Heo, an 18-year-old senior at Marianas High School, is the best tennis player in the CNMI. In fact, he is the only tennis player from the CNMI to even have a rank in the International Tennis Federation. He is currently ranked 645th in the world in his age group, and plans to compete in even more tournaments around the Pacific in order to boost his ranking. Heo’s tennis career has sparked the interest of many Division 1 and 2 colleges in the states. He says that he has been offered full scholarships to many top tier universities and is currently in the process of choosing which university to attend.
It would be understandable for one to assume that Heo’s life revolves around doing nothing but practicing tennis.
But that isn’t the case. Heo is an active member of his high school’s National Honor Society and the MHS Video Productions club. Heo, on weekends, can be seen frequently performing various community services around the island with his fellow NHS members. He is also the designated “ringside cameraman” for MMA competitions that the MHS Video Productions club film. In the next MMA fight, if you see a tall and heavily tanned Asian shouldering a camera and walking into the fighting ring, yeah, that is Ji Hoon Heo. To top off Ji Hoon’s commitments to his school clubs, he also has a deep passion for photography.
“If I get a hobby,” Heo says, “I have to do it until the end. I never stop.”
It is a wonder that Ji Hoon finds the time to do what he does. “I have really good time management skills, and I am very driven,” Heo says. “I do all my work in advance because I can’t afford to get behind in anything. For other teenagers out there, I suggest the same thing, you know, because not everyone has all these time consuming activities that I have.”
Heo is leaving on Friday to compete in a tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia.
