ELLY LEARY

The first tennis match that Ruel Page ever saw was at a summer camp when she was around 12 years old. The tennis instructor played a singles exhibition game with another college player to introduce tennis. The match was fascinating–two young women running all over the court, sweating and pummeling the ball with the most beautiful wood-grain rackets.  She signed up for the tennis class, was issued her own beautiful wood-grain racquet and hit her first tennis ball–the highlight of the two weeks was the Spalding Pancho Gonzales racquet.  But the seeds were sown.  

Returning to real life, however, tennis was not a consistent part of her life.  It wasn't part of physical education at school, her parents never played, there weren't any courts around the neighborhood, much less any kids who had racquets and were dying to play tennis.  Baseball and softball were the games.  So tennis was played in spurts as opportunities presented themselves.  But she did keep playing.

As she got older, tennis was pushed deeper into the background by life choices.  Those choices focused on law school, practicing law, and then professional sailing.  She started a sailing school, taught sailing, raced sailboats, then left the school in good hands and pursued her real love of offshore sailing.  “I worked for several companies delivering sailboats, mostly from France, Charleston, and South Africa.  I took 9 months off and sailed my boat, Shadowfax, from Destin, FL to England, down the coast of Europe to the Cape Verde Islands and then home.”   Obviously there was no tennis during that era, but she did, however, take her racquet.  “I captained a 72' wooden schooner which offered marine biology and similar on-board classes to school kids around Florida.  I'd sneak in some tennis lessons when we stayed in a marina overnight.”   

She was in her 50s before she turned back to tennis and actually took some comprehensive lessons and focused on how to play the game.   At the suggestion of a friend, she joined a local tennis club. “ I loved the instruction, loved practicing what I had learned, loved the exercise and loved playing when I won. Less so when I didn't.”  She said she required a major tweak of her attitude to include enjoying each game no matter how she played or the outcome. “Still working on it…”

She doesn’t remember how she found out about the NWTO, but she googled tournaments for several years before actually playing in one.  Her reticence was that the tournaments were just for high-level players and not 3.5-level players.*  She tested the waters by going to a tournament in Winter Park and naturally drew the No. 1 seed for the first match.  “I wasn't concerned with losing.  I can handle that. I was worried that my opponent and others might wonder why the heck I was there.”

The apprehension lessened a little after the director came up, greeted her, and introduced her to some other players.  They were all friendly, but their bulging racquet bags were still a little intimidating.  The first match was over very quickly, but afterwards her very talented opponent  took the time to give some feedback and encouragement to keep playing the tournaments. 

“Now that I've played in a few more tournaments, I realize, for me, the real value of playing these tournaments, other than no one calling me "Ma'am" as they do at home, is the inspiration from meeting so many incredible women who all have such diverse life stories, stories that are still unfolding.  I love just sitting and watching the matches and soaking up the experience.  While the competition can be fierce, I feel the connection–that we are all blessed by being able to be here and be opponents to one another in a game that we all love.”

She now enjoys the balance in her life–hiking, bike riding, volunteering at a wildlife refuge, and, of course, playing tennis.  She was asked why she started using her first name, "Ruel" only recently.  “It was my mother's name.  As a child, though, I was ashamed of it as kids made fun of it.  So I became exclusively Anita. When my mother died, I experienced great guilt that I had rejected her name all my life and decided to reclaim it.  I answer to either, however.” 

*Check the tournament schedule for the NWTO tournament which has a 3.5 draw.