The Observer, March 7, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 20
Spartan Spotlight: Marta Worwag
Marta Worwag is a junior majoring in biology and Spanish. She graduated from Granville High School in Granville, Ohio and was born in Highland Park, Ill.
Joe Amick: What sport do you play?
Marta Worwag: Tennis, although I enjoy the study marathons at KSL.
JA: You should talk to the cross country coach. What inspired you to play?
MW: When we moved to Granville from Highland Park, my mom desperately wanted me to feel at home and signed me up for the high school team. I always liked [tennis] before then, but I never considered being on a team. Thanks to her, I realized that I actually had some talent!
JA: Who's your favorite athlete?
MW: Roger Federer… he's God.
JA: Perhaps one day we'll crucify him. Any athletic honors?
MW: This is my third year on the team, and I received gifts at the end of each year, but everybody got those. [I] don't remember if that was for achieving something significant or not.
JA: I think an investigative piece is in order. Somebody call The Athenian. What's your best tennis memory?
MW: Playing at a tennis academy in Nice, France. We got up at 7 a.m. to go jogging with the most beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea, then played intense tennis for five hours, leisurely ate a slow paced déjeuner, then went for a swim without having a care in the world.
JA: I hear they have good bread over there. Worst tennis memory?
MW: Freshman year, I was just warming up to my position on the team, trying to get acceptance and build up a name for myself and not make a fool out of myself, when one day I decided to save time and reach a little too far over the net to grab a ball off the ground. Of course the net fell down, taking me with it. Wow, it was embarrassing. Losing can be pretty bad too.
JA: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
MW: Wow, I have never really thought about this question and I feel like I should have. In 10 years, I see myself with a handsome, dark-skinned European man, possibly living out in Europe, working as a great doctor and not worrying about the future for once.
JA: So a doctor married to Barack Obama. If you could invite any three people to dinner, living or dead, who would it be and why?
MW: George Bush, because there are so many stereotypes of him. I am just curious about who he really is, and if we could find anything in common. Maria Sharapova, because she is such a self-confident and determined woman with a great deal of self-control. She has also traveled so much and met so many people that I bet she would have a lot of interesting stories. And lastly, Oprah, for some of the same reasons that I want to meet Maria.
JA: Would you rather have the strength of 1000 women, be able to fly, or be invisible?
MW: Fly, totally! It was my greatest childhood fantasy! I always dreamed about it. It would be very economics as well; imagine all the gas money I could save!
JA: I'm going to have to ask you to cool it with the exclamation points. If you could be a guy for a day, what would you do?
MW: Play some shirtless basketball! Then find out what they really talk about in the locker room.
JA: If you could participate in any other sport, which would you pick and why?
MW: Professional ballroom dancing. I love to dance. The idea of being so in tune and synchronized with another person as well as the music just gives me chills!
JA: What would we find in your locker right now that might surprise us?
MW: Mounds upon mounds of clothes, even though we get our laundry done for free.
JA: Oh, putting it on those loops is too much of a hassle anyways. What goes through your mind during a match?
MW: Since my main problem is being too defensive, I literally think to myself; "Ball ball ball ball you want the ball, eat the ball," just to keep me focused. Sometimes I think, "You're not going to let that beat you! Be tricky! What's her weakness? Attack it!" I pretty much start hearing the voices of my past instructors yelling at me. It helps.
JA: It's a miracle you can even move out there. Any insight on how the season is going so far?
MW: I'm really happy with the way the season is going so far. Our first match against Robert Morris was a breeze. Everyone won! Then Carnegie Mellon hit us pretty hard, but didn't completely dominate us, so it gave us some nice parameters. I think Carnegie Mellon is the hardest university we play so we can take what we learned fighting through that match and apply it to the future matches. Our team is young, but I see a lot of potential in everyone!
JA: Good luck with the rest of the season.
