A
brand new Day impacts Beach tennis
Jon
Cook/ On-line Forty-Niner
Jon
Cook/ On-line Forty-Niner
By
Michael Bower
On-line Forty-Niner
Tammy
Day packed her bags and could hardly wait
to check out the beaches that convinced
her that Cal State Long Beach would be the
college to drag her away from her hometown
of Pretoria, South Africa, and be the place
she could continue her tennis career.
What
Day found at the beaches was a lot of disappointment.
"I
went the first week that I was here and
it was not good. The water is brown and
the sand is black. That is not what a beach
is suppose to look like," said Day,
who added that the beaches in South Africa
are a lot better.
Day,
19, had never stepped foot on American soil
before she came to Long Beach this fall,
and she is still adapting to the differences
of culture.
"The
parties get broken up by cops and back home
when you see a cop it's because somebody
has been shot...They brought out a helicopter
to break up a party. I could not understand
that. They would do that [in South Africa]
if they were chasing someone who murdered
someone or something --I could not believe
it."
Day
said she does get some funny questions asked
about the lifestyle she lived in South Africa.
"Some
Americans will ask me questions like if
I lived in a bush and a straw little hut,
they really have no idea," she said.
"It's like the same as here.".
Although
Day is still learning the area of Long Beach,
she still has at least one place she knows
very well--the tennis courts.
USC
and numerous other colleges pursued Day
while she dominated the world of tennis
in South Africa.
"I
was approached by a lot of schools in America
and I had a really tough choice... they
said that Long Beach has the best association
with athletics and academics," said
Day, who is planning to major in psychology.
"USC approached me a year ago and that
was a bit early for me. I was not even thinking
about coming to college then."
Day
had a world junior ranking of 194 in singles
during the 2001 season and a No. 64 doubles
ranking in 2002. Day said she was ranked
first in South Africa in the 18-and-under
category and in the top ten in the 18-and-over
category when she was finished.
She
lettered five years in tennis at Glen High
School where she never lost a match in league
play, and was the only player to stay ranked
first in singles all five years she competed.
Day's
tennis career began when she was just nine
years old.
"My
mom has a passion for tennis. She just played
socially, but now she is a coach...she used
to always feed me and my brother balls and
I just got into it...I played mini tennis
in [elementary school] with those big red
spongy balls and plastic rackets,"
she said. "I was good at that, I used
to kick everyone's [butts], and then I decided
to play real tennis."
Smart
move for Day, and a lucky break for CSULB
to have such a great player.
"She
is a very crafty player and has a solid
baseline game, but what I think she does
best is hit the ball where you don't expect
it," assistant coach Halley Cohen said.
"I think it was definently a good find
for us."
Day
sent in a video of herself into numerous
colleges, and said that 49er head coach
Jenny Hilt-Costello impressed her because
she began discussing how Day could improve
her game.
"We
definently liked the tape," Cohen said.
"You can't go to South Africa and watch
her play so the tape was all we had to go
on."
Day
has already made an impact on the 49ers'
tennis team. She teamed up with Australian
teammate Nicole Bouffler, and won the Fullerton
Invitational Doubles Championship last week.
"That was fun. I had a great time,"
Day said. "Nicole is a very good player.
I have a lot of doubles experience. I have
played all over the world and so did she.
She also has a good sense of doubles. She
has good hands and everything. I think we
are going to do well in doubles."
Day
is hoping the competition in America is
tougher than what it was in South Africa.
"I
am hoping it's tougher because that is my
goal to improve my tennis and see if I could
turn pro," she said. "That is
why I am here, to see where I can go with
my tennis...If I decide that my tennis is
not what I want to do then I will drop my
scholarship and go home and study, but I
don't think that will happen."
Day
was a multi-sport athlete in high school
as she also ran track, but she clearly has
her heart set on tennis and has no plans
of continuing her track career at CSULB.
"Tennis
is my game, it has always been what I do,"
she said. "Tennis is me. You say Tammy,
and it's like 'oh yeah, Tammy the tennis
player.'"
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