In the 2018-19 season, Kennesaw State senior Sebastian Osorio led the men’s tennis team with 11 wins and has already gotten out to a strong start this season, winning a doubles match at the Liberty Fall Invitational.
Osorio’s road to KSU was not the conventional route, as he spent two years at Copiah Lincoln Community College in Mississippi.
While at Copiah, Osorio won the 2017 Intercollegiate Tennis Association junior college Men’s Southern Regional Championship in singles and doubles, according to his profile on from KSU Athletics.
“Compared to Division I tennis, it is 100 percent different,” Osorio said. “Your expectations from coaches and teammates are much higher. Junior college is closer to amateur and Division I is closer to professional.”
KSU Director of tennis Matt Emery discussed Osorio’s transition from a junior college to KSU, praising his work ethic and maturity. Emery mentioned how the competition level and the standard the players are held to as being his biggest adjustments.
“He’s had one of the biggest [jumps] from his first year to his second,” Emery said. “I think what he does really well is he sort of learns and he makes those adjustments.”
Osorio began playing tennis at eight years old while living in his native country of Columbia. His roots influence his pre-match rituals.
Before matches, Osorio listens to mostly Colombian music to get energized for matches, pointing out J Balvin as his favorite artist.
The adjustment to the United States when he came to college was tough at first.
“It was hard speaking a second language and being in a new culture,” Osorio said. “Now that I am a senior, I am grateful for all that I have learned. It has helped me grow as a person.”
Playing Division I tennis was one of his biggest reasons for coming to KSU. Osorio was very adamant about his goals and what he wanted to do in his final year at KSU.
“I didn’t know much about KSU, but I wanted to go Division I and I liked the Kennesaw area,” Osorio said. “We want to be the first [KSU men’s tennis team] to win the conference — that’s the main goal. We want to bring KSU to the next level.”
Osorio and the rest of the men’s tennis team will be back in action at the Louisville Fall Invite from Friday, Oct. 11 to Sunday, Oct. 13.
