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College will bring change for Frilling

Thursday, 05 June 2008

By Ken Barhorst

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Graduating from high school can be a little scary, for both the students and their parents, all of them wondering just what the real world will bring.

Kristy Frilling, Sidney’s young tennis phenom, is no different, but for the first time in a long while, she’ll be in one place.

Frilling’s tennis has taken her all over the world. Just last year, she played in Costa Rica, Korea, England, California, New York, Florida…

That kind of schedule didn’t lend itself to any kind of structured high school experience. So she opted for home-schooling.

Like all parents, her proud mom and dad, John and Tae Frilling of Sidney, had the traditional graduation party. And as part of it, they constructed a display of Frilling’s many awards she’s earned playing tennis for the last six or seven years.

Tables of trophies and pictures greeted visitors to the Frilling home. One prominently displayed item was a replica of a check Kristy received for winning the $50,000 pro tournament in doubles in Indian Harbor, Fla. last month.

Not being a pro yet, she couldn’t accept the money, but the check gets the point across.

Now she embarks on a different phase of her life, and it will represent quite a change.

Frilling will enroll at the University of Notre Dame later this year, and that will mean returning to the classroom, something she hasn’t done since she was a freshman at Lehman.

“I just got my course selection stuff from Notre Dame, and I was freaking out,” she said. “I spent a half hour talking to my brother (who also attended Notre Dame) telling him he had to help me out.

“I do sometimes look back and wonder what I missed, but I don’t have any regrets because of all the things I’ve been able to do,” she added.

Her dad said that when kids are growing up, “you let them get involved in everything, then they will tell you which one they want to do.”

That’s the way it was for his daughter. “I did a million things when I was around 10,” she recalled. “I did basketball, ballet… But I can’t remember anything but tennis.”

She’s looking forward to playing college tennis. Earlier this spring, she tried to get into Lehman as a part-time student so she could compete in boys tennis for the school. She already had enough credits to graduate, and was hoping to take one course and play for the boys team. But she was turned down.

At Notre Dame, play will begin this fall, with what she called the individual season. Then next spring, the team season will begin.

She’s had to battle through a back injury that sidelined her for a while last summer. That was the advice she was given, to sit out a while. But when the injury, a bulging disc and degeneration, didn’t get any better, she returned to the court.

“I had surgery, acupuncture, every kind of physical therapy you can think of,” she said. “I have to be careful with what I’m doing while I’m training, but I’mpretty much used to the pain.

“I remember when it happened about two years ago,”

she added. “I was playing doubles and went up for a backhand, and when I swung, my back clicked. It was like a cramping, and I thought it would pass.”

It slowed her down a bit, but not for long. And she still looks forward to turning pro. “I wouldn’t mind going pro in doubles after I graduate from college,” she said. “My WTA doubles ranking is 350 and that’s decent for only a couple of tournaments. I want to get to the top 300 before school.”

There is some good news for local fans of Frilling. She may be playing for the second year in a row in the womens tournament at King’s Island in Mason.