Mary Virginia “Gigi” Fields has been playing tennis for only three years.
But it takes only a few seconds before the Heritage Academy rising freshman offers an important qualifier.
“(It has been) two years seriously,” Fields said.
That’s not a lot of time in any sport, but Fields’ use of “seriously” shows how her thinking toward the sport changed following a conversation with Heritage Academy tennis coach Billy Clark. The talk came prior to Fields’ seventh-grade year, which was her first season on the team.
“I said, ‘Ail it is going to take for you is putting in the time,’ ” Clark said. “I told her, ‘You have the ability and the potential. It is up to you to put in the time on the court and you can be one of the top girls in the state when you get in the 11th and 12th grade.”
Fields’ commitment to tennis might have altered Clark’s projection because earlier this month the eighth-grader was named second-team All-State by The Clarion-Ledger.
Fields, who played No. 1 girls singles for Heritage Academy, lost only four individual matches all season, including three to Jackson Academy’s Meredith Roberts, who repeated as the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools’ Class AAA No. 1 singles champion (12-0) and didn’t lose a set.
“I was very happy,” Fields said when she learned about the honor. “I surprised myself because I was not expecting to even come close to All-State.”
Fields said she took tennis lessons in the sixth grade. She said her motivation for going out for the Heritage Academy tennis team came from her desire to beat her brother, John Henry, who is a year older. She said she played against her brother a lot during her seventh-grade year, when she played No. 2 singles on Heritage Academy’s co-ed team, but that changed one day when she beat him in a set to six.
But Fields said her talk with Clark, who also works as the tennis professional at Magnolia Tennis Club in Columbus, helped her realize her potential in tennis.
“We were talking one day and I just really decided I wanted to be serious about it and come out in the summer, which I wasn’t planning to do,” Fields said.
Fields credits Emily Howard and all of her teammates for helping her to improve. She said she hopes her decision to attend a tennis camp at Alabama and to play in Junior tournaments in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and in Jackson this summer will help her get even better.
Clark said Fields, who is 5-foot-11 and plays basketball and is on the school’s cheerleading team, is a “super” athlete who is like a lot of teenagers in that they are involved with a lot of things at school. He said he noticed a change in Fields’ approach to tennis this
season.
“She got motivated this year right off,” Clark said. “She got beat in her first match of the year (against Starkville Academy), and I remember her coming off the court and saying real matter of factly, ‘I lost today, but I will beat her the next time.’ She started working harder and listening to me a little more. … She got really, really serious and practiced harder and found out she was pretty good.”
Clark said he didn’t know how Fields would react to their talk, but it hasn’t surprised him how quickly Fields has improved. He said sometimes young players have to find out they’re pretty good and “break through their own barrier” to begin to realize their potential.
“I think it surprised her that she was named second-team All-State,” Clark said. “She came a long way.”
Clark attributes Fields’ growth to “tennis maturity,” which involves the ability to identify an area of an opponent’s game that she can exploit. He said there was one match this season when Fields recognized she could hit chip shots to an opponent and force her to come to the net. He said Fields then used a lob over the player’s head or a passing shot to win the point. Once Fields had success with that formula, he said she continued to do it en route to the victory.
Clark hopes the improvement Fields made this season is just the first step.
“She has a long way to go,” Clark said. “I congratulated her the other day (for being named second-team All-State) and I wrote her, ‘First team next year?’ She wrote back and said, ‘Definitely.’ I really believe she will.
“She will only be a freshman next year. She has long arms and a great serve. She has a few things to work on with her balance, especially with her serve, but she is refining that and getting stronger. She hits a pretty heavy ball right now, and once we get that developed and get her stronger she has the potential to be a really, really special tennis player.”
Fields credits Clark for helping her with her serve. She admits she enjoyed her success this season, but she isn’t sure what her future in tennis will be in part because she enjoys a lot of other things. On Wednesday, Fields was preparing to attend a cheerleading camp at Mississippi State. But she already is thinking about her goals for next season.
“I hope I can beat Meredith Roberts,” Fields said. “She was the toughest player I faced this season.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.