Sister Action

We’ve all seen those depressing stories about former athletes who end up doing stupid and destructive things. They blow their fortune, their health and their reputation, often because they don’t know what to do with themselves when their careers are over.

There aren’t many stories about former athletes who go on to do noble things. I’m pretty sure that former tennis star Andrea Jaeger has retired the trophy in that narrow competition.

You remember her, don’t you? She was that pig-tailed brace-mouthed phenom of the ’80s. At one point she was No. 2 in her sport. She routinely beat big-name stars. For a while, she was a threat to end up in the finals of any Grand Slam event she entered.

You might not believe what she’s doing now. Jaeger, now 41, has become a Dominican Anglican nun.

That’s right. A habit-wearing vow-of-chastity nun. She’s one step away from completing her transition. And she has dedicated her life to helping children fighting cancer.

You go, girl! … Er, make that, Godspeed, Sister Andrea!

This has to be the greatest turnaround in the history of modern sports. Jaeger went from the epitome of wealth and glamour … to the ultimate in humility and selflessness.

If that doesn’t restore at least part of your faith in human nature, you might want to check your pulse.

Jaeger felt this calling from God even as a teenage star. She took time out to visit sick kids in hospitals while her competitors were hanging out in discos.

Incredibly, tennis officials who tolerated drug use and sexual hijinks from other stars were unsettled by Jaeger’s piety.

At one point, she was called into tour headquarters, where an official disdainfully threw a copy of The New York Times at her. Her offense? The paper recounted her inspirational visit to a high school that had suffered two suicides close together.

“I just got yelled at, told to quit doing it, because I was making the rest of them look bad,” Jaeger told the Associated Press.

Wow. Can you say, “inverted priorities”?

She’s left that warped world far behind. Now she works at a foundation she established, Little Star, in Southwestern Colorado.

Her biggest challenge today is a familiar one: raising money. She has long since given up the fortune she made. Now she needs more money to help more sick kids.

Unless you’re suffering from mega-cynicism, you might consider Little Star the next time you’re in a charitable mood.

And the next time some ex-jock winds up in the police blotter, remember Sister Andrea, and remember that there’s hope after all.