Tennis will play in a tournament in Brownwood today.
“This season we try to get out as many people to regionals as we can,” tennis coach Kenneth Peiser said.
During the fall season the tennis team plays team games and in spring they play singles or doubles matches.
“Singles is a one person game and doubles will be two people on the court,” Peiser said. “In fall, when we do team matches, all 16 count. While in spring they do it on their own.”
During the spring season the players face all kinds of challenges such as playing in high speed winds throughout the day, cold mornings and practices, and other natural elements.
“I do find it challenging to practice in colder weather because it takes forever to warm up when there’s cold,” junior Clyde Ashfield said. “Then there’s wind which makes tennis really difficult.”
The tennis team uses a challenge ladder to determine who will play on JV and varsity.
“Each person challenges the person above them, and if they move up then they move up to varsity,” Peiser said. “There are eight on varsity boys and eight girls on varsity. And then everybody below that would be on JV.”
As the season starts back up again, students start getting fired up and prepared for their matches to hopefully reach regionals and even state.
“I want to win as many matches as I can and hopefully make it to regionals,” junior Tyler Ecker said. “It feels great to be back out there.”
Tennis mostly focuses on getting the ball over the net and into the other person’s court, just like most sports. However, some of Peisers students said they have learned more than just how to get the ball over to the other court.
“I have learned many life strategies from tennis,” Ashfield said. “Coach Peiser always says, ‘Tennis is life,’ and makes sure we make the analogy complete. We’ve learned about consistency, never giving up and so much more.”