From Rejects to Champions

TEAM CAME TOGETHER AFTER PLAYERS DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT ON OTHER TEAMS

By Kaitlyn Brown/USTA Southern Intern

Who would have thought that rejection would be such a blessing? For Melissa Wiseman and her senior women’s tennis team, it was their ticket to the USTA League Southern Section Championships.

Having been kicked off other teams, these women decided to form a team of their own. “We would tease each other about being the rejects”, said Wiseman, who is the captain of this level 4.0 team from Alabama.

“They would bump us off one by one”, she explained, “Because they thought they were better than us”. However, being rejected from other teams was not the only obstacle these women had to overcome in their journey to sectionals.

The weekend before the season kicked off, a fatal motorcycle accident caused a member of the team to lose her son. “This put a damper on the start of the season,” stated Wiseman. After the second match of the season, another teammate broke her arm skiing and had to undergo surgery. This excluded her from playing for the rest of the season. A different team member also had to have surgery after the fifth match, causing her to sit out for the duration of the season as well. 

 After losing two teammates, Wiseman decided to call in a replacement player. The bad luck continued when the new player injured her knee during her first match and had to sit out for two weeks.

After all of this, Wiseman and her team did not believe they had a chance to make it to playoffs, but they did not give up. Finally, this unlucky team caught a break and made it through playoffs and on to the state championship. “I had a feeling we were suppose to be there,” explained Wiseman, “but I was not sure why.” Her feeling must have been right, because Wiseman’s team made it to the finals and won 3-0. She says that her team claims the Bible verse, "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," because “we were the rejects but the Lord let us be the cornerstone by winning the tournament."

Despite the many obstacles that stood in their way, Wiseman and her team never gave up hope. Their inspirational story demonstrates that hard work and determination can take you as far as you will let it, and you can’t let others get you down. If Wiseman and her team had not been “the rejects,” they never would have made it this far. The captain’s final words before getting on the court today were, “We were not the chosen ones to be here, but we made it anyways.”