Sometimes, it is amazing what a year can do.

Former pro tennis player David Wheaton entered Stanford as America's top-ranked junior tennis player and a newly minted U.S. Junior Open champ and left a year later, destined for a 13-year tour as a professional. But that one year provided the basis for his new book about how to avert the pitfalls of losing one's faith while in college.

"Looking back at my time in Stanford, I thought I was a Christian growing up, but I didn't have a personal faith strong enough to withstand the perils of life," Wheaton said.

During his college experience, Wheaton did not realize the toll his stint at Stanford took on his faith, but after becoming a born-again Christian at age 24, Wheaton realized how "spiritually bankrupt" he had been.

"I knew my life wasn't right," Wheaton said. "Inside, I was very sad about (the loss of my faith). The success I was experiencing professionally didn't help."

Wheaton's book, "University of Destruction: Your Game Plan for Spiritual Victory on Campus," focuses on how college students can maintain their faith in an environment that is not conducive to doing so.

In it, he emphasizes avoiding sex, drugs and humanism — what he calls the "three pillars of peril" — and improving one's "spiritual GPA."

"You have an academic GPA, but you need to not forget your spiritual one, too," Wheaton said.

The fundamentals of the spiritual GPA are "interacting with God, interacting with peers and interacting with authorities," he said. Doing so entails seeking spiritual nourishment, forging "mutually beneficial relationships" that will strengthen one's faith and accepting authority figures, whom God puts in our life for a reason.

Sports, however, are not necessarily always a part of maintaining one's faith, although they can help, Wheaton said.

"They're not an essential part of life," he said. "But I do think they can be a good part of it."

Wheaton said his book will benefit college students because it is "straightforward" and "practical."

"This is a game plan for staying true to your faith," he said. "It tells you in advance: here's what you're going to face."

These days, Wheaton is the interim men's tennis coach at Minnesota. He takes the reins at a troubled time: the former head and assistant coaches are being investigated by the NCAA because of their possible involvement in a rule-violating tennis internship program held at a Twin Cities-area country club over the summer.

"I just want to focus on the tennis," Wheaton said. "We're here to compete voraciously and I want to lift (the team) up above this and set them past it."

Wheaton turned pro in 1988 at the age of 19. Although the professional tennis tours now have age restrictions on how many tournaments young players can compete in during a year, he said he does not favor age restriction for players in other sports.

"I believe in more autonomy," he said. "If they're good, let them do it."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on May 5 2005.