Days after senior Deepak Indrakanti committed to Williams College to play tennis, senior second singles player Nakul Narendran verbally decided to take his talents to Baltimore to play for the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays.

They join fellow senior Alex Wittenbaum as members of the 2014 OTCA State Championship team to commit to play college tennis for the fall of 2015. Narendran also took home the individual OHSAA State doubles title in 2014.

Johns Hopkins University is primarily a medicine-based school. They are known for their hospital, as it is ranked number one in MD. Their tennis team is ranked fourth in the country in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Q: How did you discover Johns Hopkins? How did you know it was the right place for you?   

A: I knew that academics was just as, if not more important to me than playing tennis, so I knew that playing Division I was out of the question for me because the time commitment for tennis was too great. So, I got in contact with a few of the coaches from the top Division III tennis programs and after making several visits, I knew that Johns Hopkins was the perfect academic and social fit for me.

Q: What were other schools you were interested in?

A:  I was looking at plenty of schools that I would not play tennis at such as University of Pennsylvania, Duke University and Stanford University. Meanwhile, I stayed in contact with coaches from schools such as Johns Hopkins, MIT, Case Western Reserve University, and Washington University in St. Louis

Q: What are you looking forward to most in college? Will it be hard to be so far from Cincinnati?

A:  I am most looking forward to the abundance of new friends and contacts that I will make, and being able to study the subject that I choose, meanwhile maintaining my competitive spirit competing for a national championship on the Johns Hopkins tennis team. Over the past few summers, I have spent a lot of time away from Cincinnati, and therefore have grown accustomed to spending extended periods of time away from home and making friends with new people.

Q: You still have one more season left at SHS. What are the goals you have set for yourself?

A:  I would like to win another state championship and of course another team state championship.

To read more about the State Champion tennis team, click here.