STATE EXTRA: SACCO: Miller’s mental war

RADFORD
Don’t put those crazy college photos on Facebook.

Don’t late-night text your boss what you really think of him.

Don’t doubt Tom Goforth.

If you live to be 100 and follow these three simple rules, really, what can go wrong in your life?

Not much, we’re guessing.

Because when Goforth, a football coach turned tennis mentor, says 14-year-old sophomore Jessica Miller (yes, she’s only 14, a sophomore and just finished up Latin 3 ferpetessake) looks more like she’s 20 on a tennis court, he’s not kidding.

Don’t doubt. Believe.

It was evident Thursday here in Radford during the Group AA girls tennis singles championships.

Against Jamestown’s Kelly Little, Miller won the mental war.

No surprise to Goforth who has been touting his sophomore’s mental stability like he used to tout offensive lines. In that semifinal against Little, you would have thought Miller was the aged senior, not vice-versa.

If there’s one thing about high school tennis, it’s that players are under a microscope even without all the media attention of its big-money brothers. Footballers flap their gums too far from the bleachers and basketball players talk smack all the live long day surrounded by screaming crowds. In tennis, alone and on the court with just spattering of fans close by, there’s nobody to talk to but yourself in an environment where a mouse cough could be deafening.

Little made a habit of it, calling herself an “idiot” and asking herself “what the heck are you doing?” on several occasions.

One year, when the event was held in Blacksburg, a singles player from Yorktown spent most of his match screaming out gibberish – a ploy he used to keep himself from swearing.

On Thursday, rackets were flying all over the court (as were angered screams) during the boys semifinal.

Miller, meanwhile was silent.

While both Little and Miller’s finals opponent – Kristin Harter – questioned one of Miller’s calls, all the Cougar sophomore did was clap her racket at chalk kissers and say, “nice shot,” toward her opponent. She also let a few calls that could have been out be played through.

She was next to silent.

She was also meticulous – deftly placing the ball with surgical skill between the white lines and staying mentally in the game whilst Little totally fell apart.

Little’s double fault in the third, and decisive, set was the breaking point as she dropped her racket and looked up toward a clearing sky.

“That’s when I realized that I could get in her head,” Miller said, “and she could get down on herself.”

That wasn’t a tennis match that started Thursday at 9 a.m. It was a mental war with Miller, freckle-faced and sweet-smiled, turning into a cerebral assassin.

“With tennis, it’s really mental,” she said. “Once you know you’re in their head, it’s a good thing. Each mistake they make, they totally focus on that instead of the good things they’re doing.”

There was never a focus issue with Miller.

Sure, she lost to Harter in straight sets, settling for second place in the state, but that mattered little to Miller, who cracked a smile seconds after her final volley landed just to the left on the white line.

“That’s just me,” she said.

Yeah, it was tough knowing who the senior was out there Thursday.

And now you know, it’s tough not to believe Goforth.

And the rest of you best start believing in Miller. It appears Radford could be a late-spring home for her the next two years.

Follow Jim Sacco on Twittter at www.twitter.com/PoochPunt