BATON ROUGE – Sophomore tennis player Eric Perez opens his second season as half of the No. 14 ranked doubles team in the country with junior Tam Trinh. For Perez, the 176th ranked player in his recruiting class, the recognition is a true tale of hard work pays off.
Perez did not get many opportunities to show his skills in junior play due to his heavy involvement in ice hockey and golf which meant he had some catching up to do in his first season with the Tigers.
“I knew my first year I was behind everyone else,” said Perez. “I struggled a little because I didn’t play that much in juniors.”
Despite his limited action prior to college, head coach Jeff Brown saw the potential for something great. Eric’s father, Fernando, played with Brown at LSU and the two participated on one of the strongest Tiger teams in history.
Brown saw some similarities between the father and son.
“Fernando was a very special player. He was one of the best all-time SEC players,” said Brown. “Eric took a different path than most tennis players since he played more hockey. He wasn’t one of the guys who would normally be on your recruiting radar but, knowing the physical abilities of his father and the fact that Eric possessed the same hand skills, I knew he could develop if he was tough.”
Develop is just what Perez did upon arriving at LSU.
Brown’s genetic gamble paid off as Eric hit the ground running and made improving his number one priority in Baton Rouge.
“I was always working on extra things here and there,” said Perez. “I focused on weight training or playing extra with [assistant coach] Danny [Bryan].”
Eric’s intense work ethic quickly made an impression on his teammates. Without other sports to distract him from tennis, there was nothing standing in between Eric and achieving his potential in the sport.
The relatively unheralded prospect was determined to prove himself and make sure that people would know his name.
“I knew about some of the guys we had coming in that year that were highly recruited but I didn’t know about Eric Perez,” said Trinh. “Ever since he got here he busted his butt. He was early to every practice and I’m glad to see it is paying off.”
A lot has changed since then, as Trinh is certainly aware of Eric’s presence on the team. The two played their first competition as a doubles team in last fall’s Bulldog Scramble in Athens, Ga.
With a matchup against the No. 2 doubles pair in the country looming, Perez and Trinh had their work cut out for them. At a time when the team needed a lift, the duo delivered.
“Sometimes things work out right away,” said Brown. “They got a win over the No. 2 team in the nation at Georgia’s courts and we realized they can handle the pressure. It was a point where we were trying to find another team and that was a nice spark.”
With a quality win under their belts, the team gained confidence and things started to click. It was a natural process as neither player can quite explain how their chemistry came about.
It was the first of many times that Trinh and Perez would come through for the Tigers.
“We played a lot during practice and it just kind of happened,” said Trinh. “We were struggling in the doubles lineup and we needed some different teams so the coaches put Eric and me together to shake things up and see how it goes. We surprised some people, including ourselves, and won some matches against the top-ranked teams in the SEC. We had some confidence after that.”
Perez and Trinh are now a staple in the Tigers’ lineup and are looking forward to their second full season together.
For Perez, the work is only beginning. Despite the success of his first season, the sophomore still sees plenty of room for improvement, specifically in his singles game.
“My mindset is still the same because I’m still trying to get to the top of the singles lineup,” said Perez. “In doubles, I still want to get better. I want to be top five or top three.”
This mentality has gotten him so far already and Perez has the full support of his team as he continues to develop.
Perez is no longer a low-key recruit on the tennis court but a bright spot on the LSU roster with big expectations.
“He is a very tough kid,” said Brown. “He has grown in leaps and bounds. His singles game is starting to follow now too. We are looking for big things out of him and we are pulling for him.”