The Cherry Roberds MHS Invitational Tennis Tournament returned to Miami High School on April 3, bringing together teams from across the region for a full day of competition featuring 86 matches across four brackets — boys singles, boys doubles, girls singles, and girls doubles.
Senior Jeffrey Askew claimed first place in boys singles, headlining a strong performance from the Miami High roster. Askew holds the number one singles spot. Coach Joy Wilson also noted that senior Chris White, who has competed all four years, brings consistency to the lineup, and juniors Jose Serrata and Hector Mariscal, who began playing last year, have quickly climbed the team rankings.
On the girls side, senior Adrena Calderia leads the team as the number one singles player, joined by senior Alexis Moody at number two. Both have played all four years and are praised by Wilson as hardworking and highly skilled.
This year's draw was a bit lower than usual — 86 matches compared to the event's typically larger field — due to a couple of teams being unable to attend. The tournament has run continuously since its founding, with the only interruptions coming from weather. In the current Division III AIA standings, the Miami boys are ranked 24th, with the girls at 43rd.
The tournament carries deep roots in the Miami High School tennis program. According to Wilson, the event dates back to the late 1960s, when Cherry Roberds herself launched it.
"She was a Miami High School graduate, and then she went to ASU and then she came back to teach," Wilson said.
Roberds' dedication to the sport and her students was remarkable by any measure. In 2018, at the age of 81, she was still teaching and coaching during her 54th year in the program. That same commitment to excellence earned her recognition on the national stage, as Roberds was named National Coach of the Year in tennis. According to a Facebook page honoring her legacy, Roberds and her teams brought home more than 25 state championships over the course of her remarkable career.
Roberds continued coaching through 2020, when the season was cut short. She passed away that June. Though she had stepped out of the classroom a few years earlier, she remained dedicated to the tennis program until the end.
Wilson, now in her 19th year leading the program, was herself a player under Roberds. When she returned to Miami High for student teaching, Roberds drafted her to help with both tennis and volleyball. The transition of leadership was years in the making.
"Probably since 2015, 2016, she decided that eventually I was going to take over and started getting me prepared for that," Wilson said.
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