Emani Wilson loves history, and the Ewing High School junior has made some of her own with a remarkable move into the varsity girls tennis team lineup in just her second year back on the court.
“With tennis, it is very rare to see someone jump that much,” said Ewing 10-year coach Christina Mosteller. “It is extremely rare because it’s the longer you play, the better you get, and she didn’t even have a full year under her belt.”
Wilson did play tennis before, but it was a long time ago. She was in elementary school when she earned medals playing in the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education program. Five years later, she finally returned to the court competitively as a sophomore at Ewing.
“I was a beginner basically,” Wilson said. “My groundstrokes were horrible, I could barely hit my backhand, and I was getting upset because I used to be good at tennis. I came back really rusty.”
Many of Ewing’s players don’t take up the game until high school, but they show steady development. Wilson’s rough start put her squarely in the middle of Ewing’s JV program. She could have been frustrated by her first season back, but instead she resolved to come back better.
“I was motivated,” Wilson said. “I’m not a quitter in anything. I just refuse to quit. I knew I was going to get better so it just encouraged me to work harder.”
Wilson gives her best effort in everything that she does. She takes honors classes and didn’t play tennis her freshman year at Ewing because she wanted to make sure that she was adjusted to the rigors of high school. She also devotes a lot of time to Keystone Club, a leadership development program run through Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
“We do community service and focus on academic success and teen outreach,” Wilson said. “We host a lot of events, we go to national conferences each year with other Keystone groups around the world. It’s a good thing. I have over 100 hours of community service from that.”
Wilson’s hard work on the tennis court has shown as well. She was able to shake off the rust last year to find some of the same skills she had years ago. After a long offseason in which she admits she didn’t practice as much as she should have, she surprised herself in being able to jump into the varsity lineup.
“At first I didn’t even want to try out for varsity because I didn’t think I’d make it,” Wilson said. “And then, after I started beating people on the team and getting in the lineup, I thought I had a shot at this. I kind of figured out that tennis, for me, is about strategy rather than skill. I developed my strategy to win against the people with skill.”
Wilson has improved tremendously since last year, and played doubles with another junior, Naika Alexandre, as well as singles matches when one of the regular singles players was out. Switching back and forth made establishing continuity difficult.
“It seemed like I had more singles matches than doubles,” Wilson said. “My first one was really hard. I was practicing utilizing the whole court and I wasn’t used to as big a serve as Hightstown and Steinert had. I was really caught off guard by it, but little by little I started to get the hang of it, but it was a little too late in the game.
“I would start playing doubles and I’d be moved up to singles again and I’d have the same problem. I was used to utilizing the whole court with backhands and forehands and hitting it really strong into the doubles alley because when you’re playing doubles, it’s harder to get to those types of balls. It was a hard adjustment to go back and forth.”
Wilson remained driven through the season to continue to develop her game. It helped that she could recognize her progress from the beginning to the end of the season.
“I try to be really consistent,” she said. “When I did start getting more and more singles matches I was doing better than I was in the beginning of the season because I learned the more consistent you are, the better you’ll be in both doubles and singles. As I was building my craft up. That just helped me keep a clear mindset to brush it off if something bad happened. I wouldn’t think about it and keep a positive mindset. It helps you play better.”
Wilson’s work ethic helped her find strategy that worked better, and her background with some prior experience, even though it came years ago, paid off in just her second season back.
“She already understands concepts that other girls that maybe have better technique but aren’t understanding where you should be in doubles and why you should be there, she gets that concept,” Mosteller said. “You’re including not only the ability to strike the ball and put it where you want it, but now she has the second half of understanding the dynamics of the court.”
Wilson is looking forward to coming back even stronger next year. She is determined to play more in the offseason to develop her technique so it will equal her ability to strategize. Ewing can use Wilson’s story of development to help inspire others on the team.
Ewing won’t graduate as many players from its varsity lineup as some years. Natalie Houghton is a senior who will graduate from the second singles spot, but Fadia Argant is just a junior at first singles and Paris Russell is a sophomore who played most of the season at third singles while junior Nneoma Sibeudu also played several third singles matches this year. Junior Symone Summiel was a steady player in the doubles lineup, though Ewing will graduate another doubles regular, senior Tia Outlaw.
“The hugest progress is the doubles with their concepts,” Mosteller said. “The doubles is difficult, because a lot of times it’s two singles players sharing a court. We work really hard to make sure the doubles players know how to work together as teammates.”
Ewing only won a pair of matches this year in the competitive Colonial Valley Conference, but they measured development in their ability to extend matches much longer than usual and win more games each match against far more experienced players.
“In the past years, when we play good teams like Hightstown and Steinert, we’d lose games something like 6-0, but this year we actually had some close games with them,” Wilson said. “Our games are much longer. Last year, we got games done within an hour. This year, we had games that lasted two or three hours long. We’ve almost gotten even with teams we didn’t stand a chance with.
“Within the team we have really good sportsmanship and unity too. We always pick each other up, which I really love about our team.”
Wilson can’t wait to see the improvements next season when she is a senior. She is confident that the Blue Devils can progress more, and she’s hoping if she focuses on her play it will help make some history.
“I feel like I can only get better if I work hard,” Wilson said. “I don’t want to give up on something I’m really passionate about. I’m really upset that the season is ending because I’ve actually started getting better. You can’t help but get better at a craft that you love.”
Natalie Houghton competes at second singles in a loss to West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Monday, Oct. 16, 2017 at Ewing High School. (Photo by Martin Griff.),
