Graydon Buckingham Arrives at Annapolis to Play Tennis for Navy

By Leslie Cranford, Section Manager

Graydon Buckingham, who grew up in Houston for most of his life, moved with his family to South Carolina in August 2020. With all the uncertainty of the pandemic, the Buckingham children wanted to focus on their tennis.

Christin Buckingham, Graydon’s mother, said TTU-K-12 provided a solid academic program that was designed for online learning, as opposed to ad-hoc putting lessons online that the public schools were doing.

“Graydon does better when he focuses on one thing for short periods of time, so the flexibility of making his own schedule with his TTU High School classes was great for him,” she said. “From 2020-2022 Graydon took classes through TTU K-12 and went to Smith Stearns Tennis Academy in Hilton Head. Both were a great fit for him.”

Christin said that through his junior career, he was one of the United States Tennis Association's top ranked juniors in Texas and the Southern section and finished as a national 3-star recruit.

“When looking at schools, he really connected with Coach Garner at the US Naval Academy and loved the traditions and military environment at the USNA as well as its strong tennis program,” she added.

While he is not sure what he will major in, Graydon wants to study political science and nuclear engineering. Christin said he originally wanted to fly fighter planes, but at 6′5″ he is too tall for a small cockpit. Now he is thinking about the Marine Corps.

“Whatever happens, Graydon is so happy to have this opportunity and thankful to TTU K-12 for helping him reach this goal!”