Q & Ace with Omar Aly

April 18, 2012

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – They are stories of perseverance. Stories about growing up, becoming men and being a part of a family. One-by-one, we hear from them. These are the Miami Hurricanes…
 

Omar Aly | Sophomore | Edmond, Okla.
 

I got into tennis when my family moved to where we currently live now in Oklahoma, and my parents were looking for an activity the whole family could do. They found tennis, and that’s how I started.

I was living up in Boca training in an academy there for two years. I love Florida and being down here. Coach Rincon approached me at a tournament and asked if I would be interested in coming here. So I visited and said yes.

In 10 years, hopefully I’ll be playing on the tour. That would be  nice, if I’m still able to do that. It’s my dream job.

Coach Rincon is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, very positive, and he knows tennis. He’s helped me so much since I’ve been here.

After a stressful day of training I like to take an ice bath. It’s not relaxing, but right after it is because it takes all the lactic acid out of your muscles. I also like to go eat Chipotle.

I taught Diego how to speak English. Basically he showed up here a year and a half ago, and he only knew how to say hello and how are you. I was showing him around all the time, and eventually he started picking up on the English because I didn’t speak any Spanish. I tried to take it as easy as possible and had a translator on the phone just in case. I hung out with him so much that all he heard was English and he had to learn it somehow.

I love eating horrible food that I really shouldn’t eat. Like KFC; I would eat that all day if I could! I don’t eat it before a match though. I like to eat Panera before a match, either tuna or a lot of pasta the night before.

Everyone here thinks I’m Spanish, but I’m not Spanish at all. My mom’s from Massachusetts and my dad is from Egypt.

I know that everybody on the team loves to bother me. They do it all the time, it makes them laugh. You don’t want to know what they do to me! They love to hug me because they know I hate it. It kills me.

My team is fun. I love being on the team this year because everyone gets along. We’re like one big happy family.

My pet peeve is when there’s water on my bathroom floor. I hate walking on water, so when somebody leaves the shower and gets water everywhere it really creeps me out.

Tennis has helped me travel around the country. I wouldn’t have left Oklahoma nearly as much without it. And I wouldn’t have come here, that’s for sure.

Oklahoma is a lot different from Florida. The culture is completely different, too. There is much more of a Latin influence here. There are also a lot of people from up north, especially the New York area. It’s a much more fast-paced lifestyle here. The thing I miss the most about home is my family, but other than that I’ve been here for four years and I love it.

If I could have one superpower it would be invincibility…in everything.

If I could be any cartoon character, it would be Wylie Coyote. Every scene in that show made me laugh because he ended up getting crushed by a boulder of something exploded in his face, but he always made it! It kind of goes along with the invincibility thing.

If I was trapped on a desert island and could only eat one food for the rest of my life, it would be sushi. They have good sushi here, but definitely not in Oklahoma. They have a lot of fried food in Oklahoma.

To me the U is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.