USD assistant coach arrives after life of hardships

JOSH PAGE | CONTRIBUTOR | THE USD VISTA

Ty Schuab is currently in his first season as an assistant coach of the men’s tennis team at the University of San Diego. His ambition of being able to work with some of the best athletes in college has been reached. However, these goals were reached after a long, tiring process involving multiple surgeries. After battling with scoliosis throughout his childhood, Schuab decided to focus on his career as a tennis coach.

Ty Schuab was born Dec. 31, 1985 in a small town near Cleveland. His father was a tennis coach and quickly introduced him to the game he now loves. It was at the age of two when Ty was diagnosed with scoliosis. Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine. Many people have minor cases of scoliosis, but Schuab’s disability was serious. He revealed that the process of fixing his spine began at a very young age.

“I had my first operation when I was two years old, from then on I pretty much lived in the hospital,” Schuab said.

Although the operations took their toll on Schuab’s body, he always kept his desire to play college tennis.  His dream was to be a professional tennis player, but after being told at the age of seven he was going to have to have another operation, he was starting to fear the worst.

“This time they went in and attached titanium rods to my spine and tried to straighten the spine as much as they could,” Schuab said. “The worst part about this surgery and having the rods attached to my spine is that they told me I most likely wouldn’t be able to play any sports.”

Although being told this, he decided to ignore the news and use it as a driving force to go on and be successful in tennis.

Schuab went on to have a very impressive high school tennis career, and he was awarded with a place on the Ohio State tennis team. Sadly, he once again faced devastating news. The operations that he had in his earlier years had changed as he grew. He needed new metal rods to be fused to his spine as he was not going to grow anymore. He was then told that he would have to have these rods in place for the rest of his life.  Although this was a devastating blow to Ty’s confidence, he still tried to look at the positive side of the situation.

“The good thing is that when you start having operations like that at a young age, it just becomes a way of life,” Schuab said. “It is all you know, so I never really thought of it as a disadvantage or anything like that.”

After not being able to play his freshman year of college, Ty then made the team the next three years and eventually graduated from Ohio State in 2009.

His desire to become a tennis professional had changed; now he focused on getting involved in the game in a different way.

“After college there was only one thing I wanted to be and that was being a college coach,” Schuab said.

He was given his first job at Cornell University, where he was the assistant coach for the men and women’s tennis teams. After coaching there for a couple of years, he got another job at the University of Pennsylvania where he was the assistant for three years.

“After work at Penn, I was offered a job at the University of Iowa. I was only there one season before being offered my dream job at USD,” Schuab said.

He signed to be the men’s assistant coach at the start of this semester. Schuab shared his three main reasons for moving here.

“Firstly the head coach is my best friend, secondly we have everything we need at USD to be a top twenty team, and lastly San Diego was my dream place to live,” Schuab said.

Although Ty is very happy to be coaching here, he still strives to achieve his coaching goals and eventually take over as head coach at a Division-I college further down the line.