Colleges

Haitian standout's journey to USF a long, worrisome one

By GREG AUMAN
Published March 2, 2005

TAMPA - Tennis has taken Neyssa Etienne all over the world, from her native Haiti to Australia for the 2000 Olympics, from Roland Garros in Paris to most of South America.

For the past 15 months, all she has wanted is to play college tennis.

But after signing with South Florida in November 2003, she waited more than a year, hoping the NCAA would grant her eligibility. She practiced with teammates and waited for her appeal, going without competitive tennis for the first time since she was 5.

And then, in the middle of it all, she got a phone call in her room in November.

In an instant, tennis and everything else in her world became trivial.

Her father had been kidnapped.

Joseph Etienne Jr., known to all as Junior, is considered the father of tennis in Haiti, having learned the game well enough to play at UCLA and Miami and as a pro in the United States. His legacy is a tennis academy he runs, hoping the game can lift even a few of Haiti's children out of the country's poverty. On Nov. 29, four men came into that academy and took him away.

When she got the phone call, Neyssa steeled herself, telling herself that kidnapping is a business in her homeland, an act of desperation but rarely one of violence.

The crime has grown so rampant that prominent Haitians invest in kidnapping insurance, taking out abduction policies as routinely as Americans might insure cars or homes. When a kidnapping takes place, the insurance company is called and it handles the negotiations, working captors down from million-dollar ransoms to more reasonable demands.

Her father was held captive for four days, but they were the longest four days of Neyssa's young life. She feared what she didn't know: Were they hurting him? Were they feeding him? Would she ever see him again?

"There's nothing you can think about," she said. "You're just hoping they're not mistreating him. Most people in Haiti do it for money. Most of the time, people come home safely. But you never know. Some of them do die."

Neyssa, 21, drove to Miami to be with a cousin's family until they knew her father was safe, and it was an emotional homecoming a week later when she finished her exams and returned home, never happier to see him.

Her father is back at the academy, still going into bad neighborhoods in bad cities, armed with only rackets. He remains committed to promoting a sport he loves. And no player illustrates that dream, that potential, more than his daughter.

When Etienne, who speaks English, French, Spanish and Creole, signed with USF coach Gigi Fernandez in November 2003, she was as well-traveled a college tennis player as you could imagine. Playing junior tennis as a teenager, she won tournaments in Martinique, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador and Jamaica. Her junior ranking rose to as high as No. 25 in singles, as high as fifth in doubles.

Her proudest moment came in 2000 in Sydney, where she was one of a handful of athletes chosen to represent Haiti in the Summer Olympics. Only 16 years old, she lost 6-1, 6-0 in the opening round, but said she'll never forget the joy of walking into the Opening Ceremony, hearing tens of thousands of fans cheering as she marched behind her country's flag. What put her eligibility in question at USF was that Etienne spent more than a year at the lowest level of women's professional tennis. She played "tens," short for ITF Women's Circuit tournaments with a total purse of $10,000. Winning a singles title pays $1,568, and she did that once. A winning doubles pair splits $637, and she did that twice. When she left the circuit in 2003, her career earnings were listed at $9,674.

The earnings weren't the issue, as the expenses of travel and entry fees far outweighed the income. But Etienne had gotten bad advice from her coach and signed as a professional, a misstep that can scuttle any attempt at amateur eligibility.

"Under the normal procedures, if you intend to professionalize, there's no going back. There's no waiver of the rule, no exception," said Steve Horton, USF's associate athletic director of compliance. "The NCAA took the time to look closer, to recognize the totality of the circumstances, to meet with Neyssa face to face and understand her situation. What they did is very much appreciated."

Etienne was granted two years of eligibility just days before USF's season opener in January and debuted as the Bulls' No. 1 singles player. Boosted by the addition of Etienne and freshman Courtney Vernon, the Bulls are off to a 4-2 start and a national ranking of 57th heading into today's home match against No. 33 Florida State.

Injuries have left the Bulls with only four healthy scholarship players, but Fernandez is still hopeful her team can make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001. The team returns intact next season, and Etienne's final season could be USF's best ever.

"She's a remarkable kid," Fernandez said. "I'm so happy for her that she got her eligibility. She practiced every day for a year, never with a bad attitude, never let her frustrations show. I don't think I would have had such a good attitude if I were her."

[Last modified July 4, 2005, 08:40:38]