By DYLAN FYFFE
Gabby Barerra had her seventh-grade season cut short by Covid, but since then she has played in the last No. 1 singles match each year, battling a variety of talented stars in the Alabama High School Athletic Association state tennis tournament.
Barerra is an accomplished USTA player, but admits there is a different feeling playing AHSAA tennis, where she plays not for herself but as part of a state championship contending team at Montgomery Academy.
“I did not want to lose for my school because you feel there are a lot of eyes on you,” Barrera said. “When people just see this (undefeated singles) record and say “Oh, you won state two years in a row, you can win it again easily, right?” Some people don’t understand how hard it is.”
It is hard, but Barrera made it look easy, reaching the finals for the fifth consecutive year and winning the Class 7A state championship at No. 1 singles for the third consecutive year to earn honors as the Capital City Conference Player of the Year.
Barrera, meanwhile, finished as state runner-up in the 6A state tournament in 2021 and 2022 and won the state championship in Class 7A No. 1 singles by beating Auburn High’s Claire Bosman in 2023 and Huntsville High’s Mazie MacGrotty the last two years.She also won state championships at No. 2 doubles as an eighth grader, teaming with McRae Freeman, and No. 1 doubles as a junior playing with Mae Mae Voltz. This year, Barerra and Lola Campbell reached the finals before losing to Vestavia Hills’ Madison Standifer and Ansley Cox.
“I feel really lucky to have won my senior year, because it definitely was a lot of pressure,” Barrera said. “I had been stressing out about it since the summer going into my senior year. I knew that there was going to be an additional player in my draw that decided to play high school her senior year. I basically knew everyone in my draw but adding her to it was tough because she was a UTSA player. I was super nervous about it. But I did finally beat her.”
She will be attending Ball State University this summer, hoping to just be a sparkle in the crowd, but to grow in a place that she isn’t familiar with.
“Indiana is very opposite (from Alabama),” she said. “It’s hard to explain it. There are parts that are very similar, which is the community. Also, the town is very much a college. The college kids make up for the town.”
Our paths are never fully clear to us and we as people can never understand what the future holds for us. While graduation for some means freedom, for Barrera it meant having more opportunity.
“Never go somewhere based off of what other people are doing,” she said. “Go somewhere based off of what you want to do.”
That’s what led her to Ball State, where she can combine her tennis career with her desire to major in animation.
“It was really hard during the college process to pick a college because my major was so hard to find,” she said. “It was also hard to find a good tennis school and a school of animation. When I went to visit Ball State, there were more (schools) on my list. I was like, ‘I’m going to check this off my box, there is no way I am moving to Indiana.’ But I ended up loving it.”
She signed with Ball State in November, adding to the school’s tradition of producing collegiate tennis players. Barrera is the 14th Eagle to compete at the collegiate level and the ninth to join a Division I-A program.
ALL-CAPITAL CITY CONFERENCE
GIRLS TENNIS TEAM
Gabby Barrera Sr. Montgomery Academy
Lola Campbell So. Montgomery Academy
Morgan French So. Trinity
Hart Johnston Jr. Trinity
Helen Johnston Jr. Saint James
Davis Wilsford Jr. Saint James
PLAYER OF THE YEAR -- Gabby Barrera, Montgomery Academy
COACH OF THE YEAR -- Maddy Ethington, Montgomery Academy
Honorable mention: Raleigh Covert, Fr., Saint James; Alyssa Kaplan, Fr., Montgomery Academy; Sophia Lopez, Sr., Catholic; Taylor McCray, Jr., Trinity; Lottie Phelps, Jr., Trinity; Maria Schwarz, Sr., Catholic; Mary Surhea White, Fr., Montgomery Academy; Olivia Willis, 8th, Saint James.