Christina Jarvis
While there are athletes that participate in school sports simply for something to do, there are others that take it more seriously.
Sabin began tennis in third grade, after playing the Wii Sports version of the game. “It made me fall in love with the game before I ever took a lesson,” Sabin said.
Sabin is the first member of her family to play tennis. “About a week after getting into tennis on the Wii, I came home with a flyer that was all about a tennis camp,” Sabin said.
Sabin said her motivation during tough matches is her desire to play at the collegiate level. “I’d really like to continue my academic and tennis career in college,” Sabin said. “As of right now I haven’t decided on a school.”
Sabin said her biggest accomplishment happened this year. “I took two years off of tennis because I was injured very badly with a spine issue and I wasn’t allowed to play during middle school,” Sabin said, “I just got back into playing full out competitive again and earlier this year my ranking was well past 400, which isn’t good at all, and right now I am number 58 and I was able to play Supers which is a higher tournament.”
Sabin said that after watching the US Open, she thinks Naomi Osaka is a very talented tennis player who could taught many valuable things in the game. “Her attitude was super controlled and she went out and won like a champ, even with everything that went down on the court,” Sabin said.
Sabin said her biggest supporters have been her family and coaches. “They’re always supporting me and are always motivating me to keep working for my goals,” Sabin said.
Sabin said she has a good luck charm that she wears every match. “My necklace is a little tennis racquet that has the letter C on it and my birth stone for some color,” Sabin said.
Sabin said she joined the team hoping to make new friends who she can with towards the same goal of getting to state and winning. “Tennis has taught me to never give up and to keep working to meet your goals because anything is possible as long as you keep working hard to achieve it,” Sabin said.
Todd Wilson, head coach at west for the past 15 years, said Sabin brings great energy to the team. “She’s very positive on the court and is always looking to pick her teammates up,” Wilson said.
Wilson said Sabin is a fierce competitor on the tennis court. “She comes to practice every day looking to improve and is very coachable during matches and tournaments,” Wilson said.
Sabin has played several big matches for west. “The one that sticks out from this season is her win against Pembroke Hill at the Great 8 tournament,” Wilson said, “Her energy was fantastic and she beat a very good player in a 3rd set match tie-breaker.”
Wilson believes that the most important thing for Chloe is to continue to develop her tennis game and leadership skills while having fun.
Scott Sabin, Chloe’s dad, said he has many reasons why he’s proud of her, but there is one in specific that stands out. “After not playing tennis for 2 years she made the Varsity team her Freshman year and ended up qualifying for state as an individual,” Sabin said, “Since then she literally played USTA all summer and was able to qualify for Futures and Supers tournaments.”
Sabin said Chloe has been working hard with college tennis in mind. “At this point we are considering many different schools, but only targeting those that offer a nurse practitioner degree,” Sabin said.
Sabin said since the tennis season is very demanding, Chloe has had to find new ways to manage her school work and tennis. “It requires doing homework between matches while at tournaments or pulling late nights to get her homework done after a match,” Sabin said.
Sabin said that staying up until 1:00-2:00 am is not out of the question. “Tennis has had many impacts on Chloe’s life,” Sabin said, “From developing friendships throughout the Midwest, to having an amazing work ethic.
