‘Love’ is more than a tennis score

I didn’t have to go far to find the grand marshal of the Cherry Blossom Festival parade.

Her office is right down the hall. I sit across from her at lunch almost every day in the school cafeteria.

Jaime Kaplan is the alumni director at Stratford Academy, where she is best known as its legendary tennis coach. The tennis center at Stratford is named in her honor. In January, she was named Georgia High School Coach of the Year by the United States Tennis Association. Three weeks ago, she notched her impressive 300th career team win as a prep coach.

In the 35 years of the Pinkest Party on Earth, the lead-out of the parade on the ceremonial first weekend has been bestowed upon a former president (Jimmy Carter), television personalities (Nancy Grace), famous actresses (Cassie Yates and Barbara Eden), comedians (Durwood Fincher) and array of others with star power and name recognition.

But none of them has played at Wimbledon five times. None has ever competed against Hall-of-Famer Chris Evert in front of 10,000 fans at the U.S. Open. None have known what it’s like to hold serve at the French Open or charge the net at the Australian Open.

When Jaime assumes the pole position of the parade today at 4 p.m., she will be riding in a convertible parked in front of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. That will make it extra special, since she was inducted into the hall in 2005. A tennis outfit she once wore at Wimbledon is on display on the second floor of the largest state sports museum in the country.

There are plenty of candidates worthy of serving as grand marshal of a parade in their hometowns. I’m not sure about Jaime’s “marshal” qualifications, but she has got the “grand” part down.

She has been an ambassador for Macon all her life. Over the past three decades, she has been an active member of numerous boards and committees in the community. She has served on the board of directors for the Cherry Blossom Festival for a dozen years, so she knows it from the inside out.

If you’re searching for a bigger heart in this town, you should probably order extra gigabytes of storage space. For years, Jaime has organized charity tennis and golf events to benefit local organizations such as the Rescue Mission of Middle Georgia and The Children’s Hospital.

“Love” is a score in tennis.

For Jaime, it’s a way of life.

Although Jaime is 55 years old, if you ask her age, she will tell you she will be 7 years old on Aug. 27.

Her family and friends will send her birthday cards. She will blow out seven candles on a birthday cake.

It’s the anniversary of the bone marrow transplant that saved her life after she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2010.

Her donor was a young man from Uruguay whose family lived in Canada. He was attending medical school in Aruba and vacationing in Turkey when he was notified he was a perfect match. His ancestry follows a line from Russia, Poland and Germany, the same as Jaime. His bone marrow was harvested in Boston. Jaime had her operation at Emory in Atlanta.

She is touched by the Cherry Blossom Festival’s recurring theme of “love, beauty and international friendship.” Her story puts those words into motion.

“I’ve always been a big cheerleader for the festival over the years,” she said. “Even before I was on the board, I would try to go to as many festival events as I could. And, when I would meet someone, I would tell them they had to come visit Macon in March.

“When I was on the (professional tennis) tour, I would travel all over the world. We would go sightseeing. No matter how beautiful it was, I would tell people there is no prettier place than Macon, Georgia, in the springtime.”

She cried tears of joy when festival Chairwoman Stacy Ingram called to tell her she had been chosen as grand marshal.

“I was so honored,” she said. “To love something as much as I love the Cherry Blossom Festival, and to be a representative in that way, means the world to me. It’s going to be a special day. The reaction has been amazing. I’ve probably had more comments around town about being grand marshal than I ever did about playing at Wimbledon.”

She said she never missed a parade. Although she could have never imagined being at the front of the line, it won’t be her first time in the parade. She was one of the original Petals the Poodle and walked the parade route from the foot of Cherry Street.

But that was different. No one knew she was the one inside the furry, pink costume with bows dangling from her long ears. And she couldn’t do any shout-outs because Petals is anonymous and takes an oath of silence.

She can’t wait to wave to the people lining the streets. She will cherish the expressions and emotions on their faces, to hear them calling her name as she leads the procession following the pink line up Cherry Street and down Mulberry.

In the past, she has watched others toss candy and beads to the crowd from the cars and floats.

She has something else planned.

“Pink tennis balls,” she said. “I’m going to be throwing out pink tennis balls.”

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 7:59 PM with the headline "‘Love’ is more than a tennis score."