English and Creative Writing major Rach Wascoe ’27 is proud to share her newly published book with the Ursinus Community. Out! Just Over the Line: Tennis, Mental Health, and the Consequence of Being Pushed to the Limit is a memoir dedicated to sharing Wascoe’s story with tennis and mental health throughout her high school years. “After I finished tennis in high school, I was left with a lot of trauma from the years I spent playing on the team. I tried to write small essays and stuff here at Ursinus about what happened, but it felt like I couldn’t really capture what happened just in one page,” shared Wascoe. She decided in Summer 2024 to start writing everything down, not knowing yet it would later become a published work.
“By the end of last summer, I had 140 pages so then I was like, maybe I should turn this into something because I wrote so much,” detailed Wascoe. After the initial 140 pages, Wascoe turned to Katie Henson, Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing, for advice. “She was like, you know what, we should turn this into something. I decided to work with Summer Fellows to get funding for the project and so I could have a mentor and editor that could help me.” Wascoe took this opportunity to dedicate Summer 2025 to furthering along her book in the eight-week span of the program.
The project in total took around two years from start to finish, evidence of Wascoe’s determination to see her book through to the end. “When I was writing it, it was a big thing. It’s really hard to assume nobody’s going to read it because growing up you’re taught, especially being an English major, you’re taught that what you write is going to be read by at least one other person. So, it’s really hard to be honest with yourself, because you’re scared that either your future self is going to judge you or someone’s going to judge you,” she explained. This skepticism in sharing the story was quickly overcome by her desire to let other people hear her story and understand her experience.
“I think a big thing that influenced that was just that after I finished tennis senior year of high school, my story was kind of just silenced. Everything that happened to me on the team was just done and nobody talked about it,” reflected Wascoe. While mental health stories can often make people uncomfortable, Wascoe felt that it was an important aspect to her book in truly getting her story across. “I’ve had to carry these emotions with me since then and I felt uncomfortable by it, and I kind of want other people to feel that too,” she explained.
The book, while sports influenced, is not focusing mainly on sports itself. “It’s not a sports book; it’s more of a mental health book. It doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending, it just kind of goes through what happened and explains kind of how trauma works,” Wascoe mentioned. By calling attention to this, she hopes other athletes and people with similar experiences can feel heard. “I wrote in the dedication: For every coach, player, teacher, student, parent, or child who needs to hear it.” Making mental health more talked about is another goal of her publication, as many athletes aren’t advocated for enough with mental health, particularly in a high school setting.
“I stopped caring about tennis,” recalled Wascoe, after experiencing the passing of a close friend during her time on the team. “I worked really hard to get up to the top spot on the team and then that happened. I didn’t really care about tennis anymore, but my coaches didn’t really understand that.”
Out! Just Over the Line: Tennis, Mental Health, and the Consequence of Being Pushed to the Limit is 357 pages in total and can be found on Amazon for $18.99 when searching the title. Wascoe appreciates all that read and review her book. Make sure to check it out when you get the chance!