In his first 12 seasons as the Nottingham High girls’ tennis coach, John Schwartz never had a player with a record as good as 12-4—let alone one who was only a freshman.
At first singles!
Talented ninth-graders seem to pop out of new cans of balls at Princeton and the West Windsor-Plainsboro schools. But stars like Rosemary Esquivel don’t emerge in Hamilton Township too often.
Yet there she was last season, forging a .750 winning percentage while playing against the best Mercer County has to offer. Esquivel’s efforts helped Nottingham go 10-8, defeat Steinert for the first time in over decade; and top Burlington Township in the first round of the state tournament. None of that had ever happened under Schwartz’s watch.
“Our team has historically struggled,” the coach said. “We improved a little bit and last year was our best shot at having our winning season since I’ve been here. We wouldn’t have done it if Rosemary hadn’t been there.”
Which came as surprisingly good news to Esquivel.
“When I heard our overall record got a lot better because of my participation I was really shocked at first,” she said. “I was like ‘Wow, just a single player could make a difference in a team.’ I’m happy that the coaches were happy and I’m happy the team had such a good year.”
Esquivel is back for another season and won her first three matches during the Northstars 2-1 start. Every time he watches her win a match, Schwartz can’t believe he almost passed on her at the start of last season.
As an instructor at the National Junior Tennis & Learning of Trenton, the coach was familiar with Rosemary from seeing her excel here. He also knew she lived in Trenton, so that wouldn’t help him much. Until . . .
“We were already a week into the preseason last year when her mom called me to say her daughter was transferring to Nottingham and was interested in tennis,” Schwartz said. “I was about to tell her she’s missed too much already and we already have a large team when she told me her daughter’s name was Rosemary. I realized it’s one of the NJTL of Trenton’s best players!”
The minute she enrolled, a new era had begun at Nottingham. Esquivel is one of the few players to enter the program with solid tennis experience. Her dad took her out to play at age 5 and even though she couldn’t correctly hold the racket, she fell in love with tennis. “I wanted to play every day. I don’t remember a lot from then, but I know I didn’t want to stop practicing,” she said.
At 9, Esquivel signed up for a tournament at the Princeton Tennis Program in West Windsor, which she promptly won. “I was super happy, I was really joyful after that,” she said.
Esquivel remained in NJTL of Trenton and has won numerous tournaments over the past five years. She helped the program to a sixth-place national finish several years ago.
“NJTL has been really good to her,” Schwartz said. “They saw her potential early on and have helped her with getting into tournaments and things like that.”
Esquivel came to Nottingham knowing they were not a powerhouse program and figured she could make first singles. She did that easily, but was not the kind of first singles Nottingham usually has, in which the player is a sacrificial lamb so lesser players can face easier competition.
“You’re always playing the best player from the other team and it’s lonely,” Schwartz said. “You go to these tough schools that always dominating and their third singles are usually better than our first singles. In this case, Rosemary was competitive with just about everybody.”
Unfortunately, she was slowed prior to the Mercer County Tournament after pulling a hamstring and having to withdraw while playing a competitive match with Princeton’s Samantha Singer. It affected her for the remainder of the season and she had the bad luck of playing Hightstown’s Avnika Naraparaju, also a freshman, in the first round of the Mercer County Tournament. Naraparaju went on to win the county title, and Schwartz held Rosemary out of the individual state tournament due to the injury.
“She probably would have had a better record if she hadn’t gotten hurt,” Schwartz said. “This year we should have her in the county, state singles and team state tournament.”
Esquivel is hoping to stay away from injuries this year and to do better in thecounty tournament. “I know girls from other schools like Princeton, Hightstown, West Windsor because of tournaments I played in,” she said. “So I’ve seen them, I know how their game is. It’s just like any other tournament. You go out there, you play them and it’s just win or lose.”
In assessing Esquivel’s game, Schwartz said she has tremendous power from the baseline with firm ground strokes that feature heavy top spin. She also has the ability to slice the ball, and knows how to use all her weapons.
“She’s a smart player,” Schwartz said. “If she pulls somebody off the court to the right, and they hit it back, she’ll hit it to the left. And she’s consistent and has a passion for the sport. She wants to win. She has the heart the separates her from the people who don’t end up winning.”
Esquivel takes pride in her baseline game, but knows she needs to do more than that in order to keep progressing.
“I need to work on being more aggressive,” she said. “During the match when the opponent stays back and they’re really consistent like me, sometimes I have a feeling where I know I need to go up to the net to finish the point. But sometimes I won’t do it because I’m not as strong at the net.”
Esquivel is currently ranked in the top 25 for 16-and-unders in the USTA Middle States rankings. And while she still has two-plus high school seasons to go, she has already set her mind on playing at the next level.
“I would be really ecstatic to play for a college tennis team,” she said. “Maybe Division II, but I really want to play Division I tennis. When I was younger I always had this dream to go pro and do great things with tennis. I’m not really sure about that now, but we’ll see. Whatever happens.”
As far as her high school career is concerned, the Northstars love what has happened so far.
Rosemary Esquivel is having a good sophomore year for Nottingham High. (Photo by Rich Fisher.),
