Pueblo South's Nicole Abraham forging her own path in sports by competing in tennis
Taking a path less traveled can be intimidating.
For Pueblo South’s Nicole Abraham, following in her sister’s footsteps to play softball just wasn’t destined to be. She decided to branch out and find her own sport to excel in.
“It's actually a funny story, I played volleyball and I did swimming and I lettered in both of those, so I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, why don't I go for a third one?’" Abraham said.
She said after thinking about it, her decision came down to either golf or tennis. Abraham chose the latter and "ended up really liking it," she said.
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Abraham joined the tennis team last year as a freshman and quickly fell in love with the sport.
“I think swimming and tennis are tied for the top spot and volleyball would probably either be second or third,” on her list of favorite sports, Abraham said.
What appeals to her the most about tennis is that it’s unlike the other sports she plays. She said she enjoys the competition as well as the back-and-forth commentary on the court.
“I just love that it's just so refreshing to play and to get to play against different people and different teams,” Abraham said. “Singles have been kind of hard because you don't have a teammate with you, which I really liked last year, but it's nice to get to know your opponent and like, have little talks on the side when you're done playing.”
Sports, to some extent, run in Abraham's family, but not those in which she currently competes.
Her older sister Emily was a first-team all-state softball selection this past year and has been a staple of Colts softball her entire high school career. Nicole, however, did not feel like playing softball when she got to high school. She wanted to find something she could call her own.
“They tried to push me into softball, quite a bit actually,” Nicole said. “They're like, ‘Wow, why don't you pitch like your sister? You know there's an open opportunity after she goes to college.' And I'm just like, 'Thanks, but that's kind of her thing. I'm satisfied with playing my three sports.'”
Nicole's top priorities right now are to continue to improve her tennis skills and test herself against the top players in the sport. She knows that the competition will only make her better and is willing to work as hard as she can to achieve her goals.
She said she just wants to play well and to hold her own against some of the more experienced tennis players she's playing against since they've been "playing for years, and I want to be able to get a good match going and win some, of course," she said.
"I am going to have to work hard at practice and try to even practice a little bit before and after practice,” she said.
More: Pueblo Centennial senior embracing pressure, finding solace on the tennis court
Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or on Twitter @chowebacca
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Three-sport Pueblo South athlete forging her own path in tennis
