HARTLAND, Wis. — Anna Long has had a racket in her hand for longer than she can remember.

She even has a home video saved on her phone showing her three-year-old self swinging on a tennis court.

Fifteen years later, Long still loves to play. She and her three ultra-competitive brothers learned the game from their mother, Myrna.

“We would play family tennis all the time,” Long said. “Two people would play singles, one set of doubles. It got pretty intense.”

Long joined the Arrowhead High School tennis team as a freshman, competing as a singles player for two seasons. Coach Cindy Ziegler-Fritz tried something new when Anna became an upperclassman, slotting her into a doubles pairing. The coach says Long embraced the new challenge.

“She’s got that attitude; ‘You tell me I can do it? Yep, I can do it,’” Ziegler-Fritz said.

Long became part of the team’s top doubles pairing, and took on a captain’s role as a senior.

Arrowhead captured a team conference title in the Fall 2020 season, with Long and partner Hannah Cady advancing to the state doubles tournament. The pair made a run all the way to the championship match in Lake Geneva, returning with runner-up medals.

“It kind of feels unreal to me still,” Long said. “Knowing we didn’t get really much of a season, but how bad we still wanted to win and do well kind of pushed us to work hard.”

Ziegler-Fritz credits Long’s willingness to take on challenges for her impressive finish to her high school tennis career. Even off the court, Long says she sees challenges as opportunities for growth.

At Arrowhead, she has served on the student senate, in National Honor Society and as a leader with the school’s Spanish Honor Society, all while maintaining a 3.7 grade point average.

“When something seems kind of hard or tricky, she just kind of figures it out,” said Spanish teacher and Spanish Honor Society advisor Jeanne Psket. “She’ll problem-solve, work around it. She never seems phased by it.”

In addition to athletics and honor roll academics, community service has been a major part of Long’s high school experience. With both her family and teammates, she assembled hundreds of face masks at the start of the pandemic last year. Anna also has fond memories of service trip to St. Louis, where she and members of her church spent several days beautifying city parks.

“That was one of the best weeks of my life,” Long said. “Just getting to do something good and having a fun time while doing it.”

She is still deciding what and where she will study in college, but Anna Long will make sure to bring the lessons and leadership skills she developed on the high school tennis court.