From Legacy to Leadership: Jamea Jackson Ushers in a New Era for ASU Women's Tennis

After a legendary career spanning 40 years, former women’s tennis head coach Sheila McInerney announced her retirement before the season's first match. While finding a replacement is never easy, the program was able to find a newcomer to the state of Arizona but veteran to tennis to continue McInerney’s legacy of excellence.

Respected for her skills and unique coaching ability, Jamea Jackson took on the role and inherited the team recruited by McInerney.

While one might expect this transition to impact players who committed to ASU and Coach McInerney, what Jackson found on her first days was quite the opposite.

"When a coach like Sheila retires, players can definitely think, ‘Should I leave? Where am I going to find someone of that caliber?’ And they [the team] all got together and were like, ‘we're all set. We're family,’” Jackson said. “So they had that even before I came. If anything, I'm helping. I'm continuing to facilitate (the family nature of the program) so that they already have this very strong culture of, ‘we are family. Do it for the team.’" 

Usually known as an individual sport, the feeling of camaraderie built within this year’s team is rare when looking across the net and around the world. McInerney's departure left a vacancy at the head of Sun Devil Women’s Tennis, and finding the right fit was essential.

With an established foothold in Tempe for the past three seasons, there was one player who fully understood the importance of McInerney’s leadership style: Patricija Spaka. According to Jackson, Spaka helped bridge the gap between the old and the new, fully aware of what it meant to be a Sun Devil and the challenges they would face.

"It was a similar dynamic for me when I was at Princeton," Jackson stated. "I am the coach, but she, and then even the sophomores, they've been here a lot. So there are things that they know about the school that I don't know. I think with that alone, she (Spaka) has been a little bit more in the driver's seat of the team. She's aware of some of the challenges that we're going to face in ways that maybe I haven't experienced. Coming in, I didn't think that I needed to put any pressure on her at all. She knew that the younger girls are going to be looking to her to lead the way."   

As Spaka paved a path based on the team's decade-old traditions, it left room for Jackson to begin starting her own. Through long practices and early mornings, this path became even clearer, making room for a new outlook and eyes set on long-term outcomes important to younger players like sophomore Ada Piestrzynska. 

"I would say she's (Coach Jackson’s) very experienced as a player on the tour… we can feel it during practice that she's treating us as professional players," Piestrzynska said. "She's trying to prepare us for a professional career. She has this long-term approach just trying to prepare us."

Prior to becoming a coach, Jackson competed full-time on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tour from March 2003 until August 2009 with a career record of 120-87 in singles play and reached a career-high ranking of No. 43 in 2006.

She competed in all four grand-slams and represented the red, white and blue  in the Fed Cup competition in 2006. Over the course of her professional career, she notched top-20 victories over Maria Sharapova, Amy Frazier, Maria Kirilenko and Jelena Jankovic.

As important as the future is to the players, there is still a season left to play. Just as Jackson prepares players for life beyond ASU, she is building a foundation for her tenure with the program, understanding the importance of each day and knowing that a slow start doesn't necessarily mean a rough or long-lasting one.

"There's not a crystal ball that I can say the results are going to happen at this moment, but I know if we do the right things, the results will happen. One thing that I want to instill in these kids is that we bring our best each and every day," Jackson said.

Under coach Jackson’s first fall season for the program, she was able to guide sophomore Emilija Tverijonaite to qualify for the NCAA Singles Tournament being the first Sun Devil to make the singles tournament since 2021 at ITA Southwest Regionals. Tverijonaite also won a singles title at the USTA Intercollegiate championships in San Diego alongside the doubles pair of Spaka and Sara Svetac won the doubles title at the same tournament.

This fall, the Sun Devils were resilient in 3-set matches going 12-3. Entering the 2024 fall season, Tverijonaite was ranked No. 52 in the nation and Svetac was ranked No. 124 according to the ITA preseason rankings. In doubles, Spaka and Svetac were No. 41.

It might not be easy for a coach to take over after a legendary career, but luckily for Jackson, McInerney is a Sun Devil for life and will always be around to support the program.

“We're excited about the energy and spirit she brings to our program and most importantly her experience and how she'll translate that as a head coach who's competed at the highest level of the sport all over the world." said Athletic Director Graham Rossini.

Just as Coach Jackson mentioned, there is no crystal ball for the future, only the commitment to bring the best each day, held together by this team's connection to each other and the confidence that the future of Sun Devil Tennis is a bright one.