From near and far, Gomez and King lead Tech into ACCs

King (11-3) might have gone to McIntosh High in Peachtree City if he hadn’t been home-schooled.

"He was on our radar for a long time,” coach Kenny Thorne said.

Conversely, Gomez (26-6), a Spaniard whose No. 3 national ranking is highest ever for a Yellow Jackets male player, arrived by drop shot. When he came to the U.S. to choose a college program in the spring of 2007, Gomez had no knowledge of Tech. A friend and countryman, Pedro Rico, had been a member of Pepperdine’s 2006 NCAA championship team and tried to convince Gomez to play for the Waves.

“Being from Spain, I didn’t know about [Tech],” the junior said. “I had the options to go to UCLA, Pepperdine [among other schools]. In Spain, I knew of those schools. They were in Los Angeles. But if you told me Atlanta, I don’t know it.

“But it's funny ... my flight landed here and I had some friends visiting Georgia Tech. I was on my way to Tampa to learn English, but they said to come along and see.”

That surprised Thorne, who was already recruiting King but knew little about the young man from Alicante, Spain.

“There’s been a group [American International] that has shown Spanish players around U.S. colleges and helped them study English at school in Tampa and ... we’d been showing them around Georgia Tech for about 10 years without any of them really being at the level we needed,” Thorne said.

“I said, ‘I enjoy showing your guys around, but you’ve got to show me somebody.’ [The AI representative] was really excited when he called about Guillermo. We got to see him play and we were excited, too.”

Gomez, like a growing number of international players, opted to play in the U.S. because, “In most of Europe, it is not possible to go to school and play tennis at the same time; there’s no sports in school,” he said.

King and his family made a major academic/athletic decision even earlier. When they decided before he began high school to continue King's education through Keystone National, a Pennsylvania-based distance learning institution, the goal was to maximize his tennis potential.

“In public school the flexibility would not have been as good for traveling to tournaments,” said King, who missed the fall season and the early part of this spring due to an over-developed shoulder tendon. “During my last two years of high school I was in North Carolina with my coach [Sean Ferreira] after he'd moved from Georgia.

“Growing up in Georgia, my coaches knew Kenny and Bryan [Shelton, Tech’s women’s coach] and knew they were very good coaches. I knew Tech had academically what I was looking for. I wanted something in math and science.”

King, when was 2-0 at No. 1 singles when Gomez battled an ankle injury early in the spring, is majoring in mechanical engineering.

“He’s extremely disciplined. His family has done a great job with the home school,” Thorne said. “He and his dad went over every major, looked deep into what he would be doing once you had a job in that field. He didn’t just say, ‘Maybe I’ll do this."'

Thorne has been laying plans for Tech’s future. The Jackets (16-6, 7-4 ACC) were 10-11 last season and 5-6 in the ACC. Now, they have two All-ACC players for the first time since 2003 and the future looks bright.

Every player on the roster – which includes Juan Spir and Magin Ortiga of Colombia, Dusan Miljevic of Serbia, Dean O’Brien of South Africa, Miguel Muguruza of Colombia via Florida’s Saddlebrook Prep, Eliot Potvin of Hampden Academy (Maine) and Ryan Smith of Marietta’s Lassiter High – plans to return.

Getting Gomez to Tech required more than a recruiting twist of a wrist. It required a turn of fate.

“UCLA didn’t work out very well,” he said of his recruiting visit, but Pepperdine appealed on some levels. Ultimately, it was Waves coach Adam Steinberg -- of all people -- who nudged the Spaniard toward Tech.

“I didn’t expect that place to be so far apart. Malibu ... there’s no city close. It’s half an hour from L.A.,” Gomez said of Pepperdine. “The school was small, there was no football. The coach said, ‘What do you want to take?' And he said, ‘We don’t have it here.'

"He said, ‘What are your other options?' I said Georgia Tech and here. And he said, ‘From what you’re telling me, I think Georgia Tech is the best thing for you."'