45 Years After Starting, April Edwards Continues to Delight in Tennis

When she was 15 years old, April Edwards and her family moved from their hometown of Brooklyn, New York to Florida. Edwards — who dreamt of picking up tennis to then capture Grand Slam titles and become a superstar like Serena Williams — would finally get that shot in the warmer southeast climate.

“That never happened,” Edwards said with a big laugh.

That’s because, in part, the high school she attended in Florida didn’t have a girls’ tennis team. But Edwards — a multisport athlete and self-described “tomboy” of her family who did track & field and softball — was a skilled diver during her New York childhood and was practicing for the Olympics. Surely the move to Florida, a state synonymous with water, would help elevate her diving game.

“There was no swimming team in Florida either,” Edwards said. “I was like, ‘What is going on in Florida?’”

So maybe she wasn’t destined to become the next American tennis or diving star after all. Edwards nevertheless picked up tennis during her Florida days and attended a university that did have a women’s tennis team in Daytona Beach College. After graduating and moving back to New York, Edwards joined USTA in her early 20s. Except for a brief period and now at the age of 60, she hasn’t stopped playing USTA since.

“Tennis is a sport you can play for life. You can play forever,” Edwards said. “You can play it by yourself against the wall or with a ball machine. It keeps you in shape. I’ll tell you — when I really want to get some frustrations out — I just go on a tennis court. And I start whamming those balls. I really enjoy that.”

Edwards has also enjoyed the different individuals she’s gotten to play with and against along the way in her multidecade tennis journey. She moved to Missouri in 2009 and has participated in just about every league USTA Missouri offers. That includes women’s 18+, 40+ and 55+ leagues, singles, mixed doubles and more recently tri-level opportunities.

“You meet some really great people. That’s what I enjoy about USTA a lot,” Edwards said. “You get to travel around to different places. Here in USTA Missouri we have to travel because of our proximity to the other tennis facilities in Kansas City, St. Louis or Springfield. That makes it exciting because you have a tennis trip with your girlfriends. That’s fun. I always enjoy that.”

Edwards has coached adult and youth tennis clinics at The Club at Old Hawthorne for the past three years. Her favorite aspect of that is teaching beginner players how to properly hit the ball, then watching the joy on their faces as they succeed for the first time.

“I find that you either love tennis when you first pick it up, or you hate it. There is no in between or middle ground,” Edwards said. “Because you’re either not going to chase after the balls, or you want to go chase the ball, run it down and hit the smack out of it. After you hit the ball a few times, see how you do with it and let me know how you feel about tennis. And 9 times out of 10, they’re like, ‘Yeah, that was fun.’”