The Reese Brantmeier

The Reese Brantmeier. The Reese Brantmeier Project.

Who is Reese Brantmeier? 

So many titles, so many accolades. Reese is a National Champion with her 2023 UNC teammates, an All-American, the number 1 recruit in the 2022 class, All-ACC, Academic All-Conference team. She even has an accomplished resume on the pro-tour as a "non-pro." The list can go on and on for Reese, but beyond her accomplishments, Reese is a person and a talented person obviously. Her talents reach well beyond the tennis court. As you can see in the picture above, Reese is a gifted artist, and you can see it even more clearly on her art-dedicated instagram page @WornEraser. Everyone can pretty well measure her as a tennis player by professional analytics, her monstrous serve speed (it's a sight to behold, trust me) return rate, wins, losses, etc., and though art is sometimes a little harder to gauge, there is no question she's immensely talented and a visionary. However, a quality that often goes overlooked in this world, is that of character. 

In the picture above, you'll see Reese, an artistic skateboard rendition, and what is blurred out behind her is one of the nation's finest tennis training facilities that is the culmination of a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and money. A lot of money. The Chewing Tennis Center and the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is state of the art, no question, and it's not available to everybody. Reese, her teammates, and their male counterparts and a select few others get it. They have earned it and they deserve it. As a young athlete myself, it was instilled into me that I had to work to earn new equipment and privileges. And I think that is the right way. 

What I was not deprived of was the opportunity to play and facilities in which to play. Reese has it on her heart to help her hometown community in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Tennis is not a cheap sport. But the barrier to entry in the sport should not be lack of a local facility, that the next Reese Brantmeier could have at their disposal. A good, safe, quality facility where skills and a love of the game can be developed, so they can ultimately earn the luxuries Reese has today. This empathy may be Reese's most valuable talent. She is a greater than 1% tennis player and an even better hearted person...and oh yeah, if we haven't mentioned it, she's a pretty good artist too. 

All of the The Reese Brantmeier Project  details can be found here. To date, Reese and her supporters have raised over $100,000, which is incredible, but they are only halfway there. One skateboard, one drawing, and one heartfelt generous donation at a time can pave the way for the next Reese Brantmeier from Whitewater, Wisconsin.