Hamburg’s Mia Gassert is a smashing success, no matter what she’s hitting
(First of a seven-part a series)
Mia Gassert admits she’s thought about giving up softball or basketball – or both – to concentrate on tennis, her No. 1 sport.
The rising junior at Hamburg is one of the top players in the county; she reached the BCIAA Flight One singles championship last fall as well as the District 3 Class 2A championship match.
She’s been a state qualifier in each of the past two years and was the only sophomore on the All-Berks team last season.
Yet she always finds herself behind when she takes the court.
She spends her winter afternoons and evenings on the basketball court, her spring days playing center field for the Hawks. All the while top-ranked players across the state – girls she’ll face at weekend tournaments throughout the summer and in the high school postseason in the fall — are working on their groundstrokes and backhands every week of the year.
It puts Gassert at quite a disadvantage.
Therein lies the dilemma: Should she become a one-sport athlete in order to rise higher on the tennis ladder?
“That’s always in my head,” Gassert admits.
She asks herself that puzzling question over and over again, before and after each season, and hasn’t come up with the definitive answer yet. That in itself is a surprise, since Gassert always comes up with the right answers: She’s a straight-A student – literally.
“I’ve never gotten a ‘B’,” she says with a polite smile.
Not in high school. Not in junior high. Not in elementary school. Never means never; all A’s.
Gassert is a tireless worker, on and off the court. She’ll stay up until midnight, later if needed, to get all of her school assignments done, and done correctly.
“She’s a perfectionist,” says her mom, Amy. “She stresses out over it if she doesn’t have everything done before she can rest.”
Rest? Mia doesn’t get much of that.
Now that school’s out for the summer she’ll hit on the courts at school for a couple hours each morning, take a break, then head to the Hillcrest Tennis Club in Reiffton where she’ll train for a couple more hours. She makes that 40-minute trip five to six times a week.
She’ll try to squeeze in a few summer league games or open gyms with the Hawks basketball team or shoot on the hoop in her driveway to keep sharp; mostly her focus this time of year is on tennis.
That makes her success in her other two sports all the more remarkable.
The 5-7 guard/forward led the basketball team in rebounds and was second in scoring as a sophomore; she ended the season with a flourish, scoring 20 points in each of the final two games, against Fleetwood and Schuylkill Valley.
“(She’s) the definition of a hard worker,” Hamburg basketball coach Amanda York said. “She does all of the little things that might not all show up in the stats.”
Softball is completely on the back-burner come summer. She doesn’t have time to join her teammates in weekend tournaments because she’s usually playing in a tennis tournament. Yet it doesn’t seem to negatively affect her game.
She’ll hit in the batting cage at school when possible during the winter. Come the start of softball practice she’ll be behind the other players a little but she’s such a natural athlete and competitor she gets up to speed quickly.
“It just takes me a little bit, then I’m back in it,” she said.
Gassert batted .380, drove in 25 runs and scored 22 times for the Berks III champion Hawks, who went 18-5 and earned the No. 2 seed in the District 3 Class 4A Tournament. She bats No 2 in the order and is a top-notch defensive center fielder. She earned all-division honors.
If anything, says Hamburg softball coach Zena Lutz, Gassert’s tennis game helps her when she’s batting or running the court in basketball.
“The movement, the side to side, the quickness, it helps her with everything she wants to do,” Lutz said. “The footwork (of tennis), the (required) quickness, the hand-eye coordination.”
True, but do softball or basketball help her when she’s staring across the net at a top-ranked opponent?
In a way, yes.
“Every once in a while she’ll say she wants to back off (one of the sports),” said Amy Gassert, “but I think she needs that break in other sports to come back to tennis and love it again.
“I think it’s important for these kids to be well-rounded and play multiple sports,” Amy Gassert said. “I’d rather see them have fun playing three (than concentrating on one sport). I see kids that play one sport year-round and they get so burned out.”
Mia Gassert is anything but burned out. She talks about each of her three sports with passion and looks forward to each new season – even if that means scraping off a little rust.
“The challenge she has is she switches from sport to sport,” said William Hill, the Director of Tennis at Hillcrest who has been working with Gassert for several years, “but she always makes up that gap really quickly. It’s really impressive that she’s able to do that.
“She’s the best tennis player that we have, but she always is able to reassimilate into that group of people after taking those long breaks.
“She comes back a little rusty, and then is able to jump in with those people who have been training year-round.”
No matter if she’s smashing forehands, shooting free throws or writing an English paper, Gassert has a relentless drive that won’t allow her to be anything but the best.
“She doesn’t just play it to play,” Amy Gassert said. “If she’s going to play, she’s going to do it well. She wants to be the best.”
By not answering the lingering question, Mia Gassert has indeed answered it. Her softball and basketball coaches need not fear: She’s not about to hang up her cleats or sneakers.
“I’ve been playing softball and basketball since I was really young, and I’ve made such good friendships out of them,” she said. “I love playing with my teammates. It’s so hard to quit.”
