Day – All year round girls tennis player: Sarah Hage of Waterford

The first time Sarah Hage played in a tennis tournament, she was 8 years old and her mother in Amale, the home country of Lebanon. He played with clay and won.

“One coach admired him and said he had a fighting spirit,” Amale Hage said recently. “Mentally, he was so hard.”

This is one reason that even though Hage, who became a freshman at Waterford High School this season, had dropped 4-1 in the decisive series of the Eastern Connecticut Conference Tournament Championship – no less than Stonington defending champion Maddie Hamm – Amale felt like her daughter could still win.

“When he played his finals, he was 4-1, but I had a feeling he won the match,” Amale Hage said. “He has experience. He’s played for so many years. He thinks when he loses. He thinks what he has to do to get back.”

Hage was named the tennis player of the year 2021 for all the girls in the area. He was the ECC champion and sent Hamm 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a 3 hour, 16 minute match at Stonington High School. He helped lead the semi-finals of the Waterford M-Class State Tournament, made it to all-class state invitations, and earned Class M All-State honors.

His brother, Fadi Hage Jr., graduated in 2020, is a former No. 1 in the boys ’group at Waterford High School.

The Hage siblings have something else in common. Mom has coached both during her successful tennis career. Amale Hage was Lebanon’s highest women’s tennis player from 1998-2000 and a former physical education teacher there before moving to the United States with her husband Fadi’s parent.

It is typical to see Hage, who started playing tennis at the age of 5 or 6, and his mother on courts outside Waterford High.

“Sometimes I didn’t listen,” said the small-scale Hage, who says he’s about 5-footed, said with a smile. “It’s harder to listen because it’s like your mom. If I work with a coach, I wouldn’t talk back, but I talk to my mom. There are a lot of things I can still learn from her. She taught me strokes, my palms and my feet are the two biggest things. She can teach that. “

Amale believes that Sarah’s strengths lie not only in technology, but also in the mental toughness she describes.

“It’s a sport with a lot of pressure,” Amale said. “I played sports and competed. I know how hard the field is, how to deal with it. … National coaches, high level coaches, all coaches will tell you that 50% of tennis is mental, no matter how good you are. You are alone on the field. You are not you can train. You have to control yourself. No one can help you. “

The two take breaks in their practice. Sometimes they go for a walk or hike instead, or maybe play a board game. From time to time, Hage takes a lesson with another coach to exchange things. Amale also began taking Sarah to practice outside of Waterford once a week to change the landscape.

Hage, 15, is so far unbeaten in this year’s U.S. Tennis Association U16 season 7-0, most recently winning a level 6 midfield boys ’and girls’ singles round at Robin Riverside in Rhode Island, and finished 4-0.

He remembers playing the tournament in Madison at the age of 9 and winning.

“I was really, really nervous,” he said. “It was like half a court for under 10. I was really happy and really excited.”

“It was like‘ Oh my God, ’” Amale said of Sarah’s early victories. “Keep trying. He went on to win and win and win. He doesn’t win everyone, but he does great. ”

Coordinated by Ed Kolnask, Waterford finished 13-1, 10-2 in ECC Division I this season, including Lancers ’first win over six-time division champion Stonington since 2014. Hage lost the series before the ECC final to Hamm, which he fought four times including in the state tournament match.

Hage enjoyed his first season with his Lancers teammates, but even though he took some time off after the season, you’ll still find him practicing.

“I have to work on my service,” he said. “I’m in Waterford with my mom. I’ll kind of take it when it comes. People expect me to win next year.”

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