Welcome to Season 9, Episode 21, of the ParentingAces Podcast! My guest for this special Video Episode is my son, Morgan Stone.

For those of you who follow the ParentingAces Facebook Page, you may have seen our conversation when it aired live last week. However, for those who missed it, this is a very raw, very honest – and, at times, very uncomfortable – account of Morgan’s junior tennis development, college tennis experience, and relationship with my husband and me.

If you are the parent of a young player, you may want to watch first before letting your child view this one. As I said, Morgan gives an honest – and sometimes bitter – assessment of growing up as an elite tennis player and playing in college. He owns that experience and makes no assumption that others will or have had similar ones.

I have struggled for a while about providing a place for Morgan to share his story with the ParentingAces community because it’s not all flowers and butterflies (as will be evident as you watch). However, I know from talking with several of you that he’s not alone in feeling the way he does.

I am very interested to hear from you after viewing the conversation, so please do add your Comments below or feel free to contact me directly.

Several comments came in as we were doing the livestream on Facebook. Here are a few of them:

“I think this interview is authentic and very honest. Performance tennis as a sport has many sad stories including frustrations, divorces, financial woes etc. Most 1st time tennis parents do not understand till they have already spend a lot of time and money and can’t pivot.”

“Healthy conversation.”

“This is sad…”

“I watched the podcast with your son and found it so authentic. For a 23 year old, he truly has a sense of himself.”

“I think every single parent that considers getting into tennis for their kids needs to watch that video.”

I want to say, though, that this is a Tennis Story with a happy ending. Although he is no longer playing tennis, and although our Parent-Child relationship went through some very rocky periods, Morgan has found his passion in the form of producing music and performing as a DJ, and our relationship is stronger than ever.

Morgan is also having great success in his first post-college job, working in Business Development for an education tech startup in San Jose. It is extremely satisfying for my husband and me to see all three of our children thriving in their careers.

For those curious about Morgan’s music, you can listen here and watch his recent livestream here. 

During our conversation, I reference another podcast Morgan did prior to ours. You can find that episode online by clicking here. He speaks in much more detail about his college recruiting and playing experience in his D1 Only Podcast interview.

To follow Morgan or to contact him, please be sure to check out his social media channels on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

To watch this week’s video podcast, click below:

As the COVID-19 pandemic is changing daily, please know that ParentingAces is committed to continuing to bring you information and support as it relates to junior tennis and college recruiting. We have created a page on our website specifically dedicated to sharing useful tennis-related resources. You can visit it here.

If you’re so inclined, please share this – and all our episodes! – with your tennis community. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the ParentingAces website. If you haven’t already, be sure to become a Member of ParentingAces – relaunching June 15 – by clicking here.

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