Brittany Tagliareni was born on May 13.  She has been playing tennis for 3 ½ years.  Brittany’s love for tennis began after watching her younger brother, A.J., play competitive varsity tennis at Trinity Preparatory School.   Coach Driss has been coaching Brittany for the past 2 years and has been instrumental in improving all aspects of her game.  Brittany is very competitive and has a strong will to win.  Last November she competed in her first tournament with girls her own age that had no special needs.  She won her first match and confidently proceeded to the semi-finals.  Her opponent in the second math challenged Brittany and came within one point of winning the match.  Most competitors would give up at that point, not Brittany.  We heard her tell herself:  “I can do this” and she went on to win the semi-final match  which advanced her to the finals.  Once at the finals she faced the number one seed and we all had seen the number one seed in warm ups and really didn’t think Brittany had much of a chance against her.  Again Brittany’s grit and determination, matched with her tennis skills, enabled her to win the final round and take the first place trophy home.  

In the recent past Brittany has won gold medals in 2008 and 2009 in the Special Olympics Florida State Championship Single’s Competition.  She just competed in the Hilton Head National Championship for the Special Olympics Single’s Competition in March of 2010.  It was her first National tournament and she was one of 109 Special Olympic athletes.  The National tournaments begin with divisioning which is where all athletes are placed into divisions based on their skill level.  Brittany was placed into division F06 which is the highest level for women’s singles.  She was a bit anxious during divisioning and was ranked as the third seed in a division of three athletes.  She grew even more anxious that evening and even hinted she wanted to go home, but after a chat with her mom which was part pep talk and part heart-to-heart she had renewed confidence in herself and was prepared to accept any outcome knowing that she was going to compete as hard as she could.  She won her first match against the second seed 6-0, 6-1.  The next day she played the first seed and one 6-1, 6-0.   She certainly was thrilled to receive the gold medal but she was even happier to have made two new friends, Katherine and Jamie, who were her competitors in her matches.  She looks forward to seeing them again at the next National tournament.