NILES — Looking out a window from her home as the school bus drove by, that August morning must have been great for Jaedan Brown.
After all, how many kids these days wish they had nothing to do with going to school? That they could stay home and sleep a little more, then study the subjects they need to study at their own pace. Don't deal with passing periods and study halls and lunches and lockers and everything that comes with a typical day of learning.
Tennis took Brown to places and gave her life-lesson experiences that school couldn't match. But that meant he would have to be apprenticed at home while he traveled and played and played and traveled. Good deal, right?
Not at first, not for someone who wanted to start eighth grade at Discovery Middle School in Granger. What should have been that first day, Brown was emotional.
“I cried when I saw the bus go by my house,” she said with an ever-present smile last week at the Lakeland Athletic Club, her home away from home for the past decade. “I was sad. I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew it was going to be for the better.
“The balance of tennis and school was nice, but I knew if I wanted to go to the next level, I had to make that decision.”
Homeschooled to some degree since fifth grade — sometimes splitting days between elementary and homeschool because of tennis — Brown knew the first full year away would be the hardest. It was. She wasn't close to all her friends. She didn't do what kids her age did. She was very alone.
Brown was emotional that day perhaps knowing that life as she knew it was effectively over. There was a new normal for her. It entailed arriving at Lakeland before sunrise. Some study is being done. Taking a tennis lesson with her coach, Auggie Guimaraes, the academy's director of tennis, at 9 a.m.
Some more academic work in a conference room just off the courts that became her personal classroom. Then more banging. Head to the Midwest Sports Performance Academy in the mid-afternoon for an hour of conditioning. Then back to Lakeland for more practice. More online course work like calculus last year (earned an A) and Spanish (challenging) this year.
By the time he left for home, it would be dark again.
“I live here? It's like my home,” Brown said. “This is my life. I wouldn't have it any other way.”
Why this sport?
There was never that time when tennis and Brown just hit it off. He wasn't picking up a racket when he could barely talk or walk and immediately fell for the sport. He wasn't even a one-sport kid growing up in Virginia and New York.
He was playing basketball. She was playing softball. He was playing tennis. Try gymnastics. Even when her family moved to Northern Indiana, Brown continued her cycle of sports and seasons. That's exactly what he did. It's what everyone did.
“I loved them all,” she said. “It was just fun.”
Brown began working with Guimaraes in Lakeland when she was 8 years old. Even then, she didn't really stand out from any of the other kids her age on the field. It wasn't like he sailed an ace down the line or loaded the net with a stop or covered all areas of the court like a blanket.
“It was just a willingness to participate and work,” Guimaraes said. “That's what was separating her.”
Basketball and softball eventually fell off Brown's radar. The more she played tennis, the more she liked it, maybe because it was in her hand. It required discipline, focus, strength to believe in yourself on every shot, at every point. He couldn't rely on anyone else for help.
“It's all on me,” he said. “If I want to win, I have to put in the work.”
At 5-foot-9, the 17-year-old's game is a combination of power and positioning. It has smoking service. He puts the ball where it needs to be when it needs to be there. Covers ground quickly. She wins.
“It's a very strong game,” Guimaraes said. “It takes a lot of discipline and work ethic.”
The more work Brown did, the higher she climbed in the national rankings. He played tournaments in Brazil, Portugal, Taiwan and Sweden. He recently returned from winning a tournament in Costa Rica, where the temperature was 79 degrees at night on the outdoor courts with several thousand fans in the stands.
As for the prize money, Brown is allowed to earn up to $10,000 in a calendar year without jeopardizing her college eligibility.
Brown is ranked No. 13 in the country for her age group by Tennis Recruiting. She is ranked No. 10 in her age group and is considered the top player in Indiana. She is a five-time Midwest Closed tournament champion.
To be among the elite, he has to play his best, which high school tennis can't come close to matching. Brown is constantly on the move — whether across the country or beyond.
There have been times he's been gone for three weeks (for the tournament in Taiwan) and others when the United States Tennis Association will call to see if he can spend a week or two in California or Florida training with their other top players. age.
There isn't much downtime. Even on Sundays, a designated day off, Brown can go for a run just to do something active.
“I don't like to sit. it makes me feel gross,” Brown said. “People always say my life seems so hard, but I really enjoy it.”
The most difficult moment
Brown's father, Corwin, spent three seasons (2007-09) as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator. On August 12, 2011, police responded to a domestic dispute call at the family's Granger home.
According to reports, shots were fired inside the home as authorities arrived. Brown and her two siblings and their parents were all home. A seven-hour standoff ensued between authorities and Corwin Brown before he shot himself in the abdomen.
Brown recovered. He pleaded guilty to three felonies and was given a four-year suspended sentence.
Jaydan Brown was 8 years old. It's something she understands is part of her history. So he shares it.
“I was so young I really didn't know what was going on,” she said. “I don't want to cry, but I knew something was wrong with my dad.”
The incident left Brown confused. Would her dad go to jail? Would she see him again? Will the family move?
“I'm still nervous about it,” he said. “It was a difficult time.”
The Browns still live in the same house in eastern Saint Joseph County. Her parents remain together. Life looks a lot like it did before that Friday afternoon. She feels closer to her family, and her entire support system, for everything they've been through.
“So many people from this situation have really taken care of me,” she said. “They want to see me succeed.”
This includes her father. He rarely watches his youngest child play tennis. He'll spend time with her during her days in Lakeland and text her before a game and ask how she did afterward, but she generally avoids sports. It's very stressful.
For so long, Brown was known as Corwin's daughter. Given her success in the sport, Corwin became known as her father. Everyone is cool with it.
“I'm more into it and not so much into my tennis,” he said. “He's always there for me. As long as I'm good, he's good.”
The next step
Brown was at the Michigan-Notre Dame football game on the night of Sept. 1, 2018, when her phone started buzzing and rarely stopped. That day they were the first college coaches to officially contact her as a recruit.
Sitting in Notre Dame Stadium, Brown scrolled through e-mail after e-mail from various coaches. Notre Dame contacted her. So does Georgia. LSU checked in. And USC. By the time she finished playing and returned home, there were 30 schools interested in recruiting her.
“It was kind of stressful,” Brown said.
Not really. Given Brown's family history, there was only one school. Michigan. That's where her parents went. That's where her brother went. That's where her older sister goes.
When he visited Ann Arbor, it seemed everyone knew the Brown name and family history. She was on the field at Michigan Stadium before a football game and people knew her. She was in the gym and people knew her. She walked around campus and people knew her.
“I was like, 'I HAVE to come here,'” he said. “It felt so at home.”
Brown has committed to Michigan, where she will play tennis. The only other player in the program's 2020 recruiting class — Ann Arbor's Kari Miller — is one of Brown's closest friends. They were double partners. Now they will be teammates. Brown wants to study something related to science. Maybe biology. Maybe psychology.
As for where tennis might take her in the next five, 10 years remains to be seen. If she plays well in college — say at No. 1 or 2 singles — she'll think about her professional future. If he struggles to consistently crack the starting lineup, he may gravitate toward a behind-the-scenes playing role as a trainer or coach or hitting partner.
Whatever the next four years hold, she's about to leave behind everything she's known in the past 10 at Lakeland.
“I'm going to miss him,” Brown said. “I'm excited about my new life.”
Another bus leaves. This time, Brown can't wait to jump on it for the trip.
