Guerrero's Emergence Boosts Cap's Rebuilding Chances: Part 1

Meet 's Miranda Guerrero, a 16-year-old junior who made her varsity tennis debut last year in exhibition matches. Thanks to her hard work, dedication and a very technical approach to her practices and in-game feats, she's catapulted herself from an exhibition player to the No. 2 singles player. In addition to tennis, Guerrero swims the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly for the swimming team, capping it off with a 4.0 GPA. San Bruno Patch took some time to chat with Guerrero for this two-part interview.

San Bruno Patch: Hi Miranda, thanks for taking a break to talk. What led you to join the tennis team your sophomore year and what has kept you there to this day?

Miranda Guerrero: Well, during my freshman year in high school, I did not realize how early school sports started and although I was interested in playing tennis, I would have started several weeks late. I also have a friend who absolutely loves tennis: Magdalena Toval, she has played No. 1 singles on the tennis team since her freshman year. She encouraged me to join tennis the next year, and I did. When I started, I played atrociously; however, I was able to perservere because of how supporting my coaches and teammates were. I don't like to quit once I have made commitments. Nevertheless, even though I was not particularly good at tennis and only played exhibition matches, when PALs came around, my partner Kimmy White and I were allowed to participate because our coaches believed we showed potential and admired our positive attitudes and willingness to learn from all playing experiences. After that, I was hooked and decided to get better by participating in a summer session and by coming back my junior year.

Patch: Describe the learning process you went through last year picking up the sport for the first time. What was the most challenging thing to learn?

Guerrero: One thing I was really good at was moving my feet quickly because before I played tennis, I used to fence. However, in fencing your feet must be placed at a specific angle that is different from tennis, which was hard for me to adjust to. Not to mention, I was always getting to the ball too quickly – I took long, lunging steps. Also, it made proper execution of a backhand volley particularly difficult because I always wanted to twist my arm. So, of course I had to start at the basics, but I also had to unlearn some fencing techniques or adapt them to be more suitable for tennis. The learning process for me was relatively slow, but I always worked hard to get as much out of every practice as possible so that I could improve faster. 

Patch: Also being a 4.0 GPA student – how do you balance your academics with learning/playing a new sport?

Guerrero: I have always had a 4.0 GPA for as long as I remember, so the only difficult thing was learning how to manage my time, as academics come fairly easily to me. As a student, I am very dedicated and when I don't understand, I ask for help and work with friends. However, one aspect of sophomore year that made maintaining such a high GPA easier was that I found the work assigned freshman year to be more tedious and time consuming. After freshman year, I was able to adjust to a heavier workload. That is actually one thing I pride myself in: my ability to adapt. Something else I did was changing my outlook on grades. Yes, getting A's is important, but I decided that it wasn't necessary to get A's on everything; so long as I understood the material and did my work, the A's would come. A couple lower grades won't kill so long as your GPA is up for the actual report card.

Patch: You went from being the No. 1 alternate last year to No. 2 in singles this year. How do you feel about the progress you've made and what are your personal goals for the end of this season?

Guerrero: Well, I am definitely proud, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't shocked when I heard. Sometimes I still am shocked. It's not because I think that I play tennis very poorly, but because I see some of the other girls on the team play and I wonder how the coaches think I am better than them. However, I will say that in terms of dedication, I deserve the position. After learning the basics of tennis last fall, I became more tuned toward the game, and during the summer, I worked hard on my foot work and other aspects of my game. Even now, I go to practice and work as hard as possible for myself and am only satisfied when I feel I have improved. I also play on the weekends with my dad as practice. However, in spite of all my talk of dedication and working really hard, the only thing that matters to me is if I do better for myself. I do not have to win. I just want to end a better player than I started. Hopefully by the end of the season, my serves will be stronger and I will be able to have better control of where the ball lands and how it bounces. Otherwise though, as long as I can do my best and improve my results, nothing else matters.

Patch: Your coaches describe you as a "grinder" due to your ability to extend matches and battle your way to a win. How would you describe your work ethic?

Guerrero: Well, I generally have good stamina, so even if I'm tired, bouncing back from points isn't too difficult. But I think what really keeps me going is my outlook on sports in general. I like to do my best, but I hate when people let bad shots get to their head. If I make bad shots, I make fun of myself because I know I can do better. As a result, I always want to do better. The first time I played this year, I was against a girl who I knew was better than I was from the moment I stepped onto the court. She'd been playing longer, participated in tennis tournaments, and had this natural grace about her when she moved around the court that only comes from years of dedication. I looked at her and accepted that she was going to be better than I was and instead of trying to win, I wanted to make our game something she didn't find boring. The first time she served, I just watched the ball and was like...'well, crap.' And, in the beginning, many of her serves to my backhand simply flew past me. So, instead of focusing on winning the point, I just wanted to return the ball so that she'd have something to hit. When I first made contact, I was excited, and when I returned the ball over the net, I was thrilled. This is the kind of work ethic and mentality that I bring to a tennis match. For me, it's all about having a good time and finding how far you can push yourself and improve during a game. If I mess up, I literally just shake it off and tell myself that I can and will do better, because that will make the game more interesting. If you don't beat yourself up, it is easy to extend your matches and even find an opening to win.

Read Part 2 to the interview Sunday.