Air Force Pilot Finds Home in Kansas League

Ben Stone has always been passionate about two things: being an Air Force pilot and playing tennis. Both are childhood dreams that he has now made into a reality.

Stone has led a colorful tennis career, from learning to play in his grade school P.E. class to eventually coaching college tennis. He says he really became serious about the game after getting cut from his high school team freshman year. 

“I got very passionate about tennis after that, so between my freshman and sophomore year I took about $1,800 worth of lessons and didn’t tell my parents,” Stone said. “Then the club called my parents were like, ‘Hey, Ben has this bill and if he doesn’t pay it, he’s not going to be able to play here anymore.’ My parents were not happy, but they helped me pay for half of it and I worked to pay off the other half.”

That same passion pushed Stone to work at a tennis club in high school, play college tennis at Buena Vista University, and coach a collegiate team for Illinois Wesleyan University. 

After leading an accomplished tennis career, Ben met his now-wife, Jessica, and knew it was time to go after his other dream: becoming an Air Force pilot. 

“That whole journey started back in 2015. A lot of doors opened, and I finally got accepted,” Stone said. “In 2018, I went to officer training school, and then on to pilot training.”

Stone’s love of airplanes was inspired from a young age by his father, who he describes as an aviation enthusiast.

“He had these VHS tapes that showed videos of jets while a British narrator talked about them. As a kid I found those, and I would play them and rewind them over and over again,” Stone said. “At 10 my dad bought me my first airplane ride. When we landed and got out, I was just super mad because they wouldn’t let me land the plane.”