‘Gatha tennis star bound for Missouri

LEONGATHA’S Zara Littlejohn is taking her talents across the world this month after accepting a scholarship to play collegiate tennis in the United States. 
Following years of hard work both on and off the court, Zara will fly to Missouri and attend William Woods University where she will become a student-athlete, studying exercise science and playing tennis for the ‘Owls’. 

Speaking with the Sentinel-Times last week, Zara explained what got her into the sport and her early days playing tennis. 

“My dad has always had a big influence on me, he’s always played tennis and our family is very tennis orientated and I grew up at the courts since I was young watching dad,” she said.

Her proud father Warren was also alongside for the interview and gave an insight into the early talent that Zara was. 

“We were out at Leongatha North, just a little country courts about half a minute up the road from us, I played there, and Zara played junior tennis there, in C grade juniors,” he said. 

“We won the flag,” Zara added. 

As she grew, Zara started playing at Leongatha Tennis Club under coach Matthew Pocklington and her career really started to kick off, as she explained. 

“Since I was young Matthew Pocklington (South Gippsland Tennis coaching) has always been my coach playing here (Leongatha), then I went over to Traralgon and got coached by Graham ‘Woofa’ Charlton,” she said. 

“And then I progressed on and did squads and Gippsland Sports Academy and Gippy Elite for a few years and then went on to Tennis Australia zone squads.”

Although she was clearly excelling on the court at all stages of her career, the offer to play in the States didn’t come without hard work.

“There’s so many strength and conditioning coaches, we’d be sweeping water off the courts, it’s exhausting,” Zara said. 

“Especially after finishing school, it is hard to watch your friends go off to uni’ and parties when you’ve got to be up Sunday morning at 7am drive an hour to squad, train three to six hours and then drive home.”

The process off-court has been just as dedicated and deliberate as the Littlejohn’s explained.

“It’s a pretty big process to go through, through those Tennis Australia zone squads, if kids get to a certain standard they create opportunities to follow a college tennis dream and Zara really pushed it,” Warren said. 

“She felt like she really wanted to give it a crack, we went through a gentleman in Traralgon Glen Kirstine, he was excellent he’s an agent for athletes that want to do college sport, his business is Collegiate Connections.

“He sources out opportunities, then you sort through those, get in contact with the colleges, they interviewed us, and we interviewed them, there was about eight different universities.

“Then from there you see what’s a good fit for you and talk to the coach get in contact with them team, Zara had to send a lot of footage of her shots, they have to like her play, then we got this offer from the university.”

Zara will have to balance living and studying at the University, while also representing them in their tennis program, competing against other colleges in their division.

“It’s part academic and part sport scholarship, over there you have to study because they’re still pretty big on their grades, if you don’t perform in the classroom, you can get dropped from the tennis team,” Zara said. 

“There’s eight to 10 girls in the team and they rank from one to 10 and we travel around and play other colleges in our division and conference.”

Zara said she looks forward to the challenge of ensuring her performances both on court and in the classroom are excellent. 

“School officially starts on the August 22, so I’ll have orientation for the first couple of days to get settled into my dorm, move all my stuff in and meet my roomies, then it’s straight on court,” she said. 

“I want to just get over there, settle in, meet the girls and really just make sure my form is really strong so I can slot into the team nicely and train hard stay really focused and start out strong.

“I’m looking forward to a new environment, to train in and new people to play against and hit against, new advice from the coaches, I’m looking for a change because obviously I’ve lived here my whole life, so I’m keen to go see life over there.”

Managing new challenges and tests are exactly what Zara loves most about the game of tennis, which she likened to life itself. 

“I love how you can be in a team but it’s also individual, being on court it can really test you; you never know what’s going to be thrown at you or what your opponent is going to be like,” she said.

“Everyone that you play, plays different so having to adapt to different situations in the heat of the moment and playing in the sun is nice.” 

Zara had a long list of thankyous to give out, obviously starting with her parents and Warren expressed his gratitude to those locals that have assisted his daughter along the way too.

“Mum and dad, obviously my coaches Matt Pocklington, Graham Charlton and Aidan Fitzgerald (Gippsland Sports Academy), the people from the Leongatha club they’ve always pushed me, especially the older ones, giving me opportunities, I’ve always been the youngest.”

“Her Saturday team, all the local players she’s played with and against, a lot of local players have put a lot of time into her, playing with, and against her, she’s been in A grade since she was 14 and they’ve really helped,” Warren said. 

Zara will compete with girls from all over the world from America and several parts of Europe, and for anyone wanting to follow her journey, she explained how they can do so. 

“You can get online on the William Woods website, you can livestream my matches, support the William Woods Facebook, social media is probably the biggest one,” Zara said. 

“There might be some young girls out there just go ‘if she can do it, I can do it’ so it’d be really good to get more young girls involved in tennis,” Warren added. 

The 18-year-old will arrive in Fulton, Missouri on August 14 and will commence playing and studying the next week.