Since she was 18 months old, Jordyn McBride was surrounded by tennis. With a mother and a father who are both tennis coaches and an older brother who plays the sport, it was nearly unavoidable.
“I don’t have any memory not playing tennis,” McBride said.
Now a University of San Diego-bound senior at West Ranch High School, McBride has cemented her reputation as one of the best prep tennis players in the Santa Clarita Valley.
She recently won her third consecutive Foothill League singles title, beating out teammate Annette Robertson in the process. Additionally, McBride never lost a set in Foothill League regular season play in her four years on varsity.
Although she beat Robertson in two sets— 6-0, 6-1— the match was still intense and competitive.
“Her serve is very hard,” McBride said of Robertson. “She placed it very well … that was hard. And she also had good volleys. She would come to the net and she would hit a volley and I would barely hit it back and she would hit a volley to the other side.”
McBride, who is the No. 8 recruit in California, according to the Tennis Recruiting Network, said that a lot of her success in tennis is a result of her upbringing. She started competing in tournaments when she was 9 years old, according to her mom, Dina, and began to take the sport seriously at 13.
She was involved in various other sports and activities growing up, which helped shape her as a tennis player.
“She played soccer, she did basketball, she did softball,” Dina, who also coaches the West Ranch varsity squad, said. “I think doing multiple sports as a kid is really great for being a great athlete all around on the tennis court and you can see by the way she moves and how she anticipates, a lot of the sports have come into her tennis.”
McBride said that if she wasn’t playing tennis, she would most likely be involved in dance. At one point, when she was balancing her full schedule as a kid, she took tennis lessons at the Paseo Club, then dance lessons immediately after.
“Some of the footwork in tennis is kind of like step ball change in dance,” McBride said. “When I was 9, I was doing both.”
The CIF-Southern Section playoffs await McBride as she will compete with her teammates in the team playoffs as well as the individual playoffs since she was the singles champion of the Foothill League.
As she advances through the postseason for the final time in her high school tennis career, she’ll do so with her family supporting her.
“Having parents that are also coaches is also a really good thing, especially if it’s the sport you want to get good at. They can always help you and it’s like your coaches are traveling everywhere with you. They’re doing a double job, they take you to your tournaments but it’s like having your coach always there. It’s so convenient — not everybody has that.”
