon said. “(However) now, my tennis career will probably come to an end after college, like I say that’s why it makes it more important to end it well in the NCAA championship, who knows if this year goes really well I would consider professional but right now I would say college tennis will probably be my end from a competitive standpoint.”
Glennon said he will have no regrets if he hangs it up for good after this year.
“No I wouldn’t I’ve never lived any of my life with any regrets,” Glennon said. “I’m not gonna start to now, I believe at the time it’s what you wanted I don’t view anything as a regret.”
Glennon and the Tigers return to action this week at the ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships in Nashville, which starts on Thursday.
