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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

Celia Tonidandel isn’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill freshman athlete at West Forsyth.

Currently on the girls indoor track-and-field team for the Titans, she also played tennis and ran on the girls cross-country team this past fall, and she is expected to run on the girls outdoor track-and-field team this fall.

“I’ve always played tennis since I was younger,” she said. “I just started running in middle-school last year (at Hanes), in middle-school cross-country.”

But despite her athletic prowess in multiple sports her first love is tennis. She took to tennis naturally.

“Both of my parents (Scott and Ashley Tonidandel) played tennis in college,” she said. “They played at Davidson.”

According to Tonidandel, she picked up a tennis racket for the first time when she was 5 or 6.

“I never really saw (my parents) play,” she said. “But I would always go to like my pool. And I would always see people playing tennis, and I just thought it was fun.”

Tonidandel also has two brothers playing soccer — Oscar, 19, who just transferred to Elon from North Carolina, and Simon, 17, who plays for Charlotte FC.

“I tried it for a little bit and I just never liked it as much as I liked other sports like tennis,” Tonidandel said.

Now at age 15, all of the hard work on the practice court has paid off.

“I feel like I’ve improved a ton over the past year or so,” Tonidandel said. “That’s when I really started to get more serious because over, throughout middle-school I was into it. Like I wasn’t in tournaments as much because I got a little injured in sixth-grade year. But like more recently I’ve been starting to play almost every day.”

Although playing in youth tournaments, Tonidandel played for Hanes Middle School.

“It was good. Middle-school tennis obviously isn’t very competitive,” she said. “And there was, like just recently like a tournament for the whole middle-school. So, before that I wasn’t really doing much for the team.”

Leaving Hanes last summer and transitioning to being a freshman at West Forsyth posed its own challenges. She went out for the girls tennis team last August. She not only played tennis for the school, she was the No. 1 seed in singles.

“I really liked it as a freshman, but it’s hard obviously because being No. 1 it’s awkward for the (Co-Head Coaches Jeff Rickert and Gordon McEachran) — he had me play against upperclassmen. And my coach, he wanted me to help coach them, so that’s what I was trying to do.”

The Titans’ tennis team struggled throughout the season, but Tonidandel was solid as a rock.

“She was our No. 1 player clearly and just came in and, you know, just, she didn’t need a whole lot of coaching from me,” Rickert said. “And, in fact, she played two sports, and really, you know, is a very talented athlete in many other sports as well.”

Playing No. 1 singles for Titans, she said, didn’t faze her.

“It is added pressure, yeah, but helped a lot, is a lot of the seniors that played for other schools, I was good friends with them,” Tondandel said. “So, a lot of my matches weren’t as stressful because I would hit with them and I played them before.

“That helped alleviate some of the pressure.”

Tonidandel proved to be wiser than her freshman years on the tennis court.

“She came in and knew more than the basics,” Rickert said. “I mean, she was well-schooled before she even came. So, she was an advanced freshman.”

Being advanced as a tennis player allowed her to share her knowledge of the sport with her teammates. However, she was simultaneously on the girls cross-country team.

“I didn’t get to go to as many practices as I hoped I could because I was also running cross-country at the same time,” Tonidandel said. “But everyone was so nice.”

Coach Nathan Newsome, who just retired as the boys and girls cross-country, indoor and outdoor track-and-field coach at West Forsyth this past Friday, didn’t know much about Tonidandel other than a little research.

“With incoming freshmen, when I see their names on the list I try and look back and see what they did in middle-school,” Newsome said. “And she looked to be one of the top runners in the county in middle-school.”

Last summer, Tonidandel started coming to some of the summer workouts that the West Forsyth cross-country team had.

“You could immediately tell she was going to be really, really good,” Newsome said. “Then I found out that she was also a tennis standout.

“…So, when she would come to me for practice I think, you know, she would then go do tennis, and do a lot.”

According to her, playing two sports didn’t stunt her growth in tennis.

“I think cross-country is really good for me,” Tonidandel said. “I really enjoy it. It helps my fitness level a lot, as well.”

In fact, playing both sports at once was beneficial. And cross-country never conflicted with her West Forsyth tennis matches.

“I went to almost every cross-country practice I could make,” Tonidandel said. “And then for tennis I could practice afterwards. So, I would normally go to my cross-country practices. That would end around 5:30 and then I would have tennis from like 6 to 7:30 or 8.”

Having that busy schedule, plus a heavy load of schoolwork, was taxing.

“It’s a lot to juggle, but I feel like I have time to do it,” Tonidandel said. “And I just really have to decide what I care about a lot, and those are, sports are kind of my priorities. It’s just all I do is go to my practices and then I do my homework.”

According to her, her best finish in cross-country last fall was 21:59, after beginning the season at 22:30.

“I had to miss a lot of meets because I had a little injury,” Tonidandel said. “I just had like a little overuse-tendon issue in one of my knees. So, I went to PT for that…and it’s pretty much gone now.”

Even as a teenager, Tonidandel has put quite a bit of wear and tear on her body.

