Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Forged by FAU - Ann Marie Tabano-Christe
3/15/2021 3:00:00 PM | General, Women's Tennis
The best opportunity is right there in their backyard at FAU.
Tennis shaped Ann Marie Tabano-Chiste’s life, but her passion for the sport didn’t originate internally. It originated from friendship.
In elementary school, Tabano-Chiste and her “tennis-court friends” played all day long every weekend, creating a ritual they continued through high school.
“It was just the coolest thing because it really kept us out of trouble and it created this bond of friends,” said Tabano-Chiste, a Palm Beach County native, “and that’s really where my passion for tennis began.”
Tabano-Chiste’s talent quickly matched her passion. By her senior year, she was one of Atlantic High’s top players, a progression she credits to hard work.
Upon college searching, though, it looked as if Tabano-Chiste’s tennis career was over. She earned an acceptance letter from Florida State and was “definitely prepared to make that trek” from Delray Beach to Tallahassee.
Then FAU came onto Tabano-Chiste’s radar. The university offered her a spot in its Faculty Scholars Program, allowing her to fast-track her first two years of college – as long as she passed the requisite CLEP tests – to become, in her case, an 18-year-old junior in 1981.
“It honestly was a great experience, but it was harder, too,” said Tabano-Chiste, a first-generation college student. “Because here I am, 18 years old, just getting out of high school, and then all of a sudden, I find myself not only a junior in college, but also in the thick of the accounting program. So, I really didn’t have an opportunity to ramp up and get familiar with what college was like. I was like bam, right in the middle of the heavy-duty classes that I needed for my [accounting] degree.”
Tabano-Chiste’s heavy-duty workload wasn’t solely academic: FAU’s tennis program offered her a scholarship her first year on campus and she happily accepted. So, at only 18 years old, Tabano-Chiste began to balance college athletics with an upperclassmen’s course schedule.
Despite her relative youth, Tabano-Chiste excelled on and off the court. Academically, she earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting and began working toward her master’s. And in Tabano-Chiste’s final year of college tennis, 1983, she and her partner, Carol Stoller, became the state’s No. 1 doubles pair.
Tabano-Chiste and Stoller also made history by advancing to the 1983 NCAA Division II National Championships in Pomona, California, a program first.
“Our coach wasn’t sure we’d be a great doubles team, but we [were],” Tabano-Chiste said. “We knew we had that chemistry you needed, and he gave us a shot, and of course he never regretted it because, like I said, we made it to the National Championship tournament.”
“Together, we were quite the pair,” she added.
After the 1983 season, Tabano-Chiste decided to leave FAU and forgo her final year of eligibility to join the workforce. She was only a few credits away from a master’s degree in accounting.
Tabano-Chiste’s first professional opportunity, coincidentally, came through her FAU student-athlete experience. She and the team were offering tours of the newly-opened FAU Arena to local businesspeople, and while doing so she met a managing partner at a Boca Raton CPA firm.
The managing partner and Tabano-Chiste spoke about the latter’s accounting education and her career plans, a conversation leading to much more.
“The interview led to an internship, the internship led to a permanent job, the job led to the beginning of my professional career,” Tabano-Chiste said. “Again, a great opportunity because of being at FAU and being in the tennis program.”
In 1988, FAU came back into Tabano-Chiste’s life. An FAU employee called Tabano-Chiste to gauge her interest in returning since she was close to earning her master’s. Tabano-Chiste did so, taking night classes until graduating in 1989.
Tabano-Chiste didn’t walk at her bachelor’s graduation ceremony, but she didn’t miss the opportunity for her master’s. She changed course, however, for a reason greater than herself: her father was diagnosed with cancer.
“I wanted him to see me graduate with my master’s degree,” Tabano-Chiste said, “just to make him proud.”
In March 1990, three months after the ceremony, Tabano-Chiste’s father passed away.
Tabano-Chiste now works for St. John Paul II Academy, a private college-preparatory high school in Boca Raton. Once a high schooler with little knowledge of the admissions process herself, Tabano-Chiste now helps youngsters make the best college decisions for their futures.
FAU, from her personal experience and its immense growth over the past 40 years, is at the top of the list.
“The best opportunity is right there in their backyard at FAU,” Tabano-Chiste said.
