Moving across the Atlantic ocean, freshmen Emily Kaye traveled over 3,000 miles from her home in England to Charleston. While playing tennis in England, Kaye had goals to continue playing
in her new home.

Kaye moved to Charleston from York, U.K. only a few months ago and she began playing tennis in the midst of Wando’s Girl’s Tennis season. Although her family had been planning the move for a long time, they were finally able to achieve it this year.

“We’ve been planning it for ages, but because of the pandemic… it got held up a bit so we were excited,” Kaye said.

Although she left her only friends across the Atlantic Ocean, Kaye has been able to easily fit in with the girls on her team. Her coach, Bob Lang, has seen Kaye’s team skills first hand.

“Other girls, they warmed up to her and everything’s good… the other girls really like her. And I think she fits in just perfectly to the team,” Lang said.

Kaye’s number three spot on the Wando’s Girls Tennis team has been earned through hard work and dedication. Playing tennis in England is slightly different from playing in the states. Kaye enjoys the new differences.

“In England, you don’t really have school teams as much, so it’s more of a singular sport… but you also play inside a lot, but over here it’s much nicer because you’re outside in the sun with a team,” Kaye said.

Without the London fog being present here in Charleston, Kaye states her appreciativeness for the sunny weather. Since tennis is more commonly played outdoors in England, playing outside in the U.S. added to Kaye’s American experience.

A girl from England coming to play in a small town is a particularly unusual occurrence, so Kaye’s joining of the tennis team brought a small surprise to the team in general. Lang has only been coaching Kaye for about a month, but in that month, he has seen the positive impact of her joining the team. Another teammate of Kaye, Addison Norman, agreed that Kaye has a well deserved reputation.

“After tryouts the coach told us that she was going to apply to be on the team, and we were all a little shocked at first, but we took her in and it’s been good,” Norman said.

Along with going through the beginning stages of joining a new team, Kaye also had to deal with the struggles of being a foreigner to her new teammates.

“I feel like I kind of got a few looks from people because they [thought] I was kind of just doing it for the benefit of me, when actually I didn’t really mean to, but they’re really nice,” Kaye said.

She was misunderstood at first, but slowly began to befriend the girls she playedwith. Her coach had also been slightly surprised when she joined, but he was welcoming to Kaye.

“When she started talking I said, ‘wow, big time Brit’ and I love that accent. She has a super nice personality and asked all the right questions and just wanted to be part of the team,” Lang said.

Kaye became a stellar athlete in a short amount of time. As she continues to rank at number three on the team, Kaye is praised for her talent.

“I love that she’s competitive… and really driven… she hits the ball a ton. She can recover off the ball and that is, that’s pretty special for a freshman,” Lang said.

Kaye’s American experience has just begun, and tennis has been a special addition.

“She’s so good that she moved into the middle of the lineup, and so she pushed some veteran players back. That was a potentially sensitive, prickly situation, but she handled it beautifully,” Lang said