From the soccer and croquet fields of New Zealand to the Sacramento State tennis courts Warwick Foy has always been an athlete at heart.

The Sacramento State sophomore started playing tennis when he was 6 years old and has found that he is happiest right after he has beaten an opponent on the court.

“I started playing because I like to compete,” Foy said. “I get a good feeling when I win a match. You know you’ve worked hard and then by working hard you get the results.”

Foy works hard both on and off the court and was named to the Big Sky Conference 2004 Spring All-Academic team. Since tennis is challenging both physically and mentally, Foy knows the importance of preparing for a match.

Such things like eating and drinking well are aspects of Foy’s preparation that enable him to play his best out on the court, but he mostly relies on visualization techniques to prepare himself mentally for the day’s match. Through this method, Foy has been able to come through with one of the best records on the men’s tennis team this season, going 11-10 in singles play.

“You have to be mentally prepared for a match, Foy said. “What I tend to do is the night before a match is sort of visualize how I want to play the next day.

“What I do is visualize how I want the match to go, like how I want to serve and how I want to hit my ground serve, just so it puts me in that kind of frame of mind the next day when I’m playing the match.” Foy said.

Growing up in New Zealand, Foy had the opportunity to play tennis in a junior international circuit that held tournaments in such places as Australia, Asia and Venezuela.

Not many young athletes dream of one day playing for the Hornets, and Foy never singled out Sac State as his only option for college tennis. Luckily for Foy, he didn’t have to work too hard to find out that Sac State was where he was going to be spending his college days.

All he had to do was get in touch with former tennis pro Rich Andrews. Andrews was a friend-of-a-friend and was willing to help the native of New Zealand come play tennis in America.

“Warwick came over to look at (Sac State) and he pretty much worked things out once he got here. It was kind of a coincidental sort of a thing that worked out really nicely,” Andrews said. “I think playing for Sacramento State has worked out really well for Warwick; he’s really happy there. I think that it’s a good situation and good environment for him.”

Foy is now in his second season playing for the Hornets and hasn’t lost his focus on winning. An all-around team player, Foy knows the importance of cheering on a teammate during a match, even if he himself is in the middle of a battle.

“I just try to focus as much on my match as possible, but it’s hard because my teammates are playing on the courts next to me, and I want to cheer for them and be loud for them,” Foy said.

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Armando Botello II can be reached at [email protected]