Jessica Worden’s tennis journey began the summer after first grade. What started as a fun, childhood activity quickly grew into a lifelong passion and competitive career.

Worden would go on to be a successful collegiate player — a four-year letterwinner at The College of St. Scholastica, where she helped lead her team to four straight Upper Midwest Athletic Conference titles and was named the UMAC Player of the Year as a senior.

Worden coached high school tennis for a number of years. And for the last decade, she’s led the University of Minnesota Duluth women’s tennis team. Outside of coaching, she stays busy playing the game with her two young daughters.

When did you first fall in love with tennis?

I started playing tennis the summer after first grade. My mom sent us to the community education summer school program and I just ended up really liking it and thinking it was really fun. The thing that I really liked about it when I was little is that it's a really great equalizer on court. It wasn't like girls versus boys, or you only played with girls. You could get in there and beat anyone. It was just based on skill, so I really enjoyed that.

In eighth grade, I was asked to join the varsity team, starting at four singles and just loved it. I love that you’d go and it's a huge group of friends and you're competing and building together. It's not only an individual sport, but it's also a team sport, so you want to fight as hard as you can to win.

What first got you into coaching?

After I aged out of the community education program, I signed up to be a volunteer coach for the program through middle school during the summers. In high school, I got accepted to be a paid tennis assistant, so I taught that program and then I also was able to teach afternoon lessons to little kids through community ed. So community ed tennis really kind of forged my path into this career.

Do you have a specific coaching philosophy you follow?

I just really believe that when you're on the court there's always something to try. The game is never over until it's over. There's so many options on how to play, how to compete, what to do with the ball. And it's your job not only to go out there and play, but to also analyze the court and analyze your opponent and continue to grow as a player with your strokes, your mental game and your tactics.

Tell us about the UMD team this year.

Our UMD team this year has 11 athletes and we are really excited to put up some strong wins in our conference. We have three amazing freshmen that are going to come in and look to make a difference in our lineup.

The thing about our UMD athletes is that they're so much more than just tennis athletes. Consistently year-to-year we average the second highest GPA out of all of the sports teams and we also post either number one or number two every single year for the most volunteer hours out of every athletic team. So they're so much more than just athletes, they are by far overachievers that are great women that are going out to do really wonderful stuff in society.

*Worden and the UMD Women’s Tennis team have big goals for the upcoming year.*

What keeps you coming back to Michael Lynne’s?

Oh, Michael Lynne’s is like every tennis person's dream. I first got to go there when I was 16 and had just gotten voted captain for my senior year of high school. So the other captain and I drove down there to look at uniforms and I just remember walking in and feeling like it was so bright and colorful and I had never seen so many options for tennis. I mean, nothing compares — it's just a happy store to go into.

From Community Ed to the Collegiate Tennis Scene, Coach Jessica Worden has made her mark

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