“This may sound cliche, but never give up.”
By: Nolan Grejda
On a fairly sunny afternoon, Paige Gibbons and I sat down on the warm metal bleachers just before the boy’s tennis practice started. As the sun kept beating down and the questions kept coming, Paige opened up about her tennis career along with her future plans.
Paige Gibbons, a fun, bold, and creative senior at Salisbury High School, started playing tennis at the age of 8. As her mother taught her this sport, she became a doubles and singles player for the high school team, achieving many goals for herself. Although Paige accomplished her goals, achieving these goals was difficult, having to make many decisions along the way.
Going into her freshman year, one decision she had to make was either to play field hockey or tennis. Although Paige was a field hockey player in middle school, she worked on tennis over the summer to give both sports a chance to be picked. But, after practicing her tennis game with a fellow teammate and improving tremendously, she chose tennis as her fall school sport, playing varsity all 4 years of her career.
In addition to playing varsity tennis for 4 years, she also managed the boy’s tennis team for 3 years in the spring. Paige decided to manage the boy’s tennis team because “it helps me practice for my fall season and it also gives me something to do.” Because Paige managed the boy’s tennis team, she made many memories along with making them during her own season.
As Paige opened up about her memories, one specific memory that she said she will never forget during her fall season is when she and her teammate, Bryn Kubinsky, won against Moravian Academy in a District Doubles match. This match was one of the only times they won against Moravian Academy, and this win ultimately helped the team win against them.
“This may sound cliche, but never give up.” As Paige won many matches, wins came with struggles, Paige having to decide whether or not to give up. “I have been in certain positions in my matches where I’ve been in my 3rd set, and I had the choice to either keep playing hard or give up. If I were to keep playing hard, I would have a chance at winning, but if I gave up, I could have lost my match, and this could have affected the outcome of how well the team did.”
Although her high school tennis career and life are coming to an end, Paige has yet another difficult decision to make – needing to decide where she is going to college. “I plan on attending either Temple or UPenn in the Philadelphia area and I plan on being a nurse major.” As she plans on attending college to focus on her major, when the question came up about playing tennis in college, she said she wasn’t sure. “I might play for a club team but if I don’t, then no.”
Paige Gibbons, a senior involved in NHS, SGA, Model UN, No Place for Hate, and many other school clubs and sports, made many decisions throughout her middle school and high school career. As some of these decisions came fairly easily, others were difficult, these decisions playing a crucial role in her life and ultimately led to a successful high school experience.
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