Visualizing a Dream Threatened By Loss of Eyesight
By Doug Link
Growing up in Jamaica, John Chin dreamed of representing his country and competing in top international tennis competitions. He saw his dream of representing Jamaica internationally come true at the Davis Cup. His dream also opened up a new opportunity. It led him to the United States to play college tennis. However, little did Chin know that life would throw an unexpected curveball his way when he was in danger of losing his eyesight during the first year with the Broncos.
Growing Up In Jamaica
As a boy, Chin grew up in the small town of Mandeville, Jamaica, situated near the center of the island nation, away from the beach and the ocean. As a child, he loved being outdoors, riding bikes, and playing tennis, golf, and soccer.
However, of all the sports he enjoyed for fun, Chin eventually chose tennis to focus on, a sport in which his interest began early in life.
However, of all the sports he enjoyed for fun, Chin chose tennis to focus on, a sport in which his interest began early in life.
"I started playing when I was about four," Chin said. "My sister, Jolie, was playing tennis, so I started watching her and saw the fun she had playing; that is when I decided I wanted to play as well."
Besides following in his sister's footsteps, there are other reasons that he likes the sport.
"I just felt like I enjoyed tennis the most. I liked the individual aspect of it when I was younger. Today, I like the hard work it takes to be a good player. I also watched a lot of tennis growing up; players like Rafael Nadal inspired me. I wanted to be like him and other pros on the circuit."
His father, Joey – a hardware store owner – and his mother, Camille – a homemaker – encouraged him to play sports and supported his interest in tennis. They remain involved to this day.
As he progressed through the youth ranks, Chin began competing in junior national and international tournaments, and ended up earning the No. 1 junior ranking in Jamaica. He also achieved a career-high International Tennis Federation (ITF) ranking of 211. His travels have taken him to competitions across the Western Hemisphere, spanning South, Central, North America, and the Caribbean.
A Dream Come True, The Davis Cup
As a young teenager (12-15), Chin was invited to the Jamaica Junior Davis Cup Team, where he competed for a couple of years. Then, at 16, he joined Jamaica's Davis Cup Team, where he has competed for the last five years.
"I always wanted to play for Jamaica in the Davis Cup. When I was young, I played in lower-level team tournaments for Jamaica. I always wanted to work my way up to the Davis Cup Team. When I was young and before I joined the team, I had the opportunity to watch some of the team's training sessions for the Davis Cup. It was really cool."
The Davis Cup is a men’s international team tennis competition where national teams compete for the world championship.
Chin has represented Jamaica in various levels of Davis Cup play for approximately eight years, serving on the Junior Davis Cup Team for three years and the Davis Cup squad for five years. He last played in the tournament in February, when Jamaica hosted New Zealand, which unfortunately ended in a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Kiwis. But the experience, like the previous ones, was memorable for him.
"I went home in February after we (Boise State) played UVA (Virginia) and VCU (Virginia Commonwealth). I am proud to play for Jamaica, but it's always special when it's in Jamaica – it's a special feeling. I had a lot of friends come out to watch, and there were nearly 2,000 people there. It was super fun."
A New Opportunity, College Tennis
Once Chin started competing and succeeding internationally, another opportunity opened for him. College coaches from the United States began to notice him and started to reach out, presenting Chin with a new opportunity.
"At first, I wasn't really sure about college tennis. Then, coaches started reaching out to me, so I looked into it more and did a lot of research. I became interested in it after that.
"I saw that a lot of college players were having success on the pro tour. I believe 20 or more players in the top 100 played college tennis. That's what inspired me. I was also able to attend the 2019 (NCAA) National Championships in Orlando. The players were super intense, and it was really fun to watch."
Chin ultimately chose to come to the United States and selected Middle Tennessee as his destination. He experienced success with the Blue Raiders during the 2021-22 season, collecting a combined 20 wins that season. The freshman went 14-6 in singles and finished the spring dual season 8-0. He spent one season at MTSU before transferring to Boise State.
Once he decided to leave Middle Tennessee, he entered the transfer portal and began researching a new school to attend and play for. Among the coaches interested in him was Boise State's head coach Luke Shields, who had just taken over the Bronco program.
"I thought John stood out the most when we brought him on campus," said coach Shields. "He was focused, engaged, and excited about this opportunity. I was really impressed with his parents. Both his parents did an unbelievable job of raising him. They were engaged the right amount on the visit and asked the right questions. But it was while he was walking around campus that I noticed him envisioning what he wanted to get done here. I think it starts with that, he came in with a purpose and knew he could make a difference."
"I was interested in Boise State as soon as coach Shields reached out," said Chin. "I had heard about him and Clancy (Luke's brother, the head coach at Arizona).
They were big names in college tennis. So, I decided to visit Boise State. I really liked the city and how close everything was, as well as the good facilities they had. I also liked the conversations I had with the coaches and team."
He first heard of Boise State when he started researching college tennis online. Chin was looking for more than just tennis; he wanted to know more about the school and what else it offered.
"I was researching college tennis and other sports that schools offered, and I saw that Boise State had blue turf; I thought it was interesting. So, I watched some football games, it was cool. I also noticed the history of Boise State tennis and how good the program had been. Now we're getting it back, and it's amazing."
Chin accepted the offer to join the Broncos and transferred to Boise State during the summer of 2022. It was during the following spring, in the middle of the 2023 team season, that his life would take an unexpected turn.
A Curveball, Chin's Eyesight is Threatened
On April 8, 2023, during the first match of a home doubleheader against Air Force and Eastern Washington, Chin noticed something was wrong with his vision.
