Before Maria ever set foot on a tennis court, she honed her groundstrokes in her living room. One winter, her dad was laid up from back surgery. Every day she'd hurry home from school to practice for him. He'd coach her. She'd listen. By spring she graduated to the driveway. 

He wasn’t just any father. He was Al Rothschild. 

Al coached at the Armory in his free time and eventually became the full-time pro at Triple A Club in Forest Park. He had extremely high expectations and little understanding of how to deliver a compliment. So she put up with his unforced errors. They had a plan. One year of college. Then turn pro. 

She played her first tournament at eleven, the Muny Class B. Then the Class A, where she lost a pro-set to Lisa Foxworth 8-5. Al pushed her harder and harder. Her forehand got heavier and harder. She dominated the Missouri Valley. Al couldn’t always travel to watch her play. With six kids, money was tight. In 1978 her parents sent her to play tournaments in Europe. Alone. They said, call when you get there. 

She called. And after reaching the quarterfinals at Junior Wimbledon, the semifinals at the US Junior Open, and the finals of the French Juniors, she had arrived. 

She was ranked fifth nationally and seventh in the world. Seventeen Magazine called her the Neutron Bomb and named her Most Promising Player of the Year. A wild card into the US Open was waiting for her. 

Then Al died. She turned down the US Open and got on a plane to BYU. She was eighteen, heartbroken, without any coping skills. She didn't know how to do anything but play tennis, and she spent her whole career trying to please a man who never told her she was good enough. 

And then he died before she could show him. She made All-American twice. Everyone called it a success. But her. 

At BYU she met Tyler. Her heart that had been in the game for so many years now belonged to him. Together they made new plans. She started teaching in Salt Lake City, then in St. Louis at Frontenac Racquet Club and Old Warson. The girl who had been brought up to eat, sleep and drink tennis could now breathe. The court is still her home. And that is enough.

(2000)