Tennis Team Adjusts to COVID

The tennis team started off their season with enthusiasm and excitement, however as the season went on 7 of the 12 varsity players missed time in the season due to COVID. This caused a lot of adjusting to the team that ultimately brought the players together as a team.

Girls tennis coach, Andy Andress had to adjust to keep the season running smoothly.

During the season almost all of the varsity players were affected by COVID, causing Andress to make the tough decision by putting the JV players in varsity level games.

Although this was upsetting for the varsity players, it challenged the other players with their limits.

“On the positive side, it gave some players a chance to compete and play their games at a higher level than they might otherwise be able to,”Andress said.

Senior Gracie Peters had a challenging tennis season including other varsity tennis players. However, with the help of her co-team captain, “both of us are experienced players, and we could bounce ideas off of each other, as well as all of the girls,” Peters said.“It was a challenge for me since I didn’t want it to seem like all of the girls had to listen to what I say all of the time.” Peters said.

Peters later goes on to say how the team bonding was not the same this year, because they did not go out to eat as a team due to COVID. However, the team van rides proved to help the team bond.

“Van rides were such a great team bonding experience, as well as jamming out to music at practice,” Peters said.“Tennis is a great sport to be able to cheer your team on during their individual matches, so that also brought us closer.”

Senior Cassidy Loosen had a challenging year with tennis due to COVID. The most difficult part of the season came thanks to contact tracing.

“A lot of the girls got quarantined so we were unable to play the entire season,” Loosen said.“We started later than usual.”

Even though Covid took a lot of games out of the season for the girls, Loosen was looking on the bright side.

“Due to Covid, even having a full season was positive, because we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to play,” Loosen said.