YORKTOWN, Va. — Grafton senior Rainer Christiansen has played a variety of sports.
“I’ve played baseball, soccer, and basketball for most of my life,” he explained. “I didn’t start playing tennis until about three years ago. That’s when I really started focusing on it.”
From team sports to individual sports, Rainer’s experiences have carried over.
“I picked up so many assets from all the other sports, so that’s why I’m progressing so fast in tennis right now. I think all that experience is adding up. With all those other sports you’re with a team and with tennis you’re by yourself. Team sports offer a lot of grit and toughness and in tennis, kids that don’t play those other sports might not have the grit and toughness that an athlete from those sports would take into this.”
The individual aspect is also what he loves about the sport, and he views it as an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.
“That’s actually how you can beat someone really easily is you can just get them upset and they’re in their head for the rest of the match and you don’t even have to do anything.”
Rainer has excelled in tennis quickly, winning three consecutive Class 4 Region A singles titles in his first three years playing for the Clippers.
But to really understand how his passion for tennis came about, it’s important to recognize how he was raised. Rainer’s dad, Eric Christiansen, has been the head tennis coach at Christopher Newport for over a decade now. Eric took a very intentional approach to raising his sons.
“I’m a firmer believer in letting your kids be who they were meant to be,” said Eric. “I told both my boys that they’re going to do something, whether that’s the arts, music, sports, or anything. You’ll find something you want to pursue but I never forced them to play tennis and that was completely intentional.”
“I’ve grown up around tennis like my entire life,” said Rainer. "He always told me he was like, ‘Don’t feel like you have to play tennis, I’m cool if you don’t play tennis,’ and that really opened things up and it felt like I can be in control of my future.”
Lo and behold, his dad will be a big part of that future. Rainer recently committed to play tennis for the Captains next year, joining his dad’s squad.
“I stayed out of the recruiting process completely," said Eric. "He went on visits, he went to other schools and looked at other programs but of course, he’s been around the university since he was 6.”
Turns out that the hands-off parenting approach has now led to some future hands-on memories.
“That’s going to be one of the really neat things is being able to see him day-in and day-out and be a part of that growth during these next four years.”
“It's so full circle," said Rainer. "It’s almost like it was meant to be for me to end up at CNU.”
