GREENFIELD — When Avery Spencer wasn’t lining game-winning points past her opponents on the tennis court, her interests and passions mirrored her persona.
From the analytical to the comical — mostly seen on her Tik Tok feed — the 2020 Greenfield-Central graduate had every opportunity to get lost in her family’s tennis legacy.
Instead, the sport not only brought her closer to her father, David, who was a tennis coach at Greenfield-Central from 2003-13; it was one of many significant parts to her multi-faceted thirst to pave her own path.
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Hometown pride drove her to become a member of the City of Greenfield Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council, which helped approve a new municipal flag this past May.
Her love for music, especially Billie Eilish, resulted in a speaker-thumbing, impromptu karaoke tradition on the Cougars’ team bus before every sectional match the past three years.
If she’s not binge watching Netflix, Spencer can trace back the origins of every flattened penny she’s collected through more than a decade of family vacations. Each smashed copper coin stretched to perfection inside various tourist vending machines at stops across the nation and globally.
She’s worn a crown as the Riley Festival Pageant Queen, and can’t resist the urge to power nap daily. But, her true center the past four years has always revolved around tennis.
“It’s a lifelong sport like golf that you can play as long as you want to,” Spencer said. “I played in my driveway a lot, hitting against the garage door when I was little, and I still do that. I get yelled at sometimes, if I hit the garage too hard. Even now.”
A few weeks past graduation, Spencer hasn’t been quite as active on the courts these days while taking summer courses in West Lafayette at Purdue University.
As the ninth member of her family, and third generation, to become a Boilermaker, academics superseded sports, but the memories won’t quite fade — if ever.
And, the same can be said of Spencer’s impact on the Cougars’ program.
Spencer would have been a four-year varsity starter for the Cougars this spring and was named the girls tennis program’s most valuable player three times, including her freshman season in 2017.
As a player, her overall career record equated to 33 wins, 17 losses and a winning percentage at 66 with a 13-8 Hoosier Heritage Conference standing in three seasons.
She reached the sectional finals twice as a singles player and the team placed second at sectional her sophomore year. While the numbers hold weight, the memories and relationships are what will stand the test of time for Spencer.
“I loved how (tennis) connected me to my dad. And, it was kind of my own thing. I could go out there on the court and do my own thing, but it was a team sport at the same time,” Spencer said.
The Hospitality and Tourism Management major always had the support she needed from her teammates, coaches and parents, David and Kathy, who watched from the sidelines as she kicked off her career quickly.
Greenfield-Central tennis coach Michael Turpin had eight girls on his roster the season before Spencer joined the team, so the opportunity was there for her to jump right in as a freshman and contribute.
Spencer started at No. 2 singles and had the best record on the team at 10-3 to earn her first of three straight MVP honors.
Another season at No. 2 singles resulted in a 13-8 record before she went 10-6 as a junior at No. 1 singles.
“To think she was actually coming into her stride this offseason, I think she would have come out significantly better her senior year than she even was her junior year, so it would have been hard for anyone to take that (MVP) title from her,” Turpin said.
“She definitely matched the exact personality of someone you wanted on your team. She was going to come out, give her best, work hard, try to build up her teammates, while at the same time knew how to keep everybody else in a good mood, too. She definitely knew how to work and have fun at the same time. It was a good balance.”
Her equilibrium showed up in her approach on the court. A serious competitor, Spencer would dissect the game with the best, especially her father, but smiling was also essential.
Turpin can attest. As the team’s bus driver, there was always one constant, like Spencer, particularly en route to sectional matches — Fergie’s “Fergalicious.”
“That was the team jam,” Turpin laughed. “Funny thing is the entire time she was here, they kept asking for a speaker for practice, and they were ready to order one, but that was another joke, too. She’d ask me, “Where’s our speaker?’ I’d tell her, ‘Yeah, it’s in the mail.’ I said that for five months straight. Funny enough, we were going to get one (in 2020), but they didn’t get to play, so it’s still in the mail.”
