Dom Nicastro with State Tennis Champion Grace Scarbrough
State Champion Grace Scarbrough Leaves Manchester Essex With Lasting Legacy
For Grace Scarbrough, the ending could not have been scripted much better.
After years of battling rival Hamilton-Wenham and coming close to a state championship, the Manchester Essex senior helped lead the Hornets to the MIAA Division 4 state title this spring, closing out her high school tennis career atop the mountain.
Scarbrough was a model of consistency throughout the season, finishing undefeated while helping anchor a Hornets lineup that finally broke through against a Hamilton-Wenham program that had become the measuring stick in Division 4 with four straight state crowns. For Scarbrough, defeating the Generals in the championship match made the accomplishment even more meaningful.
It was the perfect way to end it, Scarbrough said during a recent interview. To win a state championship and do it against a team we’ve battled with for so long is something she’ll never forget, she said.
The title represented the culmination of years of hard work, not only for Scarbrough but for a program that had repeatedly found itself within reach of a championship. This time, the Hornets finished the job, and the senior leader was at the center of it all.
While tennis has been a major part of her life, Scarbrough’s next chapter is already taking shape. This fall, she will attend UMass Amherst, where she plans to study business and marketing. Her interest in business has been influenced in part by spending time working in her family’s dry-cleaning business, where she has gained firsthand experience interacting with customers and learning how a small business operates.
Those experiences have helped shape her goals beyond athletics and given her an appreciation for the work that goes into building and maintaining a successful business.
As she prepares for college, Scarbrough leaves Manchester Essex with more than an undefeated season and a state championship trophy. She leaves as part of the team that finally cleared the final hurdle, delivering a championship that players, coaches and fans will remember for years to come.
For a senior who got one final opportunity to chase a title, it was a finish worthy of the journey.
