WhitehouseTexas.com

When Jessica Wente signed a full tennis scholarship with Florida State University Thursday, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed.

She is OK with the fact that Tallahassee is a 12-hour drive from home, though she knows she will miss her family.

She feels confident in her abilities on the court and looks forward to playing against a new level of competition.

But when Wente signed with FSU at Whitehouse High School’s library, the dazed feeling of finally reaching her goal - inking a tennis scholarship with a major university - wouldn’t go away.

It’s no wonder, considering the path she’s traveled in choosing the Seminoles.

For Wente, who began playing tennis at age 11 when her older sister Melissa played in high school, tennis hasn’t always been something she looked forward to playing.

“Sometimes I just didn’t want to play,” said Wente, who is also a three-year letterwinner in basketball and has run track for Whitehouse. “I stuck with it because I knew that it would get me far in life.”

The Whitehouse standout took lessons from former Tyler Tennis and Swim instructor Greg Alexander for years, but it was group lessons from a former pro, Nick Crowell, at Hollytree Country Club that started the ball rolling for Wente in Florida.

Crowell, a former Texas All-American and now an assistant tennis coach on the Seminole men’s team, was so impressed with Wente’s play that he talked with second-year Seminole women’s coach Jennifer Hyde about recruiting Wente.

Hyde followed the tip and quickly realized Wente was the kind of player she wanted with her instead of against her.

After Wente won the Class 4A girls singles championship last year - 6-4, 6-4 over New Braunfels’ Ashley Turpin - and then reached the finals in the Echometer Texas Summer Grand Slam, Florida State wasn’t the only school packing the Wentes’ mailbox full of pamphlets.

But Hyde traveled to both the tournaments to watch Wente compete.

Several Big Ten schools, as well as Kansas, Alabama and Tennessee, were interested in Wente, but she had her eyes on either Louisiana State or FSU. She took official visits to both of the schools.

“I never really got a connection when I went to Baton Rouge the way I did when I visited Florida State,” Wente said. “Also, it really stuck out in my mind the way Coach Hyde was recruiting me. It showed me she really was interested in me, but not just as another recruit.”

Besides coming hundreds of miles to watch Wente compete, Hyde also made her trip to Florida’s capital possible.

“First, Jessica almost didn’t get to fly out there because her original flight had mechanical trouble,” said Janet Wente, Jessica’s mother. “Coach Hyde got her on another flight right away instead of just telling her to come another weekend.”

That wasn’t the only hiccup along the way. Once Wente arrived in Tallahassee, she wasn’t allowed to check into her hotel because she wasn’t old enough. Hyde was there once again, and Wente was allowed to check in.

“That trip above anything else showed us the kind of coach she was,” Janet Wente said. “That’s the kind of coach we want our daughter to have.”

Jessica plans to move to Tallahassee in mid-June.

Brett Hone covers Sports. He can be reached at 903.596.6292. e-mail: sports@tylerpaper.com