Disappointed by the loss of her spring season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and schools shutting down statewide, Spencer finds solace in being named All-HHC as a junior and memories such as “Fergalicious,” a song she played her freshman year and caught on.
It paid dividends, Spencer claims, her sophomore year when the Cougars achieved a feat not even her father witnessed while coaching.
“In the semifinals that year, we played New Pal, and I was down 2-5, and Turpin came and talked to me. He told me, I need to come back and win this set. Our team is doing good. We’re going to get the points we need,” Spencer recalled. “So, I came back and won that set 7-5, and then our 2 doubles and 3 singles ended up winning, so it came down to my match at 2 singles.
“I won 6-4 in the second set to win the match and send us to the finals at sectional. It was even better that it was the first time we beat New Pal in over 25 years. It was a very special moment.”
Life events off the court were just as impactful along the way.
As a youth, Spencer grew up around tennis with her father, who would bring Avery along to practices and matches. It instilled in her the passion she would later use to become a team leader from the start.
“I loved going to the practices when I was little and getting to hit with the older girls and getting to be a part of their team. I kind of picked it up from there,” she said.
“I felt like I had to lead by example. Turpin would always talk to me about how my team would look down and see that if I was up, then it would kind of give them the moral to come back, knowing that they could win too, and we could still win this match.”
Winning through leadership spilled over for Spencer, no more so than when it pertained to Greenfield and the James Whitcomb Riley Home and Museum.
The annual event has been a mainstay for her family over the years. Spencer admits to having a profound connection to the event since she was an infant.
“My parents met at Riley Festival and then they got engaged there. My dad popped in the parade one year, and he had a sign that said, ‘Kathy, will you marry me?’ And, so ever since I’ve been born, I’ve had my picture taken to this day, every year at Riley Festival, from when I was in a car seat to this past year with my crown, in front of the statue,” Spencer said.
Becoming the pageant queen in 2019 was a bonus as she entered on a whim, but the museum’s penny-smashing machine was a result of loyalty and a desire to give back.
“I have hundreds of smashed pennies. At least 300 for sure. We have them from Hawaii to Disney to Michigan. All over the country,” Spencer said.
“I was probably 10, and we decided to do a family vacation every year, and so we would stop and see these penny machines,” Spencer continued. “We just started doing it at every stop where they had one, and it caught on to become a tradition.”
Spencer wanted to continue her family’s routine at home, too, but there wasn’t an option until her father aided in raising money to install one.
“I always asked why Greenfield didn’t have one? Greenfield has a lot to show with James Whitcomb Riley and the museum deserves to have one, so my dad looked into it. We got together and we did it,” Spencer said.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, a philosophy Spencer lives to the fullest.
“Some people you kind of have to build up when you talk to them during a match or you can’t really reflect too much on what’s actually happening, but with her, we would just joke or we’d try to say something to keep it light,” Turpin remarked. “Then, all of a sudden, she’d be there again.”
Humor is her levity. Her competitiveness is nature mixed with nurture.
“Her dad’s phrase was always, ‘Eighth game is most important.’ I would always tell her, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you heard this or not, but the score is 4-3 right now, and I’ve heard from some pretty good experts that the eighth game is the most important game in the entire tennis match, so we have to get this next one right here,’” Turpin said. “She would laugh about that.”
Heading off to West Lafayette was bittersweet for Spencer, who made it her focus to stay three shots ahead of her opponents. No longer competing, she’s still thinking about the future and remains appreciative of the past.
“Especially with COVID-19 cutting my senior year short, it was nice getting to have that experience of Riley Festival and being Riley Queen,” Spencer said.
“But, what I missed the most were my teammates and being able to have the tennis aspect. It was nice that Greenfield did allow us to have a graduation two weekends ago. It was very special that we were able to walk across the stage.”
