Siblings Norah and Nicholas Balthazor started playing tennis around 10 years old. Photo by Bayleigh Cottrell.
DOROTHY LAKSHMANAMURTHY | STAFF REPORTER | dlakshmanamurthy@butler.edu
Headed home to DePere, Wisconsin for Thanksgiving break, sophomore tennis player Nicholas Balthazor and senior tennis player Norah Balthazor look forward to taking time away from academics. However, the siblings recognize that their exposure to tennis will only grow stronger in the Balthazor household.
During the holiday break, Norah and Nicholas will reunite with Nathan Balthazor — their oldest brother and Marquette tennis player — and Nolan Balthazor — their youngest brother and a Notre Dame tennis commit.
With a house full of tennis players, Norah expects the Thanksgiving table to be filled with discussions about the sport.
“There’s not much more for us to talk about besides tennis,” Norah said. “Tennis is the one thing that all of our lives revolve around, so it is always the main topic for our family.”
Their mom, Jennifer Balthazor, played league tennis for three years but stopped after she became pregnant with Nathan. As the siblings grew up, they experimented with a variety of sports but shifted their focus to swimming and soccer.
When Jennifer became friends with the owner of a local tennis club, Norah found that tennis gradually became the top priority for the siblings.
“Our mom signed us up for tennis lessons after that,” Norah said. “She was a fan of tennis because it was a non-contact sport but at this point, we were still playing three sports — tennis, soccer and swimming. It was too much. So she asked us to choose one sport, and we all just happened to consolidate in our decision of tennis.”
This decision was one that the Balthazors dedicated a vast amount of time to, as their weekends were spent traveling around the Midwest in an RV to United States Tennis Association (USTA) tournaments. The siblings missed several days of school for tennis, prompting teachers to tell them that they would not be able to graduate.
However, this pushed them to make an extra effort to maintain good academic standings and prove they could excel in both academics and tennis — something men’s tennis coach Sam Miles observes in Norah and Nicholas’ college career.
“College tennis is obviously very demanding,” Miles said. “But the family is used to being around the sport all the time, while still balancing other aspects of their life. Norah was much more academically focused sooner, but I think that Nicholas looked up to her in some ways, and he has definitely strengthened up on the academic end. They both have proven to be very efficient in the classroom.”
Outside of tennis tournaments and practices, the siblings spent most of their childhood playing singles or doubles with each other at home. They also dedicated a lot of time on the courts with their hometown coach Dural Morris — who they view as an uncle.
Once his siblings started going off to college, Nicholas made sure to cherish these childhood tennis moments with his younger brother Nolan.
“Nolan had no one else to play with after Nathan and Norah left for college,” Nicholas said. “So I made sure to spend a lot of time with him before I left, training and playing with him every day. Tennis is one of the main ways all of us bond and we have become better players by pushing one another.”
As the first Balthazor to arrive at Butler, Norah was enticed by the university’s smaller environment that reminded her of her hometown. When she played and won her first tournament representing the Bulldogs, women’s tennis coach Cassie Shultz recalls the leading presence Norah immediately brought forth on the court.
“After winning, Norah was the one to yell out ‘set on four,’” Shultz said. “She was the most vocally present on the court and her energy made an impression on the team right away. We were like, ‘Our freshman is our leader.’”
As for Nicholas, he claims he was interested in Butler before Norah, as he was impressed with the campus after playing an Intercollegiate Tennis Association tournament on campus in 2019.
Despite this, Nicholas was not initially on Miles’ radar when recruiting players for the 2023-24 season at Kalamazoo’s USTA National Championship.
“I was actually watching the guy that Nicholas was playing against,” Miles said. “To be honest, I do not remember who won the match, but what I do remember is how high-level that match was. When I was watching the way Nicholas played, it was obvious that he had all the tools that I was looking for.”
Similar to his sister, Nicholas made a strong impression as a first-year — playing in over half of the scheduled matches for his first season.
“I exceeded my expectations by playing a lot my first year,” Nicholas said. “I genuinely thought I was not going to play that much, but I am grateful for the playing time I got. Especially that first year, my coach really helped me get my head on straight to maintain a good mindset and have a good transition into the college level.”
Reflecting on their journey to pursuing Division I tennis, Norah and Nicholas express that it has not always been easy. With tennis being a highly individualized sport — with an exception to occasional doubles matches — the siblings have endured the mental battle that the sport can invoke.
To combat this mental toll, Norah explained that she has now reclaimed the sport she loves as a mental and physical outlet, a way to be more connected to herself and as a lasting connection to her family.
“It gives me a break from everything else,” Norah said. “Tennis can be heavy on your mind because it is more of an individual sport — you are alone out there on the court — but I have turned that into a way to be a source of introspection. When I get on the court, I am not thinking about homework, an ex or my car getting smashed. All I am thinking about is the match at hand and the love I have developed for this sport.”
