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Show Shawn Glieden Thrives on Tennis, Soccer and ESPN By Jim Smedley Shawn Glieden is a perfect example of the electronic age generation. He said he spends four hours a day in front of the television. But he is not watching sitcoms and soap operas. Glieden is hooked on sports. He thinks the 24 hour sports network, ESPN, is the greatest thing that ever happened to television and credits the tube for his involvement with tennis. "I like to watch sports a lot. It was by watching them that I bought my first racquet," Glieden said. "My mom and dad played a lot in California but it wasn't until I saw the pros play on TV that I decided that I wanted to play." Glieden describes himself as a wild hitter at first who really did not care where the ball went. It was not until his family moved to Park City that Glieden became serious about tennis. "I watched a lot of tourneys at the Park City Racquet Club and it started to get to me," Glieden said. In his freshman, year Glieden teamed with B.J. Tatomer in the number two doubles, went undefeated through 11 games and won the state 1-A Championship. So far this season the soon to be 17 Glieden has beaten the three 2-A opponents he faced in preseason competition and his foe from perrenial 1-A power St. Joe's. He is not the type of player that trys to overpower his opponent, he uses his head when on the court. "I like to let my opponent make the mistakes," Glieden said. "However, I do put away a lot of shots and I like to use the low side shot." Although Glieden is mowing down his opponents he is still not completely happy with his game. He said he has to improve every aspect of his game especially the backhand if he wants to reach some immediate and future goals he has set for himself. Immediate Challenges " I Illustration by Jacquee Steinau The most immediate challenge on the horizon is the state' championships. The only people he has not played are the number two seeds from Dugway and South Summit, but by the evening of May 1 he will have accomplished that. Another goal is to turn pro at 19 or play for Sacremento State College. To reach this goal Gleiden practices at least two hours every day and plans to plav in various USTA tournaments throughout Utah. He said his parents have been understanding and are trying to get him into a summer tennis camp at Utah State University. Glieden said he was eyeing Sacremento State becasue it had a good tennis program and was competitive with the best schools in the country. "If you compete on a lower level you will never get anywhere," Glieden said. Sacremento State was also appealing because it has a strong soccer progrim. And Glieden said he is belter at soccer than tennis. Glieden, who plays center or forward on the soccer field, started soccer when he was foui years old. "I was living in Dublin, Calif., which is a really a big soccer town. We had no snow so you could play soccer all year around," Glieden said. He played for six years but did not becme serious about the sport until (of course) he saw the professionals playing on television. Currently he is on the roster of the Park City Hiphrollers. "I would like to master tennis and soccer but to master soccer 1 would have to play every day. There are too many good soccer players around," Glieden said. "I like a lot nf sports but I'm going to stay in tennis." To say Glieden likes many sports is an understatement. Several years ago he watched some PGA tournaments on television. "What happened then? " It is obvious, he took up golf. "I used to play golf a lot. When I lived in the Payday condos I'd sneak on the course all the time and get chased off," Glieden said. "I thought I was really going to get into golf but then I lost two of my woods." Eventually he also lost his interest. Lately Glieden has been seeing a lot of track meets on ESPN. so.... 'Td like to try track. 1 think the 400 yard dash and long distance running," Glieden said. "Running track in the Olympics would be great. If I had the chance to do it I'd go for it." One can only hope that ESPN does not start showing old Boris Karloff movies. |