Evan King hasn't missed much. Well, he skipped kindergarten, but the 16-year-old senior from Chicago is now surveying his college options with confidence, having found he could excel at tennis without abandoning the lifestyle of a typical teenager.

Recruiting Profile

Top Prospect: Evan King

"Evan's always gone about it in the same way - he takes little steps, he never skips any levels," says David Roditi, a USTA High Performance coach who has worked with King for several years. "He keeps working on his game, keeps playing his age group, then he'll go up a little bit, then come down and play his age group. If you look at his development the last three, four years it's always been little steps at a time. When deciding whether he should go to college it was - what's the next level? The next level is to go to college."

King has a short list that is heavy on the schools that dominate Midwest collegiate athletics.

"Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan and Georgia are the big ones," says King, who will try to fit in official visits to these campuses between the U. S. Open Junior championships, September's ITF Junior Davis Cup competition in Mexico and the major fall ITF junior events.

"The California schools really haven't recruited me that much and I probably didn't want to go over there anyway," says the 6-foot-1 left-hander. "I really don't care about warm weather, since I'm from the Midwest. I'm used to indoor tennis, but since I've been in Florida, I'm used to the great winters down there."

After winning the Illinois state high school singles title in 2007 for Walter Payton Prep, a Chicago public school, King and his parents Van and Evelyn decided the new USTA High Performance Training Center in Boca Raton was the best option for continuing his development.

Living in the dormitory and training regularly with USTA coaches and other high profile juniors since his arrival last October, King kept up with his studies via Laurel Springs distance learning program. He has enjoyed a steady climb up the ITF Junior World rankings, where he's now 114th, and he recently won the USTA 18s Clay Courts, which includes a wild card into the ATP Delray Beach International's main draw next February.

But it's not just his tennis and academic achievements that have brought King acclaim. A recent winner of the coveted USTA Talbert Sportsmanship Award for juniors, King traveled to Newport, R.I. for the presentation, held in conjunction with International Tennis Hall of Fame tournament and induction. Earlier this month in Kalamazoo, King received the Bobby Kaplan Sportsmanship Award, the tournament's top honor for 16s competitors.

"His parents and grandparents have always shown him that there's more to tennis than just winning matches and being competitive," says Roditi. "He's been able to balance being a really tough competitor but doing it with integrity and dignity and having respect for himself, for his opponent and for the people watching the matches and the umpires."

It was his father Van who "gave me my foundation," says King, who has been playing since age 3. "Then I went to a lot of coaches in Chicago - Roger Mitten, Richie Gray, Mark Bey. Mark's helped a whole lot - he was really big at Clays and everyone down at Boca's been collectively really good."

Selecting his next set of coaches is an important part of his upcoming choice, which King hopes to have finalized by November.

"Getting along with the coach, knowing that you're going to be there for four years most likely, knowing that it's the right coach for you," is critical, according to King. "I want to be on a team that does well as a team, get along with your teammates. Say if I go to the Big Ten, have a run at the Big Ten title, have all that fun of enjoying being able to compete for something big."

King's academic interests gravitate toward math and science, but his engaging blog from the Junior Davis Cup qualifying in Montreal this spring for usta.com did give him an opportunity to display his creative side.

"Yeah, that was fun," King says. "I'm good at writing when I'm interested in it. A book report on a book I have no interest in, I'm not good at that. But if I'm into it, having fun, enjoying myself, I can write some good stuff."

When not studying, practicing or competing, King has no trouble filling his time.

"I just like to relax, go out, maybe play pool, watch a movie," says King, who names Rush Hour 2 as one of his favorite films. "I like playing other sports - basketball, especially."

King mentions a big football game as likely during his official visits, but he also wants to shadow a player around campus, go to classes and see the whole environment.

"You're spending a nice portion of your life there and you can't have it back," he says. But although the decision is an important one, King believes he'll know when he's found the right school.

"All these coaches at these programs are great, but if it just feels that right, I think I'll just stop and commit."