Jamie Loeb, Ossining's Rising Tennis Star

In the backyard of their home in Ossining, NY, Jerry Loeb and his daughter Jamie played wiffle ball, using the traditional white plastic ball with slots and thin yellow plastic bat. Jerry, a tall man with a thick black mustache, pitched from one end of the patio to Jamie at the other end. “She was just three,” said Jerry, “and it only took her a few swings to get the hang of it.” Within a few minutes, Jamie starting hitting line drives over the fence 50 feet away. “I knew then she was an athlete,” said Loeb.

Jerry Loeb had no way of knowing then that his daughter would go on to become a State Champion tennis player while at Ossining High School, and then the NCAA Singles Champion for the University of North Carolina in her Freshman year.

Ossining’s Jamie Loeb ranks as the number-one women’s college tennis player in the US. She confirmed her ranking this past weekend in Flushing Meadows, NY, winning the inaugural US Open American Collegiate Invitational.

Loeb comes from a tennis family. Both of her older brothers, Jason and Justin, play, and her sister, Jenna, won the State Singles Championship for Ossining High three times, and then enjoyed an impressive tennis career at Wake Forest University. Jamie considers Jenna her main role model. “She was an accomplished player at Ossining winning three State titles,” says Jamie, “and she’s an amazing sister.”

“The whole family supports Jamie,” says her mom, Susan Loeb. “Her brothers and sister try to see her play whenever they can. That makes me happy.”

Following her siblings’ example, Loeb started playing tennis at three-years-old. She took lessons and played at Club Fit in Briarcliff up until age seven.

At only seven, Loeb told her parents she wanted more intensive tennis training. They signed her up at the Hardscrabble Club in Brewster, where she worked with tennis pro/coach Jay Devashetty.

Jamie began to play competitively at the age of 8, and she won the first of many trophies that year at a Hardscrabble Club tournament.

While in seventh grade at the Anne M. Dorner Middle School, Loeb joined the Ossining High School varsity tennis team. She lost in a sectional match that year, but the experience readied her for progressive success: In 8th grade she lost to Jennifer Kellner of Hauppauge High School in the state quarter finals, Kellner went on to win the championship; as a Freshman, Loeb made it all the way to the final match, but lost to Blair Seideman of Jericho High School.

Sophomore year, Loeb defeated Hannah Camhi of Syosset High School to win the state championship for Ossining.

Then came a big decision. Loeb wanted to work to become a professional tennis player. This meant traveling to tournaments all over the US and in Europe. She needed to play other young women better than her in order to up her game. Being in high school full time did not allow for this, so she and her parents decided she’d finish high school on-line, and travel to top junior tournaments.

“Many at the school didn’t like Jamie’s decision,” said her high school coach Nancy Variano. “She’s a state champion for Ossining, but might not be put on the Wall of Fame because she didn’t stay. I was sorry to see her go, but she did the right thing. Jamie had high goals, knew what she needed to do to get better and did it. Look at her now; she’s earned a bid into next year’s US Open. Obviously she was right.”

With her win at the US Open American Collegiate Invitational, Loeb qualifies for an automatic wildcard entry into the 2015 US Open. If, in the meantime, she can move up the pro rankings to 150 or better, she enters the main draw. “In order to make the main draw, I’d need to play in many pro tournaments this year,” says Loeb. She can continue to play college tennis and participate in pro tournaments as long as she does not accept prize money. “There are some pro tournaments I plan to play in, but that is not my focus. If I can improve my ranking, great, but I can also try to win my way through the wild card. Right now I have the UNC singles season ahead of me,” said Loeb.

The UNC season begins this Friday, September 12 in Cary, NC. “With two of the top ranked players in the country, Jamie and Hayley Carter, we expect a good year,” said UNC tennis coach Brian Kalbas. “Both these young women have what they need to be pros. After Jamie won the Collegiate Invitational on Saturday, the first thing she asked me was, ‘What’s our schedule this week coach.’ She wanted to get back to work.”

Loeb benefits from two coaches now, Kalbas at UNC and Felix Alvarado, her personal coach at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, Randall’s Island, NY. “We’ve worked together three and a half years. While Jamie is at school, I work with her over breaks and during the summer, and we keep in touch all year,” says Alvarado. “When home, she comes to the Academy early to uses the gym, works on Tennis, and stays after to stretch. I do not need to push her. She’s the first person at this high performance level that I’ve worked with, so it’s fun for me too.”

Long-time friend Christine Kopera met Jamie Loeb at Torbank Nursery School when they were three. Kopera is also a state champion athlete. She played on the Ossining Girls Varsity Basketball State Championship team in 2013. “Though I’ve known Jamie all my life, when I saw her play a number one seed at a tournament, she became a person I’d never seen before: the glean in her eye, so driven, so focused, all eyes-on-the-prize on the court. As soon as she came off the court, she was my friend Jamie again,” said Kopera.

Kopera thinks Loeb’s high school state championship had to be tougher than hers. “We had all the other players around us, to pick each other up, to give each other support. On the tennis court — it’s just Jamie.”

Both champions are really just buddies when they get together, according to Kopera. “Jamie has really creepy feet. Here’s this bronze goddess from being on the court all the time, but when she takes off her shoes, her feet are white as snow. I tell her to put something on, they’re scaring me!”

“We are a long way away from each other now,” said Kopera, “but soon, when Jamie plays at the US Open, and the camera pans the box with her family and friends, she knows I better be sitting there.”

(Photo courtesy of Jamie Loeb)