Editor's note: This is one of a series of stories on the 2018 inductees into the OC Athletic Hall of Fame.
OKLAHOMA CITY (Jan. 17, 2018) – When Natalya Nikitina-Helvey arrived at Oklahoma Christian in 1999, then-OC tennis coach Kris Miller thought she'd play at the No. 4 singles position for the Lady Eagles.
Rather quickly, it became evident that wouldn't be the case.
"I came and I practiced and I told him I'd be playing No. 1," Nikitina-Helvey said. "I was competitive and he was too. That was always my goal to be No. 1. I just like to be a leader."
Soon enough, she'd make the case as being arguably the greatest female player in the program's history, one who would become one of the top players in the NAIA. On Jan. 30, she'll become only the second women's tennis player to be inducted into the OC Athletic Hall of Fame.
"She is one of those people, when you spend time around her, you realize she is going to be successful at whatever she does," said Oklahoma State women's tennis coach Chris Young, who worked with Nikitina-Helvey – both as an assistant and head coach – during her OC career.
"I think the great thing about her being in the Hall of Fame is that it happened even though her career didn't end the way she wanted it to. This kind of rewards her in a lot of ways, being able to get this honor. It validates a lot of things for her."
From Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Nikitina-Helvey was born when that country was still a part of the former Soviet Union. She had played for the national team in Uzbekistan from 1995 to 1999 and had dabbled in professional tennis when she decided in 1999 to attend college in the United States.
She wasn't really concerned about what level of competition at which she'd play. Because she was 21 years old, she ended up needing to play at a NAIA school and was matched to OC by a recruiting service. It proved to be a good fit for both parties – Miller's fiery competitiveness had turned OC into a NAIA tennis power and Nikitina-Helvey is nothing if not competitive.
"She won't allow herself to fail at anything," Young said. "We knew that really early on about her. We never had to worry about her. She's very driven and motivated and has a stubborn personality, which made her so successful."
But when she initially arrived in Oklahoma, Nikitina-Helvey wasn't quite so confident. She spoke little English and can still recall trying to understand an economics lecture during her first week of classes at OC. She quickly mastered the academic part of college in the U.S. – she eventually graduated magna cum laude from OC and twice earned Academic All-District honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America, along with other academic honors – and had similar success on the tennis court.
She played at No. 2 singles for a strong OC squad as a freshman in 1999-2000, winning an individual tournament in Nacogdoches, Texas, and finishing with an 18-7 singles record and 16-6 doubles mark. In the spring of 2000, she was named to the NAIA's All-America first-team list – the first of three such honors she'd eventually receive.
As a sophomore, she went 23-2 at No. 1 singles and 24-1 at No. 1 doubles, helping OC to a No. 4 national ranking. Individually, she was ranked eighth in singles and second in doubles in the NAIA by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. As a junior, she was 14-5 in singles and 14-4 in doubles and earned her third first-team All-America honor from the NAIA and her first from the ITA.
She seemed poised for an outstanding senior season, and during the fall of 2002, she and doubles partner Lisette Pereira won a regional doubles title and eventually finished fourth in the ITA Small College Tennis Championships in Corpus Christi, Texas.
But the NAIA soon snuffed out her hopes. The national organization, in late November, made a sudden ruling that any NAIA tennis player that ever had received prize money in a professional tournament would immediately be ineligible.
That ruling had a dramatic effect on NAIA tennis throughout the country – some schools had to drop their programs as a result – and it was devastating to Nikitina-Helvey, whose meager professional earnings had been dwarfed by her expenses. OC appealed, but to no avail.
"That really hurt me because I felt like it was my best time," she said. "I didn't appreciate how it was handled by NAIA."
Young, similarly, remains bitter about the situation.
"It was such a bizarre thing that had never happened before and will never happen again," he said. "It was really unfair to these kids. It unfairly fell to international students. It affected all of the top programs in the NAIA. It totally changed our roster. To this day, I have never gotten a real good answer for it. … I know several of us coaches begged them to let these kids finish. It was one of the more difficult things I had to do as a coach, to tell her she was not eligible for the last semester of her senior year."
Still, Young and Nikitina-Helvey made the best of a bad situation. She served as what amounted to an assistant coach, helping guide her teammates and providing administrative help to Young.
"She was always reliable and dependable," said Stan Green, who then served as OC's sports information director and often dealt with Nikitina-Helvey. "Whatever I needed, she could get for me. She provided me all kinds of information. She was an easy person to work with."
Young took note, and when he was hired to be the head coach at Wichita State for the 2005 season, he quickly contacted Nikitina-Helvey to offer her a job as his top assistant. It "took some convincing," he said, but once she joined him, it took them just two seasons to turn around the Shockers' fortunes. In 2006, Wichita State won the Missouri Valley Conference title and made its first NCAA tournament appearance.
In August 2006, she returned to Oklahoma to become the women's coach at Central Oklahoma. She took a program that wasn't fully funded and had great success during her eight seasons, guiding the Bronchos to the NCAA Division II tournament five times while posting a 109-67 record. Along the way, she met then-Cameron coach James Helvey, who's now her husband.
"I think that Natalya understands the game really well," Young said. "One of ways I've seen her grow is she understands people. She became a great head coach over time. Like anything she does, she is going to work hard at it."
She eventually joined her husband at Cameron, working as a professor in that university's sports and exercise science department. A lifelong learner, Nikitina-Helvey earned her master's degree while working at UCO and is working toward a doctoral degree in health and human performance from Oklahoma State.
Nikitina-Helvey, her husband and their three children now live in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where she is a physical education teacher and tennis coach at Burleson Centennial High School. She became a U.S. citizen in 2010.
"I've always really loved school," she said. "I guess that's why I'm still in school."
She said numerous professors at OC influenced her, with her favorite being math professor Dena Perkins.
"She always had her doors open and would help with classes," Nikitina-Helvey said. "Some people don't appreciate that, but for me it was great. Any time you needed help, you could get help. So many people worked in the writing lab, or as tutors. They did what they do every single day, but they made an impact. As an instructor myself, I remember that."
Hall of Fame video:
https://youtu.be/fcihQc8Ml5M
