From an early age, becoming an athlete was never in doubt for senior Micah Braswell and sophomore Jonah Braswell.
With their father, Ty Braswell, being a full-time coach and former Florida State University tennis player, the brothers were always surrounded by sports. Although it wasn’t forced, the two brothers picked up tennis as their top sport.
“Because I teach (tennis), they were around it from when they were (younger),” Ty said. ”So they always had a racquet in their hand.”
Growing up, the two had great potential, but they each had to navigate through individual challenges.
For Micah, it was a struggle with his mentality.
“Sometimes I would tend to get a little withdrawn and internal and not show enough energy,” he said. “To avoid that, I have tried to focus on embracing and enjoying a lot of the challenges that I face on court.”
However, Micah’s father praises him for his resilience when he suffered a stress fracture in his back at 13, causing him to miss a year and a half of tennis.
“That was where he showed me that he had something special,” Ty said. “When he came back and was able to finally get back to feeling strong again.”
Jonah, however, grew into his athleticism.
“He had to work harder on some of the things that maybe didn’t come as natural … like just being an overall athlete,” Ty said. “But mentally, even from seven or eight years old, he wanted to win so bad, but if he lost he could be over it in five minutes.”
Because of his toughness, Jonah displayed flashes of greatness very early on.
“I took Jonah to the ‘Little Mo’ Nationals when he was nine and he won,” Ty said. “And he did it on pure toughness and fate, so I knew after that he was going to be good.”
Contrary to the average brotherly relationship, there wasn’t and still isn’t any real sibling rivalry between Micah and Jonah.
“We never really get into fights or anything,” Micah said. “We have a very healthy mix of pushing each other … and then also having respect for each other.”
Before joining Texas this year, Jonah played for the University of Florida. However, when Florida Head Coach Bryan Shelton stepped down in June 2023, Jonah had to reevaluate his options. Upon hearing this news, his brother didn’t hesitate to persuade him.
“He was like, ‘Come on, man, it’s my senior year. We’ve got a championship team. You’ve gotta come play with us,’” Ty said, imitating Micah.
While Ty knows that transferring is difficult on any athlete, the ability to play with Micah at Texas made the decision much easier.
“It was a really hard decision for him, but I think what it came down to was that he had one more opportunity to play with his brother,” Ty said.
Ultimately, to ensure his sons’ success, Ty worked to stay even-keeled and encouraging over the years.
“You try to pick out things that they did really well,” Ty said. “Even on those days where maybe they didn’t play so great, try to start with that and then the things that we can improve on.”
Using the valuable guidance, Micah is now one of the top players in all of men’s tennis as the No. 2 ITA ranked player, and Jonah may also become one of the next faces of Texas tennis.
