The University of Idaho Argonaut

Rob Chalkley is humble about his leadership role for the University of Idaho men’s tennis team.
As co-captain, he loves what he does and has a lot of passion for the team and the young players that he leads.

“I’m not trying to push my seniority down, we’re all equal out here,” he said.
There’s no question that Chalkley’s the go-to man for help from the younger players. Many of his teammates don’t speak English well and look to Chalkley to clarify any confusion between them and the coach.

“Helping them is very rewarding,” Chalkley said. “It’s nice knowing that they’re coming to me for help and I get to help them.”
“A spongy ball, short court and a big ol’ racket face” is how Chalkley started his tennis career in Birmingham, England at the age of 8 years old.

“My mom was kind of scared of me getting hurt by playing soccer and rugby, so she put me in a tennis class and I guess I just progressed from there,” Chalkley said.
By the time he reached 12 years old, he had already made the state team and spent the next four years traveling around the country playing in tournaments in England.

Chalkley won enough tournaments by the age of 16 to be ranked in the top 20 in the country for the U.K., and did well enough in one tournament to be ranked in the top 10.

Academics have always been important to Chalkley. During his junior and senior year of high school, he felt he needed to focus on his schoolwork and tennis was forced to take a backseat.
Although Chalkley had focused less on tennis, he was still an accomplished player and quickly became a prospect for many universities all over the states.

According to Chalkley, one of his biggest accomplishments as a tennis player was being recruited by a big university like the University of Idaho.
Chalkley chose UI because it provided the opportunity to travel to both big and small schools. The team was fairly young at the time, and he thought it would provide more opportunity to play as a freshman, he said.

“A lot of my friends came over here to play tennis,” Chalkley said.
Tennis isn’t a major sport in England so the opportunity to play is much better in the states, he said.
Tennis plays a different role in England, he said.

“The guy with the blond hair is on TV, he’s pretty cute — that’s how tennis is seen at home,” Chalkley said.
The women watch it to see the cute boys in shorts; the men watch it to see the beautiful 18 and 19-year-old girls, he said.
He has big hopes for the UI team this season and said his biggest goal individually is to “stay fit and healthy.”
Chalkley has suffered a few injuries in the past years that have pushed his body to the limit and held him back on the tennis court.

Chalkley shows a lot of pride in his team’s ability. He hopes to prove that they aren’t just a small team and that they have the ability to get up to the top level, he said.

“As a team, I’d really like to get nationally ranked,” Chalkley said. “We have plenty of opportunities to play a number of nationally ranked teams in the coming season.”
His current record this season is 9-9 in singles and 10-9 in doubles.

Chalkley, a senior marketing major, will finish his bachelor’s degree this spring but has plans to stay one more year to get his master’s degree. He has one more year of eligibility due to shoulder surgery taking him out for an entire season.
He remains focused on his academics and has received the Western Athletic Conference all-conference academics award two years in a row.

“He’s a real leader,” said Idaho coach Jeff Beaman. “He wants to do well and wants to work hard.”
Chalkley plans to remain in the United States after accomplishing his master’s, and hopes to seek out a career in sports marketing.

“My goal is to get a job out here and pretty much set up shop and stay out here for as long as I can, provided I don’t get deported or something,” Chalkley said with a laugh. “If all else fails, I can go home and bum off my parents.”

Chalkley has already had interviews with some big companies and said “I see myself in five years really trying to bump up the corporate ladder while still having a tennis racket in my hand.”
“I’m always going to look to play and possibly coach,” he said.