Not everything has been easy for Winona Christian’s Rana Paige Davis.
But according to Winona Christian tennis coach Dr. Finis Beauchamp, Davis has handled it beautifully.
All of that paid off recently as Davis signed to play tennis at Holmes Community College.
“She is a solid player and has a great spin serve,” Beauchamp said. “She has got a wonderful personality. She’s a multiple-sport athlete who does softball, cheer, dance and tennis. She lost her father when she was about 7 years and she has had to overcome a lot of obstacles but she has certainly made whatever adjustments she has needed to make. She is just a beautiful person on the inside and the outside. She is just a wonderful Christian young lady.”
Davis said she really liked what she saw at Holmes.
“I was really excited because I got the opportunity to further my tennis career out of high school and make new friends,” Davis said. “It’s important that tennis is paying for school. When I toured Holmes, I really liked the campus, just the whole atmosphere was great. It’s really small and I think that will be a good step for me from high school to college.”
Beauchamp said Davis is already working on improving her game.
“Right now, she is playing in a summer league on the junior and adult sides in Winona,” Beauchamp said. “The next level will be challenging for here but with her desire and potential for improvement, she should fare well at the next level. I believe when she gets to Holmes, she will focus on tennis. That’s what she is focusing on right now and wants to be ready when it gets to next year.”
Davis said last week, she played 24 hours of tennis is a seven-day span.
“I’m playing in two leagues and we had a tennis camp last week,” Davis said. “I have been practicing and playing as much as I can and just trying to go back to the basics on some things. I’m still taking lessons from Dr. Beauchamp. And I’m starting to give lessons myself. I just started advertising and I have had several people ask me about it.”
Beauchamp said he has already seen improvement in her game since the end of the WCS tennis season where she played both singles and doubles this past season.
“Her net game has improved a lot this year,” Beauchamp said. “And her smashing for the slice ball has improved. And you can see her strategy for doubles really improving, especially with lobs and her ability to control the net. That’s where I have she has improve a lot in the last month.”
Beauchamp said there has been an added benefit to Davis signing with Holmes.
“I’m having a lot of people start to ask for private lessons,” Beauchamp said. “I guess when you win a state championship and one of your players gets a scholarship, parents and kids get a lot more interest. It has certainly increased the appeal of tennis in our area. We just had a summer camp and I had about 30 kids there and about 25 of them I had never seen before. So the program is really growing in central Mississippi here. I think with her having earned a full scholarship, it will really bolster the tennis program here at Winona Christian.”
Davis said she plans on majoring in nursing and wants to eventually get her bachelors of science in nursing and would like be a pediatric nurse.
