Growing up, everybody was in some kind of activity. Whether that was basketball, dance, soccer, gymnastics, etc. Kids’ parents just want them to participate in something to make them have a little less energy. However, when kids grow into teenagers, most of them stop because they need to carry a heavy workload, find a job, or it’s just not enjoyable anymore. However, others start a sport in high school just for fun and to pass the time. For Julia Musgrave, she’s done both.
Playing from the small age of nine to her current seventeen years old, Julia Musgrave has always excelled in tennis. She only got better as she kept playing but when she got to high school, she was on varsity freshman year, as well as went to state with her doubles partner, Reagan Martyn. After her freshman year she shined brighter in this amazing talent of hers. Moving onto sophomore and junior years, she stayed playing varsity and went to state again both years. sophomore year she played singles during state. However, junior year she surpassed this expectation and played two seed singles, which means she was second best out of everyone in the district for her school. While she was doing all of this, she was also managing school, work, and all of the clubs and activities she does. Her mother, Sarah Musgrave has been in support of her through all of this. “She put a lot of pressure on herself with high expectations since she received the State Journal Register Girls Tennis Player of the Year Award as a Junior and wanted to live up to that award,” states Sarah. Julia was already putting pressure on herself with managing all these things and being the best she could be, as well as putting extra pressure on herself after this award.
However when Julia got into her senior year, she was partnered up with her best friend Cora Haupt for doubles. While still succeeding greatly in singles, this doubles pair was amazing together. “Julia and I motivate each other which leads us to play great in doubles and I loved playing with her,” Cora Haupt shared about her partnership with Julia. Cora helped Julia through her stressful time of managing all the stressors of senior year. RHS tennis coach, Rolando Salazar, also continued to support and cheer her on as she struggled through this tough last season. “Julia’s biggest strength is her ability to adapt and to get over any circumstance that is thrown at her and not to give up,” Salazar complimented. He is a very encouraging and understanding coach when any of his players are having a rough time. With these supportive people in her life, Julia was able to focus on tennis more and take a little of the pressure off herself. Julia is a fantastic tennis player but she still had to endure the struggles of senior year while living up to these scary expectations.
When she started to get into the last competitive matches of the season, such as conference and sectionals, Julia and Cora played together. They ended up placing third at conference, as well as advancing to Sectionals. Sectionals were a lot of combined tough matches for these girls. At this same time, they showed off their amazing partnership and teamwork and ended up winning 2nd place in Sectionals. This earned them a place at state, meaning Julia would be going all four years. As the last few days until State started flowing by, Julia started getting intense chest pains one night. She was in so much pain, her mom took her to the hospital. She was unfortunately diagnosed with Myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscles. “The doctors believe it was due to having pneumonia twice during the tennis season and me deciding to play even when I was sick,” Julia stated about her diagnosis. This was a horrible thing for Julia to experience, but according to the doctors if they hadn’t diagnosed this and she played at state, there could have been serious repercussions– even death. While this was devastating for Julia, she was just grateful they figured it out when they did.
Not being able to go to state with her best friend senior year was insanely rough on Julia. As well as not being able to go, she was restricted from doing any physical activities for three months. Cora ended up still going to state with another girl on the team, but was still grieving not having Julia there. “I was obviously really upset hearing about her condition- initially, I didn’t even want to go to state if it meant I wasn’t going to play with her, but I did end up going even though I missed her,” stated Cora. Haupt went and played for Julia because she knew that’s what she would want, but after state Cora supported her in every way. Along with Cora, Julia’s mother was so supportive of her at this time. “Overcoming not going to state her senior year was really tough. It was a huge disappointment and she faced very strict limitations in terms of any activity for several months,” Julia’s mother shared, “She realized she made her goal of achieving the state level of tennis all 4 years so she was proud of that.” Sarah Musgrave shared Julia’s accomplishments and her feelings of pride, even though she endured this awful thing. This just goes to show how strong and determined she is, not only as a tennis player but as a person. Although not pursuing tennis as a collegiate athlete, Julia plans to continue her tennis career intermurally as “tennis has been both the best and worst in [her] life.”