“And I think aggregate over the summer, by the time we got to the start of the season, the very first meet we had, which was the Clash of the Classes in Boone, she was injured by the end of the race,” Newsome said. “…You know, tennis is what, if I had to guess, tennis is a lot of stop, start, back and forth, a lot of lateral.”

Clearly showing prowess on the cross-country course, however, Tonidandel fully admits that tennis is her first love.
“I think the family is a tennis family,” Newsome said. “And I think there’s probably a lot of emphasis on that. But you know, I coach running and you can see it bright as day when somebody’s got it. She does.”

Tonidandel clearly has it in tennis, too, despite her knee injury.

“She played maybe five matches. It wasn’t a lot,” Rickert said. “And she was able to play in the (Central Piedmont 4-A) conference tournament and got to the semifinal round, so was able to advance to advance to the (regional).”

Rickert has noticed the ability Tonidandel has.

“She’s a natural,” he said of her. “Her brothers are very good, so it kind of runs in the family. So, I think she’s got it in her genes. She’s very gifted.”

Despite being relatively knew to cross-country Tonidandel fared quite well with the Titans last fall.

“She ended up being one of our top five runners by the end of the season,” Newsome said. “But I wasn’t surprised because I really thought she would be one of the top runners. Maybe not the top, she was top-seven for sure. But you could see it coming.”

Newsome saw another side of Tonidandel one night at a team dinner at River Oaks.

“They have a lot pool tables and ping-pong tables and stuff like that. And I saw her playing ping-pong. And she was really good. And I like ping-pong, and I said, ‘Let’s play.'” Newsome said. “And you could tell she was really competitive, really good.

“And that’s when I kind of knew, I was, ‘Yeah, she wants to win at everything she does, like a lot. So, that’s the other trait that really good runners have is that innate drive of, ‘I want to be the best.'”

Newsome wasn’t shy about playing multiple sports when he was a student at West Forsyth.

“I think that when you’re on two simultaneous teams that is a natural event for you to maybe develop a preference for one team dynamic versus the other. And in cross-country it’s a very team-driven sport. And maybe tennis allows for more individuality. I’m not a tennis expert, so I can’t really speak to that.

“But I do know what I’ve gathered from tennis is there’s a lot of individual time, practice time, that you need to be hitting and doing some stuff.”

As if doing multiple sports in the fall wasn’t enough, she has played tennis almost every day this winter, either indoor or outdoor. She has also competed in summer swimming since she was 4 and has swum for TYDE, her club swim team. However, she hasn’t swum for West Forsyth.

“I did think about it (competing on the Titans’ swim team),” Tonidandel said. “If I hadn’t enjoyed cross-country as much as I did then I might’ve thought about doing swim. But I just really like the team environment for track, and I really started liking running more.”

Now that cross-country and tennis are over until the fall she went to the girls indoor track-and-field team, singularly focused on the 1,000-meter run.

“I feel like I’ve done really well,” Tonidandel said. “I had a really good race the other meet, I mean the meet I did like before (Christmas) break. And that just helped a lot. I feel like I figured out how I should run it. Instead of conserving a lot of energy, which is what I normally do.”

According to her, Tonidandel first ran the 1,000 this season at 3:32, and her PR this season is 3:17. She is also running in the relays. She had a chance to improve her times this past Wednesday at the Central Piedmont 4-A Championship, which was moved from last week to this week at JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem.

“I don’t have any time goals in particular, in my 1,000,” Tonidandel said. “I just want to run it the way I feel like I should. For my 3×8(00) I hoping to get around a 2:30 for my 800 split, 2:32.”

Tonidandel’s knee is near 100% and her speed is improving.

“If she continues to run cross-country and track she will be a very, very good runner. Like really good.” Newsome said. “But, you know, it’ll be a balancing act of what she can do and how much she can take, and what she’s enjoying doing.”

The indoor track and field season is quickly coming to an end. The NCHSAA Class 4-A state championship is scheduled for Sat., Feb. 14 at JDL Fast Track. Tonidandel think it’s possible that the relay team can compete in the state championship.

In addition, outdoor track and field starts in February. Tonidandel wants to run 800-meter and the mile, plus the relays this spring.

“Hopefully the 800 will be what I focus on,” she said. “I just feel like that’s what I enjoy more than the mile. And I feel like if I practice enough and I like work on focusing just on that I can do pretty well and (improve) my times a lot.”

Newsome might have retired as the West Forsyth cross-country and track-and-field coach, and Sean Joyce might be replacing him, but Newsome sees a bright future for Tonidandel.

“I just think the more she figures it out, you know, and once she decides she wants to be good at because she’s so smart I think she’ll figure it out, you know, if her body will hold up,” Newsome said. “So, like I said, you know, if you’d asked me at the beginning of the year I would’ve thought she was going to be one of our top two or three girls on the team.

“So, the fact she ended up being in the top seven, I think her journey just got a little bit delayed due to that injury early on.”

Still with much to accomplish rest of her freshman year at West Forsyth, Tonidandel, who has a 4.5 GPA, still wants to show all she can do.

“I like to think tennis is my main sport and track keeps me fit, but i do really like track,” she said. “If i can go somewhere with it I will. I’m hoping to just improve a lot over the next couple years and see how I do.”