Avery Rueb '98 has definitely made a name for himself at Dartmouth. Most Big Green tennis fans know him as the guy with killer stats: he finished the 1995-96 season at 17-5 with a total of 20 wins. He stands at 19-24 in his singles career, and 21-18 in doubles. Even his coach admits: "Avery glows all of the time." And he's not just talking about Rueb's hair.
The blue-haired tennis wonder had an exceptionally spectacular year this season. Devotees of the sport may remember his crucial role in Dartmouth's victory over Princeton: Head tennis Coach Charles Kinyon proudly boasts that Avery "brought home the fourth point" and tipped the balance in Dartmouth's favor.
Rueb never had any professional idols. He watched John McEnroe for the entertainment of it, but he traces his love of the game back to the ripe age of three, when he and his brother used to follow their dad to the tennis courts. Tennis infiltrated his family beginning with his father's days at college, and now his brother Andrew, who played for Harvard, has taken to the professional circuit.
While Rueb shares his brother's passion for tennis, he also has an independent streak that drives him to forge his own path. In fact, one of the many reasons that he chose Dartmouth was to break out of his brother's shadow.
Rueb had been courted by Northwestern, William and Mary, Yale, and Harvard, but Dartmouth was his choice, and he is extremely content with its academics and diversity. "At William and Mary, you meet a lot of people from Virginia," Rueb said. "But at Dartmouth, you find people from Alaska to Scandinavia."
At Dartmouth, Rueb lives for his team. While often the boundary between individual and team accomplishment is blurred by internal competition, the Big Green tennis team is a much closer unit. Practices consist of ten good friends who hang out and have fun while doing drills, Rueb said.
Rueb came to Dartmouth from one of the best high school teams in the nation. During this time, he learned that he could lose a match and still smile at the end of the day -- that is, as long as his team won.
"Avery plays a very aggressive tennis game," Coach Kinyon said. His "high energy level and character make him a natural team leader," and while his serve and volley are natural strong points, "he has improved his ground strokes and patience over the past two years."
Like every athlete, Rueb has to keep in shape, though, he says, "there is a lot that you can get away with." He prefers an informal cross training regimen consisting of running and playing squash. At home, he would normally play tennis about four hours per day. But with homework and other obligations, he might play four to five times a week at Dartmouth. If practice pays off, his game should peak by the end of summer.
When asked about his best and worst experiences in tennis, Rueb cited last year's win over Princeton and a painful loss against Pennsylvania.
"I'm terrible when it comes to concentration, but pressure helps me focus. I played the points long to tire the other player out. There were so many fans and so much cheering. It was fantastic," Rueb said about the Princeton match.
After so many years of playing tennis, Rueb has never tired of the sport, and yet, he's reached a very transitional time in his years as a player. Although he is a '98 and still has plenty of time to choose whether or not to make a career of his talent, he has already decided that tennis as a profession is "just not going to happen. It would just be another year of sucking money off of my parents," he said.
And besides, Rueb has other aspirations. While tennis has taught Rueb a lot about himself and life, these days he is thinking about channeling some of his energy into other areas, such as film and music. All in all, Rueb has drawn a lot from his sport, not the least of which is his credo, "Do something, and give it all you've got."
