Antioch Community High School tennis coach Jamie D’Andrea has a distinct passion for the sport. D’Andrea has carried her love for the game throughout every aspect of her life. She played tennis each of her four years of high school at Round Lake Senior High School. After she went off to college at the University of Illinois, a division one school, she decided not to play with the school. Instead she decided to play with her friends while also attending many of the university’s tennis matches.

As a postgraduate D’Andrea knew she wanted to continue her career in tennis, but now as a coach. She decided to go back to her roots, joining the staff of her high school and becoming the junior varsity coach while her former coach stayed up with the varsity.

D’Andrea eventually came over to ACHS, where she started off as the junior varsity coach and moved up to varsity after her fourth year.

“Ever since taking over as the varsity coach I have been extremely lucky to have a talented core of students” D’Andrea said. “This lead to at least one state qualifier in each of my seasons, both boys and girls, as a head coach.” Being able to lead at just one player to state every year as a varsity coach is an amazing accomplishment, not to mention both genders. She has had amazing success as a coach here and doesn’t plan on stopping.

Tennis can be a very intense and exciting sport to watch when played competitively. D’Andrea is hoping that many people come out to the matches this season and see all her highly skilled athletes play.

“We have several players who play at a high level and I don’t think many of the students at ACHS are aware of that,” D’Andrea said. D’Andrea is proud of her athletes and can’t wait to watch them succeed. Her athletes are also motivated to succeed because they care about D’Andrea. She means a lot to her players because they can see how much she cares about them as well.

“Playing tennis with her as the coach is easy,” senior Quinton Hill said. “Everyone can see how much she cares.”