Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 2, 1994 TAG: 9406020048
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Now it's too late.
Left to her own devices, the tall and quiet Radford High senior tennis player has overscheduled herself to a preposterous degree. She really has a right to complain about it - who could blame her? - but she won't. Presumably, she figures it was her choice, so why whine?
This spring, while most of her fellow students were going through the traditional senioritis, Richardson was busy as a gerbil on pep pills.
First, there was tennis. She's the No. 1 player and has not only led the Bobcats to the state Group AA championship tournament at Radford University's Dedmon Center this week, but she has also qualified for individual singles and doubles, with her partner Ashleigh Funk. But that's getting ahead of the story.
Tennis consumes five days a week, counting practices and matches. Richardson is diligent when it comes to practice, too. You couldn't have kept her off that practice court with a Doberman pinscher that had a toothache.
Then there was AAU volleyball. Richardson was on a sort of all-star team that worked out of Virginia Tech. That outfit practiced regularly twice weekly and sometimes more, not counting the games. Richardson would disembark from tennis and head for Hokieland for another two-hour workout that followed.
Not tired yet, she had time for Wednesday evening dance classes, an endeavor she's pursued since she was in elementary school. Jazz, tap and toe were part of the curriculum. For the uninformed, dance is a physical exercise only slightly less taxing than a rumble with an alligator.
Wait, now. There's more. Every Saturday morning comes piano lessons. Richardson massages the ivories just has she has since she was a little girl in pigtails and pinafores. If something like a tennis match or volleyball interferes, then she reschedules the piano.
Not to be overlooked is the fact that she has to practice her dance and her piano regularly, although she will confess in a stage whisper that she occasionally backslides.
Even that isn't the extent of it. She keeps statistics for the Bobcats soccer team for which her sweetheart, Casey Underwood, is a prominent player. She's also a statsmaster for the boys' basketball team.
But when, you may ask, does she find the time for her schoolwork? Sometime, apparently. She's in the top five of her class and has plans to seek an engineering degree at Virginia Tech next year.
"She can't stand not to be busy,'' Radford tennis coach Betty Branch said. "She comes from a family of busy people."
Don't get the idea that all the activity happens in the spring. In fall, she played basketball; in winter, it was volleyball. If her parents hadn't objected, she probably would have been engaged in her first love, playing soccer. Of course, she would have had to have done so for the boys' team (Radford has no girls' team), which was no problem for Cathy but was one for her parents.
You might say that they put their foot down on football (European version).
American football is another matter. The Richardsons have had a hard time stopping her from playing that. With her being the youngest and only girl among four children, the guys always need somebody to fill out a roster for friendly family games of football.
"I was kind of a tomboy," she said.
Which is probably why her father figured he'd better do something when she had to quit playing soccer. So he went and bought her a tennis racket. Never mind that she'd never played the game.
That was freshman year. Soon enough, some girls had persuaded her to go out for the team. With nary a private lesson to her credit (which must come as a tremendous shock to the country-club crowd), she made the team as the No. 6 singles player. You could make a case that her tennis career got off on the right foot. She went 16-0 in singles and 9-0 at No. 3 doubles.
She hasn't backslid since.
In four years, she's gone 64-2 in singles and 57-3 in doubles. The only singles matches she's lost have come at either the regional or the state level. Never has she lost a New River District match.
Her approach has been the same throughout.
"I get nervous sometimes," Richardson said. "A little bit of nervousness is good. If I'm not nervous, then I'm not ready to play. But when I'm real nervous, then it really throws me off."
As might be gathered from the record, she's steady and she doesn't make a lot of mistakes. She doesn't mind taking risks, either. She fancies blowing the minds of the typical base-liners you frequently see in high school tennis by playing near the net on frequent occasions.
"People aren't expecting somebody to rush the net," she said. "It makes them nervous and they pop the ball up, which makes it easy to volley."
Although her prowess at singles is well-documented, she's happier when she's playing doubles with Funk.
"You have somebody else out there to help you out," Richardson said.
Richardson is clearly the self-sufficient sort, regardless of her fondness for doubles. She's mowed lawns for a fee (all the Richardson children have at times), she's stayed with her school work and she's handled pressure well.
The sort of pressure she's had, most kids could only imagine. Richardson's mother has battled cancer recently; she appears to be doing better, but such an illness could not ever be far from a daughter's mind.
Nobody has ever said that Cathy Richardson doesn't know how to focus in on a task. Just don't ask her to focus on personal accomplishments.
"You'll never hear her bragging on herself," Branch said.
Anytime she wanted to start, few could dispute the justification.
by CNB