Jamea Jackson reflects on her career as one of the world's best young American tennis players and describes how those experiences inform her approach to coaching the Sun Devil women's tennis team. She positions U.S. college tennis in its global context, and describes the culture her athletes build to take advantage of the sport's greatest asset: its international make-up, and what Jackson smartly calls a "global petri dish."
Building culture always starts with the players, because they determine the team culture themselves. We have one of the top team GPAs, and they drive that bus.... Tennis is a sport that teaches you a lot. It teaches you independence; it teaches you problem solving; it teaches you resilience; it teaches you time management. The players come in with a lot of the pieces they need to be successful, but what junior tennis doesn't necessarily teach is the team side of things: the selflessness, the empathy.... A lot of the girls come in, and this is what they need.... The team aspect of college tennis presents an opportunity, within this small global petri dish -- we have a tiny team -- and the group needs a leader, and you need people to practice with. Maybe you practice with someone who would have been your competitor two years ago. And after four years, they're kind of unrecognizable. Their growth is amazing.... There's really nowhere else in the world that does something like [U.S. college tennis]... and this is the only place in the world where they would have this opportunity. They become incredible, astounding young women, young individuals, because of these experiences.
Jamea Jackson Sun Devil Women's Tennis Head Coach