Shawn Hiatt

(From: "Aztecs Players Accepted Gay Hiatt," by Patrick Finley, San Diego Union-Tribune, September 1, 2003)

Shawn Hiatt strolled through the San Diego State campus with tennis coach John Nelson in the spring of 1999 and said he wanted to walk onto the team.

But first he had to tell Nelson his secret, the one that chased him from one college and cost him a scholarship at another. Hiatt told Nelson he was gay. "I didn't want to experience what I had before, hiding who I was," Hiatt said. "You get to the point where you're so sick of hiding it." Nelson took a deep breath. He told Hiatt he believed the Bible said homosexuality was wrong.

"But it also says that everybody sins," Nelson said, "and I didn't judge him."

For Hiatt, it was endorsement enough. When you've been run out of two schools because of your sexuality, acceptance comes in small doses. The next challenge was telling Hiatt's teammates, and Nelson offered Hiatt his full support.

"He said that if any of the guys had a problem with it to let him know," Hiatt said. "He wasn't going to take that. He was very clear about it."

Hiatt had been rejected before.

After playing one year at Brigham Young University on a tennis scholarship, Hiatt was on a two-year Mormon mission when he first told another person - a mission leader - that he was gay. The church placed him in "reparative therapy."

"If I had a sexual thought, I tried to pray it away," Hiatt said. "I sacrificed my tennis for two years for that."

When Hiatt returned to school, he was told not to shower with the team; he changed in a closet his teammates called "The Cave." But that summer, he wandered into a gay bar in Laguna Beach after winning an amateur tournament. The experience confirmed what he already knew - he was a gay man and wasn't going to change.

Forced to leave BYU, Hiatt eventually moved to San Diego, where he started to play tournaments again and impressed Point Loma Nazarene University coach Rich Hills.

"I felt this kid would have been a good fit here," Hills said. That changed when Hiatt told Hills he was gay and sexually active. Hills told Hiatt that PLNU forbids premarital sex, gay or straight. In addition, Hiatt's homosexuality could have put the tennis program under a microscope.

"If you're wearing a Point Loma tennis T-shirt and you're walking in the park hand-in-hand with your boyfriend, there would definitely be more repercussions," Hills said. "I thought he'd be more comfortable elsewhere." That place was SDSU.

Hiatt gradually told his new teammates one-by-one. Some had suspected as much, and while most players accepted Hiatt quickly, a few voiced their displeasure when Hiatt was out of earshot.

"They were refusing to be on the same bus, share a room or even practice with him at first," said former teammate Alex Waske, now on the professional tour. "I don't think they really confronted him personally, but for sure there were talks."

Top players came to Hiatt's defense. "I told them that if they would bother him, they'd be in trouble with me," Waske said.

"It took me an hour," said teammate Adam Webster, who had known Hiatt since childhood. "The other guys, it took less than a week.

"It was like, 'OK, he's gay. Fine.' He was just one of the guys; he just didn't look at girls."

After playing three matches his junior year, Hiatt played the No. 4 slot his senior year and went 15-15.

"I just focused on my tennis," Hiatt said. "That's the highest I've been in my life. It really made it worth it."

Two years later, Hiatt is comfortable with life outside of tennis. He graduated in 2002 and became the manager of Powerhouse Gym in Hillcrest. This month, he will play in the gay Cal Cup tennis tournament. It all started with acceptance at SDSU.

"It domino-effected my whole life," Hiatt said. "I'm happier, and people around me are more respecting of it."