By Greg Sakaki
A 14-year-old tennis phenom has left female high school tennis players in the Ottawa area shaking their heads.
In the final tournament of the season, Ashley Smith, a Grade 9 student at Immaculata high school, beat girls in their OAC year on her way to a first-place finish.
Smith wasn’t able to compete last year in the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association’s “A” level because she was too young.
This year, she made an impressive debut, winning the gold medal final 6-4 over Nepean high school’s Camila Montealegre.
Immaculata won five medals at the year-end tournament, including two others at the flight “A” level and two in flight “B.”
The tall, quiet and very modest Smith says it felt good to win the tournament.
She will try for a double-gold in racquet sports when she joins the school’s badminton team later this year.
Smith hopes to play volleyball as well, but says team sports aren’t her specialty.
“I like individual sports better because there’s more independence,” she says.
Influenced by her older brother Shawn, Smith started playing tennis four years ago. He also starred on the Immaculata team and now plays at Queen’s University.
“He liked it, so I just went along with him and ended up starting in on a program with the (Ottawa Athletic Club),” Smith says.
Smith still practises with the club four times a week at its indoor facility, and plays there in tournaments on weekends.
Ann Williams, who supervises Immaculata’s tennis team, says Smith is lucky to have access to an indoor court, and says it’s too expensive for most tennis players in Ottawa to play year-round.
During the tennis season, Smith practised three days a week with the Immaculata team in addition to the time spent at the Ottawa Athletic Club. She says balancing practice with school and other activities can be difficult at times.
Nathan Gatt, Smith’s coach at the club, says all the practice is paying off.
He says Smith has an excellent baseline game but needs to continue to develop her forecourt play.
Gatt says she will continue to improve because she is a quick study.
“She’s developing at a rapid pace,” he says. “She’s an inspired young player with a lot of talent.”
Smith says the best aspect of her game is power, but Williams says it may be her cool demeanour.
“She’s incredibly calm on the court,” Williams says. “She’s very mentally strong, I think, and she doesn’t get rattled.”
Smith may be rattled next year because there’s no guarantee that Immaculata will have a tennis team.
Williams, who started the tennis program at the school 10 years ago, says Bill 74 may not leave her with enough time to supervise the team next year. Bill 74 requires teachers to spend seven hours per day teaching in the classroom, and doing supervisory activities, leaving very little time for coaching.
Without Immaculata, a relatively poor NCSSAA tennis circuit would become even weaker.
Since Smith has already proved she can beat girls three and four years her senior, Williams says she needs to look to Toronto and Montreal for competition.
Gatt says Smith does compete in other cities at a provincial level.
She was runner-up at the recent under-16 National Tennis Academy Junior Open and is headed to Toronto this month for a 14-and-under event.
Gatt says high school level competition in Ottawa is not particularly strong because many of the girls aren’t serious tennis players.
“I expected her to win (the NCSSAA title),” Gatt says. “She should win it for the next four years. It’s good for her confidence.”
Whether at school, at the club, or elsewhere, Smith says she plans to play tennis for a long time.
“I think she’s a wonderful player and I hope she goes a long way,” Williams says. “I’m absolutely thrilled that she won the gold.”