Girls tennis. Some might say that it’s not a very big deal in the middle school. It was not mentioned on the first day of school during gym class and the coach is not a middle school teacher so it is hard for him to encourage students to join. There were only two girls the team from last year, so I was thinking to myself, how is word going to get out? How are we going to have a season this year?

Well, at first we were not sure if we were going to have a season. On the day of signups, only five girls registered for the team. Five people is not enough for a season, but the coach did not want to let us down. He begged one of the girls from last year to come back, and we were so glad when she said she would. From then on the practices went well until about a week before our first game. A player was not showing up to the practices and we needed her. We asked our coach when she was coming and he said soon. Finally, the next week she came to practice, so we were good for our first game. We were so excited! Coach was happy too, you could tell he was excited at practice that day. Having six players worked out perfectly. It helps our games go faster and helped out those who did not want to be a singles player. 

Fast forward to the day of our first game. We were all heading excitedly to Coach’s room like we always do before practice, but one of our teammates was not there yet. We thought to ourselves that she was probably just late, but we were so nervous that we did not think much of it. But then, Coach asked one of us to play a second singles match and I asked him why. He said he needed someone to fill in for our missing teammate who could not come to the game. When we heard this, we all just got more nervous. This meant the game is going to last longer and we might have to be in more matches. That game was very nerve-racking but SO exciting at the same time. The games after that were less stressful and more fun for the whole team.

Some of us have played for a few years, some have just started playing this year. We are not the best tennis team in the world, but we try our hardest and that is what matters. We are all friends and I could not imagine a world with us not being close friends. We have each others backs. We are the Carle Place Middle School girls tennis team of 2019!