Athletes Of The Week: Cady Stanley

Wayne Country Day senior Cady Stanley came up with several big performances for the Wayne Country Day girls’ tennis team this season.

Playing in the No. 1 singles spot, Stanley, this week’s Female Athlete of the week, helped the Chargers navigate a difficult season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m just glad that we had a season,” Stanley said. “There were a lot of times when the season could’ve been cut short, and there were a lot of matches that got canceled because of COVID that was really hard because I never thought my senior season would look like this, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m just glad that we had one with everything going on.”

While pleased with her own individual season, Stanley sounded even more delighted that her teammates got to have a season. The squad included three seniors, one junior, two freshman and five middle schoolers, and Stanley’s leadership was vital in helping the younger players develop.

“We had a lot of young players, which is good because when you’re the only middle schooler, it can be intimidating,” Stanley said. “We created a really good cohesive unit. We weren’t seniors versus middle schoolers, we were one team, and I was really really proud of that.”

Stanley plays in both singles and doubles matches, and she respects how during doubles, the successful teams communicate well and work together.

“I like that tennis is an individual sport, but it has a lot of team aspects to it as well,” Stanley said. “Singles is really fun because you can where you are improving and where you need to work, and then in doubles, you get to do a lot more strategy, and tennis is really cool when you can work on that strategy with your teammates.”

Stanley said Wayne Country Day head coach Summer Flowers created an environment for Stnalety to thrive in the past few seasons.

A starter on the varsity team since she was a freshman, Stanley worked her way up the varsity ladder. She mostly played the No. 6 singles matches as a freshman, but she started moving up during her sophomore campaign, then earned the No. 1 singles spot her junior season.
Stanley has improved her level of play each season. While her season consisted of more positives than negatives, Stanley said it was tough navigating the ups and downs of such an unpredictable season.

Still, Stanley said this season was fantastic, and she wants to treasure all of the memories she made this season, which included having her younger sister, Lily Stanley, on the team this year.

“My sister is on the team, and she’s a freshman, so I really tried my best to get evey\ryone to talk to each other, and we would go all and eat together and do things together, outside of just practice, and all the seniors were so good about that this year,” Stanley said. “I wanted our team to have fun together.”

Stanley has also shown an aptitude for learning in the classroom. She wants to attend college and study social sciences, noting that she’ll have her tennis racket with her wherever she ends up.

“I’m bringing my racket with me because your girl is going to play at least a little bit.”