Emily Harman halted near the baseline and fired a rally over the net. Standing at the other end of an Arizona tournament facility, then-Syracuse head coach Luke Jensen noticed the powerful contact and follow-through. He shouted, “Way to go, West Virginia.” Harman turned her head and smiled.

At the time, Harman was on track to graduate from Petersburg (West Virginia) High School a year early to take a gap year. After watching that shot, Jensen approached Harman, and tried to convince her to skip the gap year.

“You might get injured,” Jensen told Harman. “I have this full scholarship available now, why don’t you just come and play for me now?”

Harman was the last player in Syracuse history to be named three-time all-conference player, back when No. 31 Syracuse (13-12, 5-9 Atlantic Coast) was in the Big East. Harman bought into Jensen’s professional plan and compiled 125 career wins at SU — No. 19 all-time. During Jensen’s time as SU head coach, he said he focused on preparing players for a professional tennis career beyond their time in college.

While Harman chased a professional career herself, she settled down as an assistant coach at West Virginia, and plans to attend Dartmouth’s prestigious medical school in the fall. Seven years after she patrolled the Drumlins Country Club courts for Syracuse, Harman is preparing to embark on a new path away from tennis.

“I’ve gotten to re-insert myself back into academia while coaching,” Harman said. “It’s always been that next step for me after I hung my rackets up, another passion of mine.”

After graduating from SU, Harman traveled across the United States and Canada, competing in International Tennis Federation and Women’s Tennis Association tournaments. She peaked at No. 232 in WTA doubles, but shoulder and knee injuries set her back.

Courtesy of Sharon Harman

Four years ago, Harman’s phone buzzed with a message from Miha Lisac, head coach at WVU. “You’re from West Virginia, would you be interested in coming back and coaching for us?” Lisac asked.

An 8-10 year track to professional tennis that Jensen pitched when Harman was at SU intersected with the three-year timetable Harman gave herself for the professional circuit. She turned down the first WVU offer because it didn’t pay well enough, her dad, David Harman, said. Days later, WVU called again.

“How much money will it take for you to take this job?” Harman’s parents recall WVU asking.

Harman said she didn’t initially want the job, but she had “no excuse” after the call.

Throughout her four seasons in Morgantown, the Mountaineers have only won one Big 12 match, but that win was the first in program history. Harman’s WVU players don’t have the same outlook on tennis that Harman has, her parents, David and Sharon, said. Most tennis players on WVU don’t plan on playing professionally, instead taking advantage of their scholarships for academics.

“She’s hardcore, she expects a lot of herself and she expects other people to do the same,” David said. “It’s tough for her to see kids with full scholarships and just really aren’t putting 100% into it.”

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Harman lost just one match in high school, went undefeated in doubles and totaled six state championships in her three years — three doubles, two singles and one team title. At Syracuse, she cracked the top of the lineup for both singles and doubles in her first match, an 8-3 doubles victory and straight-set singles win. For the next four years, she was the cornerstone of a program that reached its then-highest team ranking of No. 39 her senior year.

“We came out of nowhere and didn’t care about what anybody thought of us,” Harman said. “We just kept plugging away.”

When Harman starts medical school — she’s “quite positive” it’ll be at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth — she’ll put her coaching career on hold.

Along with professional tennis, medical school has been on Harman’s mind since her childhood. In high school, Harman interned in the physical therapy unit at her local hospital for 300 hours. She spent nearly two decades accomplishing her tennis dreams, and now, the academic one is in sight.

“When I went to college, that (medical school) was also a future option for me.” Harman said. “At that point I was very young and I had a dream — that little kid dream of being a doctor.”

 

Published on April 28, 2019 at 8:26 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew