Coco’s success brings family along, too
DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Aunt Joy is crying. Younger brother Codey, 11, is running around and ringing a cowbell.
Grandma Yvonne stops cheering only to take her husband of 52 years, Grandpa Eddie, in her arms. They rock back and forth together, eyes closed, as if in hugging each other they’re squeezing every bit of joy from this moment.
“She did it!” Yvonne Odom said into her husband’s ear. “She did it!”
Coco Gauff, 15, raises her arms now from Wimbledon on the dozen television screens in her father’s Paradise
Sports Lounge after beating Slovenia’s
Polona Hercog, 3-6,
7-6 (7), 7-5.
As the TV announcers tell how dramatic this match was to watch from Centre Court, as they marvel how youth kept so composed, this scene of celebration in her father’s sports bar became the next best seat in sports on Friday.
And no one was composed by the end.
“You go, Coco!” someone shouted in the victory celebration, which led to chants of, “Co-co!” and then, “Let’s go, Coco!” and any other variation that showed everyone was loco for Coco.
The surprise is always the best story in sports, and Gauff becoming the youngest girl to advance into the fourth round at Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1991 is the best sports story going now.
Here, at her father’s bar, the Friday scene was an intersection of Centre Court, a family reunion and the magic carpet ride going up on a new international sensation who just happened to be the girl next door.
Every table was full of family or friends. Media had set up. The phone kept ringing, and the security guard, John Maass, said after one call it was ESPN asking if someone could send them a phone video of the scene.
“I’ll do it,” he says, panning his phone over the cheering at one point.
In the dimness of the second set, the bar went quiet. The trouble was clear. But there at the family table, Grandpa Eddie kept saying, “She’s still out there playing.”
Meaning, she still had a chance. Meaning, she always is a fighter. Meaning, Grandpa Eddie wasn’t giving up and nor should any other of the couple of dozen family members on hand.
This is a family whose roots run strong and deep in Palm Beach County. Grandma Yvonne was the first black student to integrate Seacrest High School (now Atlantic High) in 1961. The white girl who befriended her, Paula White Adams, sat a table away at the sports bar, rooting on Gauff.
“I couldn’t miss this,” Adams said.
As for athleticism, well, Coco got ample helpings from family there, too. Her mom, Candi, ran track at Florida State. Her father, Corey, played basketball at Georgia State. And Grandpa Eddie Odom Jr. was a pro baseball player, never quite cracking the majors but good enough to room with baseball great Dusty Baker in the minors.
“This is something,” grandpa said, watching Coco’s parents take pictures with fans after the match on the television.
Corey oversaw the tennis management. Candi, a former teacher, home-schooled Coco, even giving a science test during this Wimbledon (she got a B grade, according to the ESPN TV broadcast).
“This is the future of women’s tennis on display here,” tennis great Martina Navratilova said of Gauff before Friday’s match.
By the end, that sounded even truer. Gauff overcame the big stage, a bad deficit, beat back Hercog, 28, in a match that left her family hugging each other.
“It’s a dream — only it’s not a dream,” said Grandpa Eddie. “It’s real. We’re living it and we’re loving it.”
Grandma Yvonne said there wasn’t much time to enjoy it. Codey had a youth baseball game Friday night.
“Got to go cheer him on,” she said.
Next up for Coco is a fourthround match against 2018 French Open champion and former No. 1 Simona Halep.
“You know where we’ll be for that,” Grandma Yvonne said. Right here in the sports bar. “Right here again cheering,” she said.