Karoline Tomicich - Outstanding Athletic Achievement

Karoline Tomicich does not earn induction into the Glendale Community College Athletic Hall of Fame just because she was an All-American tennis player at the college or one of the best female athletes to ever compete at Marshall High in Los Angeles. 

Hers is a character issue, the one factor that separates the good from the great and the great from someone you will never forget. Like Karoline. Lots of names are mentioned as potential inductees but in choosing the five or six each year that the college honors, special consideration is given to those that stand out above and beyond.

 In a visit to the college last December to take some updated photos for her induction, she hit a few balls with a current player from the men’s tennis team and more than held her own. It was nothing stressful, just keeping the ball in play and moving side to side for the camera.  In a 30-minute session, her ground strokes were solid and she did not look a day beyond 2001 when she finished her career as one of the best women’s tennis players in college history.

 She was special, and that is why her former coach Terry Coblentz nominated her for the qualities beyond tennis that made her stand out. “What she came in accomplished that first year was amazing, being a freshman and earning All-American honors in doubles and being supportive of everyone on the team, said Coblentz, the Women’s Athletic Director at the college ”Then we she said she was taking a year off in 2000 and that she come back to play in 2001 and make it to state, I was a little skeptical. But she can back, worked hard and was true to her word. I have not had many athletes like her who did what they would do and that’s what makes her so special.’’ 

 In the bio information provided for this event, Karoline wrote that she was proud to be a rare breed, a native Angeleno. She took up tennis at the age of 11 and played many nights under the lights with her father, Anthony, at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. She ascended quickly and she was ranked junior player in the United State Tennis Association from 1992 to 1998.

 Before she came to Glendale College, Karoline was a tremendous student-athlete at Marshall High, where she competed in softball and track and field, and still holds the school record in the pole vault at 7’6’’.  But was in tennis where she really made her mark for the Barristers, playing No. 1 singles all four years and in one memorable match,  she overcame a painful ankle injury to win  an important match that help her Marshall team win the City Section Finals.

She attended Glendale College from 1999-2001, skipping the 2000 season in tennis to concentrate on her academics.  She earned All-American honors in doubles as a freshman and in singles as a sophomore in 2001, when she finished her career ranked No. 7 in state.  She transferred to U.C. Riverside in 2001 and earned a degree in business administration in 2004 and currently runs a party planning business in Hollywood and is engaged to be married.