Tennis has taken Annie Menees far. And she's given it all back. 

At fourteen she won the USTA National Indoor 14s singles title. With her best friend Kiki Stastny she won the 16s doubles. At MICDS she was a three-time state singles champion and reached a national singles ranking of number ten. At Vanderbilt she helped take her team to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four, and a ranking of number two in the country. 

When she wasn't taking down opponents, she was building community. 

She prepared meals for families at the Ronald McDonald House. She visited children in the outpatient clinics at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. She volunteered in classrooms with two and three year olds, both typically developing students and those with disabilities. She hosted sports days for local school children, teaching them tennis. She helped throw holiday parties for underprivileged kids and took them to Vanderbilt football games. 

Then she came home. And played in the 24-Hour Tennis Marathon to help raise money for the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park. 

In the classroom she was just as formidable. She graduated with a 3.97 GPA in child development and cognitive studies. Vanderbilt and the SEC named her Scholar-Athlete of the Year. ESPN named her an Academic All-American. 

She came home to St. Louis, earned master's degrees in elementary education and private school leadership, and walked into a fifth grade classroom at Rossman School. 

Tennis taught her to compete. The rest was all Annie. 

(2024)