Being an artist is one of our world's oldest and most revered callings. We preserve art in museums and study it in school. It's something that can define a city's or country's culture. Something that documents human history and delivers perspective.
When she's not on the tennis court, Anna Rader is an artist. A drawer of people. She has a gift that allows her to understand the necessary proportions that so many fail to grasp when drawing the human body.
Guiding a pencil perfectly from left to right, right to left, controlling each stroke. The analogy draws parallels to her precision on the tennis court, a green canvas where she's drawn herself a perfect regular season record and 63 singles match wins over her first two years at Springfield Catholic.
"She can hit a winner from her backhand and her forehand," Catholic head tennis coach Martin VerSteeg said. "She hits the correct shot at the correct time. If it calls for a forehand, she'll hit it. If it calls for a backhand, she'll hit it."
Call her style baroque.
Ornate detail on paper and on the court are key, and Rader's execution has allowed her to become an artist with both a pencil and a racquet, but there's a reason she's becoming revered in the Springfield region for the latter.
Through two years at Catholic, she's carried that undefeated regular season record to a 6th-place finish at states as a freshman and a 4th-place finish this past fall.
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"I love that tennis isn't only a physical game, it's a mental game," Rader said. "If you don't have the mental capacity to play tennis, you're going to struggle out there. You really have to have a good mindset going onto the court. It's a lot of picking your position. The way you play your opponent. You can't play the same way every time. You have to play different against different opponents and think of how you can beat them."
The Springfield News-Leader called her a phenom, a title she laughs at. She might be the only one laughing.
"She's a little modest," VerSteeg said. "She gets more out of her game than I've seen in a lot of players. She hits all the shots. She has weaknesses, but for this area, and even the USTA (U.S. Tennis Association), she's a very good player."
She's been a very good player for a while, too. Rader began playing tennis at six years old, training at Hickory Hills Country Club under USTA Missouri Valley Hall of Fame player and coach Jim Klousia. Now 16, Rader still trains under Klousia.
"He's great," she said. "He kept tennis fun and really pushed me to be better. [Playing] was difficult at times. There were days where I wasn't having good days or wasn't playing well, but he kept encouraging me and really helped me get to where I am now."
At eight years old, Rader began competing on the competitive level, and it didn't take long for her to realize that she was pretty good at this sport.
"I was always the youngest in my age group," Rader said. "My coach always put me with the better older players. Even now, I'm still the youngest in everything. Always playing up. Sometimes, I didn't realize that, because I'd think, these people are way better than me, but really they were three or four years older.
"Once I started playing tournaments and winning, I thought, this is something I should keep going with. This is something I'm good at."
Both art and tennis require a certain level of foresight. A calmness of the hands and the mind. Rader has the necessary attributes for both.
"In sports, you hear about a short memory, and she has that," VerSteeg said. "When she makes a mistake, she forgets it and moves on. But she does file it away, and, more times than not, doesn't do it again."
She accomplishes it all with a Babolat Pure Drive Lite and the pair of Asics she's worn for three years. But those Asics and that Babolat couldn't get Rader past Class 1 state champion Yurie Heard, of Pembroke Hill, who she fell to 6-1, 6-0 in the semifinals last fall.
"I just need to keep working the way I am. Keep pushing myself," Rader said, keeping her eyes on a spot in the championship with two years to go at Catholic.
VerSteeg believes the rising junior has the ability to get there.
"I'd put my money on her," he said.
"Mentally, she's very strong. That's what impresses me about her. Sometimes, I have a hard time reading her. Sometimes, I have to ask her what's going on. But that's another thing about her, she'll ask for help if she doesn't understand something. When she's out on the court, more times than not, she hits the right shot."
Standing and smiling, Rader doesn't deny it.
"I'm very quiet. I think my parents know that, too. I've always been quiet."
Not so quietly, Rader continues her pursuit of her masterpiece.
