I started playing racquetball when I was 4 years old, and my first tournament was when I was 5. It was a regional championship and I took first place. On the way home I said to my dad, “I won that girl!” From that point on I knew that I wanted to play (racquetball) for the rest of my life.
My dad has always been my coach. A year ago my dad and I went to a Fran Davis Racquetball Camp. She made a suggestion that if I wanted to get to the next level in racquetball I needed to change my grip. When we got back home, my dad said it would take 3 weeks to change my grip. He warned me it would be hard, so we would just train and not play. At the the end of the three weeks I had changed my grip and was ready to start playing again. My new grip felt better and I had more control over my shots. Most of all it didn’t hurt my wrist! I was confident with my new grip and ready for Junior Nationals.
I had never won a national singles tournament until this year when Fran coached me in the finals. I lost the first game. She made me realize that I couldn’t let a little mistake ruin the whole game. She never did give me too much to handle at one time. She is amazing at what she does. I went on to win the next two games with her coaching me. I was so happy that Fran agreed to coach me at Nationals, because she coaches the #1 Pro player in the world. 
I went to the Dominican Republic to play in the Junior World Tournament one month later and won first place in the 12 and Under Division. I had made it to the finals and was down 1-8 in the tie breaker. Fran had taught me some things about mental toughness and I came back to win 11-10!
After Nationals and World’s, my dad made arrangements for Fran to coach me. The difficult part is that she lives far away from me. She helped me put a training schedule together and is constantly calling my dad to check on my progress. My dad uses Fran’s book – “Championship Racquetball” to help in my training.
I am very thankful to my family because they put a lot of time and money into racquetball, without them I couldn’t have won World’s and Nationals.
Some of my main goals for racquetball is to be on the USA Junior Team and be on the Pro Tour with Fran Davis as my coach.
