OK, so here's the deal.

You come from a family of gymnasts. Your mother and father went to UCLA on gymnastic scholarships. Today, your mother is head of women's gymnastics at Oregon State. Your dad has competed at the highest level in international gymnastics and an aunt's name is still on the wall for her gymnastic success at the University of Arizona (UofA). Everyone expects you to follow in their footsteps, but you have other ideas.
 
What do you do?
 
"My parents (Tanya and Michael Chaplin — women's gymnastics head coach and associate head coach respectively at Oregon State) never pressed me about going into gymnastics. But, I knew I'd be just another gymnast in the family and I'd always be compared to them. I wanted to make my own path in a different sport," said sophomore Viking tennis player Alana Chaplin.
 
So, when most collegiate level tennis players were starting tennis, Chaplin started playing…..basketball.
 
"I was hoping to use it to go to college, but I had a reality check," said the 5'2" Corvallis High School product.
 
Still, she loved basketball and she was good at it. "I'm athletic. I've always been able to pick up pretty quickly any sport I was interested in,"….until she encountered tennis.
 
Chaplin's parents were on a recruiting trip to Australia, staying at a hotel with a tennis court. Her dad suggested a game.
 
"He kept beating me and that was really frustrating. I was always comfortable with whatever I tried, but not with tennis. I was all over the place with tennis, felt anything but coordinated and that was a real challenge."
 
A challenge she embraced.
 
Chaplin discovered her cousins played tennis (one quite well) on a trip to visit her Aunt Kelly, the UofA gymnast. She played with them a number of times, then asked their advice on how to improve. Take classes, she was told.
 
So, as she was nearing high school, she decided to get serious about tennis.
 
That was when she met Colby Jager, a coach and teacher at the Timberhill Tennis Club in Corvallis.
 
She was still playing basketball. But when she became a freshman at Corvallis High School, Jager warned her that she needed to concentrate on one sport if she wanted to try using sports as the vehicle for a college education.
 
One problem, she was starting tennis six or seven years later than players with whom she'd be competing.
 
Jager told her that he understood her predicament – that he had developed late as a player and had been a walk-on at the University of Portland. "He told me 'you'll just have to work harder than everyone else'," she recalled. That meant six hours a day on the tennis court.

"When I started seeing myself passing up some of the others with more playing experience, this really gave me incentive," she said.
 
Chaplin had state tournament success at the 5-A level for her Corvallis High team, finishing third in doubles as a junior and making it to the state tournament as a singles player her senior year ("that was my goal").
 
Unfortunately, she drew the number one seed for her opening singles match in the tournament and lost. Still, she: "went to the back draw and won five matches and won the consolation bracket, so I was pretty happy with that."
 
Following her state tournament performances she heard from a lot of Division III schools, but she'd always wanted to play Division I collegiate tennis. She emailed a number of programs but didn't get much interest, until she emailed PSU head women's tennis coach Jay Sterling.
 
"He was the first one who said he'd come watch me. He saw me in a tournament and told me I had great potential, that I was a fighter and that he loved my work ethic. I thought…'I can play for this guy'," she said.
 
To Sterling, Chaplin was: "a super athlete with an unbelievable work ethic. She grew up around athletes and I told her she was good enough to play. I'd give her chances, but that she probably wouldn't play much her first year."
 
And, from his standpoint, things couldn't be working out better.
 
Chaplin played in exhibitions and in one match her first year. 
 
"She played a little and she has helped make the team better. She's trying to work into the rotation this year and has to work harder than those around her. But, her attitude encourages the other players…and even the coaches to do better. She helps make everyone stronger," he said.
 
Her goal this year is to be a consistent competitor. "I'd love to be a Big Sky Player of the Week, but I want to be a consistent player and be the best I can be."
 
An honor society member in high school, Chaplin also is aiming to be the best she can be in academics, currently carrying a 3.7 cumulative GPA. After a year as a business major, she changed to health sciences and pre-physical therapy.
 
That meant taking the entire chemistry series this last summer to catch up. "I got an A-minus, which I was pretty excited about. Well, I've taken it. It worked out well, but I'm never doing that again!" she said ruefully.
 
In her spare time, Chaplin enjoys running and loves to run the hills around Portland.
 
"I'm a bit of a nerd. I love looking at graduate schools and I love reading about anything to do with physical therapy, especially the effects of arthritis on athletics," said Chaplin.
 
Effects of arthritis on athletics…?
 
It turns out that starting late was just one of the hurdles Chaplin had to overcome.
 
She had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis as a child, corrected by surgery, but now has osteoarthritis in her elbow…perhaps not an ideal condition for a sport where players without any hint of arthritis are afflicted with "tennis elbow".
 
"The doctor told me I could play as long as I manage it right," she said. That means stretching and strengthening exercises before playing and ultrasound to get the blood moving. Then ice and stretching after she's played.
 
Besides Jager, she lists her parents as mentors ("I wouldn't be here if they weren't the incredible people they are.") And, she thinks her tennis may have provided a side benefit for them.
 
"They've watched a lot of tennis since I started, been to a lot of tournaments. In fact, they went to the French Open and I didn't. I think it gives them a break, a chance to watch another sport."
 
Sterling is bullish on Chaplin's prospects at PSU.
 
"She's a walk-on in our program and it's a steep learning curve for her. But, she works out at the championship level. She's competing with people who have been eating, sleeping and living tennis two or three times longer than she has. But, I think she can be as good as she wants to be," he said.