Kristian Kiland is taking his forehand swing south next month.
Prince George's ace tennis player is in Vernon for the Hankey Cup this weekend and from there Kiland heads to Vancouver for the junior provincial championship, July 2-5, before embarking on his fourth summer tennis adventure through Washington and Oregon, competing in four July tournaments.
"It's super tiring but it's just so much fun to go down there and play against all the kids from the States," said Kiland.
The U.S. road trip will take Kiland to Wenatchee (July 9-11), Spokane (July 12-14), and Yakima (July 15-17), before wrapping up the whirlwind tennis tour in Eugene, Oregon (July 18-20).
The 18-year-old is ranked 87th among all boys' junior ranked players - around 45th in his age category - in British Columbia. Kiland graduated from Kelly Road secondary school this spring and plans to attend Doane College in Crete, Nebraska where he'll compete for the Tigers under coach Pete Fiumefreddo, while studying "the sciences."
"They had everything I wanted and it's not too far from home," said Kiland. "Plus, they have a really good tennis program that won the GPAC [Great Plains Athletic Conference] last year and the coach was named coach of the year in GPAC."
Kiland added that the Tigers, who play in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, just upgraded their tennis facilities as well.
"It's always scary to leave home and move out away from all my friends that I've known my whole life, but it's also really exciting because you get to train on a tennis team that's very competitive where I can just improve my game as much as I can," he said.
Kiland learned the basics of tennis from his brother/coach Jim Condon when he was younger, but now the duo more or less just play for fun.
"We take it very seriously but we have so much fun out there together and keep each other calm," said Kiland. "He's taught me so much. Now it's just like we go out and practice because there's not too much more technical stuff he can teach me."
"My level of coaching certification is just a Level 1 so I know how to teach the basics," added Condon. "He's surpassed my coaching knowledge so he gets technical coaching from coaches down south whenever we get down that way."
The brothers will play doubles together in Vernon before Condon and their mother Nancy sit back and watch Kiland compete in Vancouver and the U.S.
"This year it's just to have fun because he's already got offers so we don't really need to work on his ranking," said Condon. "We're just going down there to have fun and relax. Basically all my mom and I do down there is relax and watch him play tennis, while he grinds it out in 40 degree weather. I can't wait."
In 2010 when the family went on the U.S. tour, Kiland managed a win streak of 21 straight matches in the challenger series - the level below where he plays now - and he won six tournaments that year.
Kiland takes part in singles, doubles and mixed doubles events and moved into competing in A tournaments two and a half years ago when he needed stiffer competition.
"The first time we ever played an A event we didn't do great but we learned so much and now we're coming so close to winning the A events," said Kiland. "It's really fun to go toe to toe with some of the top players."
Kiland said he would like to improve his game at Doane College enough to one day transfer into an NCAA Division 1 school and, perhaps, one day he'll look across the net to see Andy Murray at
Wimbledon.
"It's far away but it doesn't seem out of reach either," said Kiland. "I feel like as long as I keep working hard you never know what might happen. It's a one-in-a-million shot of becoming a professional athlete, but I have to try. It's like a dream job to get paid to play sports."