"It was during our alumni and senior day match against Air Force that I started to notice. I was playing singles when my vision started to get blurry. It was like I could see, but it was tough. But then, the next morning, I woke up, and everything was in a cloud, and I couldn't really see anything. It was scary."
Following the Air Force match, Chin had reached out to Andrew Gong – the team's athletic trainer at the time – and told him about what he was experiencing.
"He came to me after the Air Force match in 2023; his eyes were red and he had blurry vision," said Gong. "Initially, I thought it might be an allergic reaction of some sort. But nothing seemed to help, so we ended up going to the emergency room. The ER doctors could not figure it out either. They thought it might be pink eye, but it wasn't itchy. Eventually, they told us to follow up with an ophthalmologist. That is when we were told it was uveitis."
According to a web search, uveitis is a form of eye inflammation. It affects the middle layer of tissue in the eye wall (uvea). Uveitis (u-vee-I-tis) warning signs often come on suddenly and get worse quickly. Symptoms include redness, pain, light sensitivity, blurred vision, and dark floating spots in the field of vision.
The ophthalmologist in Boise said it was uveitis, but he had never seen it before and was not qualified to treat it. The doctor suggested that Chin see an eye specialist who had experience with the illness, but the closest was in Salt Lake City.
By this time, Chin's parents, Joey and Camille, had arrived in Boise from Jamaica. After consultation, his parents decided to take him to the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, Florida. It is one of the country's top eye institutes, and the Chins had family in the area for additional support. In Miami, the Chins found out the severity of the disease.
"They told us that it's a rare disease and that I had the worst version of it. They also said they had never seen anything like it, especially in both eyes. They didn't know what had caused it (which is not uncommon for this disease) and that they had never seen it in someone my age who had it this bad. It was scary because they told me that if I had come a day or two later, I probably would have gone blind."
The doctors put him on a series of medications, which kept Chin in Miami for a couple of weeks while recovering and gaining his eyesight back.
"They initially put me on a high dose of steroids, which helped. But you can't be on the steroids for too long. So, they put me on another medication called methotrexate. It is like the medicine they use in chemotherapy. I am still on it and will be for two more years; they want to make sure I am healed and stable before taking me off of it."
The Return of John Chin
While he was gone, Boise State lost three straight matches heading into the 2023 Mountain West Championship tournament at Las Vegas.
Seeing his team struggling, Chin asked his doctor in Miami if he could go to Las Vegas and play in the tournament. The doctor cleared him with conditions. So, he flew directly from Miami to Las Vegas to meet the team for the tournament.
"I asked the doctor if I could go to Vegas to help the team. We had lost to New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah State back-to-back-to-back. I wanted to help the team in Las Vegas. She said I could go as long as I kept taking the medication."
The coaches and team knew that something was missing from the program while Chin was gone. The team struggled to finish matches and was on a downturn heading into the conference tournament.
"When we didn't have John, we were missing something," said coach Shields. "It was like his absence was felt by everyone. I remember when he got off the plane and got back together with the team in Las Vegas; it was like our team was back. That's really how it's been throughout his career. He's the glue guy. He's the guy that brings us together."
Boise State won the MW Championship in 2023 - the first of two straight - with Chin playing singles. But it was not easy for Chin, who went 1-2 at No. 5 singles. He had to wear sunglasses while playing in daylight. Then he struggled to see when the sun went down because the facility lights irritated his eyes.
That year at the MW Championship, the matches started late afternoon. By the time they finished, the sun had gone down, and the court lights came on. During the first two contests, Chin battled toe-to-toe with his opponents until the third set, when the sun went down. He ended up losing 6-1 in the third each night. He recorded his lone victory in the championship match, winning in two sets and getting off the court before the lights came on, helping the Broncos defeat Utah State 4-2 for the title.
"It was interesting watching him play," Shields said. "He had to wear sunglasses during the day, and he really struggled at night with the bright lights. We were in Vegas for the Mountain West tournament that first year when our matches started at 5 p.m. all three days. He was in charge of his matches before the lights turned on, and then he struggled to adjust.
"But he battled through that in the finals and won in two sets. Even though he was probably seeing four tennis balls at once, he still found a way to get the job done. But even though he didn't perform in a couple of those matches, our team knew he was there fighting. It really helped the others; his presence made them better."
The Present
The current senior struggled with the symptoms for a while and has been dealing with them for the last two years. His eyesight has nearly returned to 100 percent. But he will continue with the medicine as long as the doctors suggest it.
As far as his tennis career has progressed, the Bronco from Jamaica has played a significant role in the team's success over the last three years, which includes the team winning back-to-back Mountain West (MW) tournament titles in 2023 and 2024, capturing the 2024 MW regular season championship, and advancing to the NCAA National tournament twice.
Entering this weekend's MW opener against Utah State on Friday at the Appleton Tennis Center on campus, Chin has combined for 64 wins as a Bronco and has a 44-32 singles record. As a senior, he has won 12 singles matches this year, with a 9-4 mark this spring, including a team-best active six-match wins streak in singles. The senior has a collegiate career total of 58 singles victories and 84 wins combined between singles and doubles in four years, spanning Middle Tennessee and Boise State.
College life for Chin is coming to an end soon. He is on track to graduate this May with a degree in interdisciplinary studies. But what are his plans after college?
"I'll go pro. I already have pro points right now, so I'm going to make the most of them. While playing tennis, I will try to keep making connections as much as possible. I plan to go back to Jamaica for a bit and will probably be based out of Jamaica while playing. After tennis, maybe I'll come back here to Boise. There are a lot of opportunities in Boise, and I love it here."