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Recent Miami Palmetto High School graduate Sebastian Muñoz has already moved to St. Louis University in Missouri to get ready for the start of class and tennis practice. Muñoz was recruited to play for the Division I university. He plans to study Computer Engineering.
At Palmetto, Muñoz was not only strong academically – he won the Vice-President’s Academic Scholars for his academic achievements – he was the top seed on the tennis team. He was also the state runner-up in singles at the State Championships and the Palmetto team was state runner-up.
Sebastian was named Miami Herald’s All Miami-Dade in singles and All Miami-Dade in doubles along with his brother Alessandro, now a senior at Palmetto.
“My freshman year we had a really good team,” he says. “I went to states with them. That year we won states.”
He doesn’t call himself a state champion because he didn’t play that event, but he was happy to be a team member. Then COVID lockdowns hit and even when the lockdowns were lifted, athletics were affected.
“The only year that I really played was my senior year and we did really well,” he says.
However, he was able to play USTA tournaments. He worked his way up to the top 20 in Florida. For junior players (under 18) USTA tournaments matter.
“That’s how you get into bigger tournaments, nationals and state tournaments,” he says.
After 18, he played in International Tennis Association events.
“It’s a college thing, that’s how they rank the teams in college,” he says.
Muñoz credits the two years he spent with Eduardo Santana, a Spanish coach, with helping him get to such a high level.
He had started out at Jane Forman Tennis Academy, then the Royal Palm Tennis Club and then he met Santana when he was 12. He would have stayed with Santana, but Santana’s visa expired so he had to go back to Spain.
“Those two years with that coach were very tough, he pushed very hard,” Muñoz says.
“They were the two best years of my life in training.”
Muñoz and his brother did not participate in tournaments during that period.
“When I was 14, I played my first tournament; I got second place,” he says. “Now I’m with this Australian coach, Mark Chellas at Alper JCC. The Spanish coach, he will always be like family. Whenever he is here, I will be training with him.”
At St. Louis, he expects to play singles as the 4, 5 or 6 seed and participate on one of the three doubles teams.
After college, his dream is to go to Spain to link up with his old coach.
“He’s kind of like family now,” he says.
Muñoz wants to train for a good amount of time and then play pro-level tournaments.
“I’ll try for a year and see if it works out and if not, I’ll go back to my degree,” he says.
For community service, Muñoz volunteered as a summer camp counselor at the Alexander Montessori School. He was also a counselor at the summer camps at the Deering Estate.
He’d go almost every week after morning practice.
“I would alternate weeks with Deering and Montessori,” he says. “My junior year I did a few weeks at Deering. We did canoeing. We’d go to the little island.”
He also participated in numerous beach clean-ups in Coconut Grove.
After his junior year, he cut back on his volunteering so he could concentrate on tennis.
He won a scholarship from the Pinecrest Rotary Club for an essay called “Service Above Self.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
