Booker High senior advances to tennis state championships

When Edizahir Rodriguez steps onto the tennis court at Sylvan Lake Park for the individual Class 2A state championships, he’ll be playing with an edge his competitors can’t emulate. 

Rodriguez was born and raised in Venezuela and immigrated to the United States for a chance at a better life last summer. 

Part of living a better life for Rodriguez, a senior at Booker High, includes chasing his dreams of becoming a collegiate tennis player, but that pursuit condenses down to a little less than a year. 

That means every match Rodriguez has played this season carries the weight of his future. 

Those stakes are why Rodriguez had a slow start to the final round of the No. 1 singles bracket at the 2A-District 10 tournament on April 15 at Avon Park High School. 

Rodriguez said he felt rushed and nervous as he fell behind four games to none in the opening set against Bayshore’s Mohamed Yasin. 

“I was so nervous because I was like this could be my last high school match,” Rodriguez said. “I had to win, but I was nervous. I hadn’t eaten anything all day.”

Rodriguez was allowing his nerves to hold him back. Booker boys tennis coach Sonja Herke stepped in and reminded him to take his time.

Rodriguez then went on to mount a rally in which he won six straight games to steal the set, 6-4, and won the second set, 6-2, to win the No. 1 singles bracket and secure a spot in the state championships. 

What made Rodriguez’s win even more crucial was he had no chance to advance past the district tournament with his team regardless of the results. 

Building a team

When Rodriguez arrived at Booker to start the school year, there was no boys tennis team, but that didn’t stop him from finding a way to play. 

“I said to myself, ‘No, I have a chance to keep playing tennis. I have to find the people,’” Rodriguez said.

That led him to recruit his friend, Caiden Hough, to play, and Hough recruited Jeremy Perez to join, too. However, Hough and Perez had never played tennis before, and three players isn’t enough to field a full tennis team that includes five singles players and two doubles teams.

Despite that, those three players were enough for Herke — who had been a volunteer coach for the Booker girls team for five years — to step in as the head boys tennis coach. 

Photo by Vinnie Portell

“In January we had our first practice, and the boys came back and came back again,” Herke said. “So the boys kept showing up and I said, ‘Well, what are you going to do with the boys?’ And they said there’s no coach. I’m like, ‘What are you going to do, tell them to leave? We can’t do that.’ So I looked at the ground and said, ‘I’ll do it.’”

Creating a boys tennis team from scratch came with its fair share of work.

Hough said he showed up to practice without a racquet and wore Nike Air Force sneakers for the first week of practice, which didn’t go well. 

Eventually, however, Hough and Perez improved, and Rodriguez had his pathway to playing. 

Rodriguez went 9-3 playing out of Booker’s No. 1 singles spot this season and will have one last chance to make his mark on high school tennis when the 2A state championships begin on April 30. 

For Rodriguez, though, life in Sarasota has been a step up regardless of what he does on the tennis court.

A better life

Rodriguez moved to Sarasota with his mother, Arelis Torres, and left his father, Edilbert Rodriguez, and five younger siblings behind in Venezuela to get away from what he described as unfit living conditions. 

“In Venezuela, things are actually kind of hard with the living and the safety,” said Rodriguez, who added he’s applying for asylum. “For me, I’m a young person and I want to take all of the opportunities life can give me. I know here in the United States I can use all of those opportunities.”

His only idea for what to expect came from watching movies about high school in the United States, and it has lived up to expectations.

Even the most simple luxuries of life at Booker impressed Rodriguez, who said his school in Venezuela would often lose power and water and had no substitute teachers to fill in — all of which often resulted in missing class time. 

“Over here I was like, ‘Oh my God, they have soap and water. That’s amazing. They have a budget,’” Rodriguez said. 

Despite the challenges of schooling in Venezuela, Rodriguez said adjusting to academics at Booker hasn’t been a challenge. 

Though some subjects, like U.S. history and government, are topics he’s unfamiliar with, other subjects like chemistry have been easier. 

He said he hopes to go to college and study dentistry while exploring his passion for filmmaking as a hobby, but he’s also not giving up on his dream of playing tennis. 

Because of his lack of time playing tennis in the United States, that may mean that he’s forced to walk on to a college tennis team, but that’s something he said he’s willing to do. 

Success at the upcoming 2A state championships could make things easier, but win or lose, Rodriguez is already content. 

“I don’t feel pressure or like I’m scared or anything,” Rodriguez said about the state tournament. “I’m really happy with what I’ve done. Going to states is something I’ve never done before. It’s a new experience that I’m really happy about.”