ItâÂÂll be official sometime in the next two weeks, but consider Caitlin Collins a Tar Heel.

She does.

Collins, a Lawrence student, orally committed to the University of North Carolina tennis program in late September and will sign her official letter-of-intent in early November. One of the top tennis players in the area, Collins has been home-schooled the past two years so she could focus on playing tennis.

The pay off comes when she plays for the No. 5-ranked Tar Heels next year.

She was recruited by tennis powers Texas, Florida, Arizona State, Wake Forest and Vanderbilt, but was sold by the UNC coach, Jennifer Callen, and her players.

âÂÂI love the coach. SheâÂÂs really great,â Collins said. âÂÂAnd girls on the team are probably the nicest girls IâÂÂve ever met. ItâÂÂs great.âÂÂ

Collins, who attended Seabury Academy two years ago, originally thought about just playing tennis after completing her high school requirements this year, but the visit to the UNC campus in Chapel Hill, N.C., was too good to pass up.

âÂÂI was going to go. It was just a matter of when,â she said.

ItâÂÂll be tough for her parents, Bryan and Karen, to watch most of her matches Ãi¿½” UNC rarely travels out of the South to play Ãi¿½” but they knew that for Caitlin to hit the big time, moving far away would be part of the deal.

âÂÂWell, we knew if she was going to school it would be far away,â Karen said. âÂÂItâÂÂll be tough.âÂÂ

Though she was ranked as high as No. 2 in the United States Tennis Assn. junior standings as a 16-year-old, Collins has spent the last year playing in USTA satellite tournaments. In other words, she dropped the junior tournaments to start accumulating points so she could someday be ranked among the WomenâÂÂs Tennis Assn. players.

Collins started playing seriously when she was 12, spurred on by her older brother, Matt, now a student at Kansas State. As she developed, she became proficient with her groundstrokes and setting up opponents to her strengths, like her tennis idol, Steffi Graf.

âÂÂGrowing up, IâÂÂd try to match my game as much as possible,â she said. âÂÂI aspired to be that. I think college will help with that.âÂÂ

SheâÂÂs not too worried about jumping back into attending classes and the hubbub associated with school. If thereâÂÂs anything the last two years of independent study taught her was how to balance her time.

Or, at least some of it.

âÂÂAt times, IâÂÂm not good at that, and thatâÂÂs where the parents come in,â she said. âÂÂI think itâÂÂll tough at first, but IâÂÂm looking forward to it. Actually, I think IâÂÂll really like it.âÂÂ