It was an opportunity the Warrnambool-raised player could not resist and one which has morphed into a coaching career.

Tobin, 24, is an assistant coach at Lindenwood University - a National Collegiate Athletic Association division two school, in St Louis, Missouri.

In between tennis lessons he's completing his MBA at night school, having graduated from Missouri Baptist University with an accounting degree in May 2018.

Tobin played for Lindenwood tennis coach Cole Stevenson during his three years at Missouri Baptist, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic school.

Stevenson called on Tobin's leadership 12 months ago, after he'd spent a year working at an accounting firm, and he jumped at the chance to coach.

"The coach who recruited me in 2015, he got a new job at a bigger school in St Louis," Tobin told The Standard.

"This was at the same time as I was finishing my one year accounting contract. He offered me the job to come and be his assistant.

"He recruited me when no one else would give me a chance (when I was a teenager).

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"He is a reasonably young guy himself, he's still under 30. We have a great relationship and trust.

"He was my coach for three years and I was his captain for two years.

"We've been through it all together and now we're taking to a new school, taking the culture we built at Missouri Baptist and taking it to Lindenwood and trying to build something special there now.

"It's a higher level of competition too so it's step up for both of us."

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted Tobin's first season with the school.

He's now preparing for the new season which will start in January.

"I am really looking forward to getting out on match court with my team because I have spent a lot of time on the training court and in the weight room," Tobin said.

"Once we get into the real season and travelling every week that's when it's most fun."

Tobin is still adjusting to his new status but is enjoying the challenges and expectations which come with coaching.

"We're so close in age. I am only 24 and a lot of these kids are 22 or 23 themselves," he said of his players.

"They have to look for me for advice when things aren't going right and my job is to help them tactically, help them mentally.

"Doing that with someone who is only one or two years older than you is not easy, it's a pretty rare situation for someone my age to have this kind of leadership and control."

Tobin said many of the Lindenwood athletes were from South America and moved away for their opportunity too.

"I think I can relate to them well, being an international tennis athlete myself. I have been in their shoes and I know what it feels like," he said.

"I have a great relationship with all my players, they're all friends of mine.

"Some of them I used to compete against which is kind of strange. I had a competitive respect for them and then I got to know them all as people."

Tobin said there was friendly banter between the players and coaches.

"Sometimes the language does get a bit tricky. They say they like my (Australian) accent but at the same time I don't think they can understand it," he laughed.

"I speak too quickly sometimes and they're often laughing at the way I pronounce words because they're used to the American English."

Tobin, who has returned to Warrnambool for Christmas each year as "my way to avoid the winter", is unsure if he will forge down the coaching path or turn to a business career once he completes his MBA next year.

Where he will live is also up for consideration.

He is comfortable in America, and has taken the chance to visit 20 states since he arrived, but misses his parents Kim and Gerard Tobin and four siblings and his grandparents Helen and Gerald Shanley and Michael and Camille Tobin.

"I prefer the US when it comes to college life and student life. I have had a whole year of working experience here too in accounting and I think in terms of general lifestyle after college Australia might be the place to be," he said.

"You get a bit more time off. You get four weeks a year in Australia and in America you get two.

"Once I am graduated and qualified I think it would be best to come back home and be with my family and friends. I miss them a lot."

Wherever he lands one thing is certain - Tobin will remain connected to his Missouri Baptist teammates.

In his first year at the school its tennis team made the NAIA national tournament for the first time in its history.

The top-25 schools are invited each year.

"It's crazy, when you have an experience like that with your teammates you set a goal and you achieve it, to this day those guys are like brothers to me and some of my best friends," Tobin said.

"Just having that connection with them that's never going to break, no matter where we go in the world."

Tobin, whose parents were in America to watch his final college match and graduation, said the US college experience had also opened his eyes to different cultures.

"I remember being in high school wondering why I was being taught Japanese and French thinking 'I am never going to leave Warrnambool'," he reflected.

"Now I would like to be able to speak French or Spanish.

"People love the Australian accent here so that helps a little bit too."

His travels have included a visit to Kentucky to see fellow Warrnambool athlete Isaac Jones, who is now home teaching at Emmanuel College, and yearly road trips to Florida for spring break with his Missouri Baptist teammates.

"I've done all of the mid-west because of my tennis so we were always travelling to Kentucky, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, Kansas, all these places surrounding Missouri," he said.

Tobin has also ticked New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Nashville, Georgia, South Carolina and Las Vegas off his to-do list.

"Central Park and Times Square in New York are amazing. It's such a busy city," he said.

" I have been probably four times. I don't know if I could live there, the hustle and bustle is on a whole different level to Melbourne but it's an amazing city.

"I also love Chicago.

"It's only a four-hour trip from St Louis, it's beautiful as well."

St Louis has been his base.

"The weather sucks and there's no beach so those things you've just got to get over as soon as you get here," he joked.

"Apart from that it's not a huge city so it's not overwhelming.

"Over the five years I have lived in so many different parts of town, met so many people.

"I have fitted into the community well, I love the diversity."

An added bonus is the professional sports available in his home state.

"Last summer the St Louis Blues won the NHL Stanley Cup and that was an amazing experience to be part of that," he said.

"When a Richmond wins an (AFL) flag in Australia, that's cool but there's 10 teams in Melbourne that people support whereas in St Louis everyone supports the Blues and the Cardinals, the baseball team."

There is a Major League Soccer team in the planning - Tobin drives past the new stadium's building site every day - and the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the NFL Superbowl last season, are just a few hours away.

The only thing missing from the sporting smorgasbord? An NBA team.

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