My body aches...

Practice today was harder than usual...at least it was for me. Normally I don't leave the courts feeling like I just got hit by a truck, but that was the case today. For the average student-athlete, practices eventually become kind of like regularly scheduled workouts that you would do at a gym or a local track. Its not intentional. Even the most motivated, dedicated players fall into a rut and practice the same things, the same way, day in and day out. Practice becomes a part of your routine just like going to the gym, going to work, or doing your homework. You wouldn't do it if you weren't actually compelled to. Practices like the one I had today remind me of why I still play tennis. Strangely enough, the sensation of failure keeps me going. When my body can't handle anymore and I can't make another ball in the court, I know I've accomplished something.

My assistant coach let me know yesterday that I'll be participating in a doubles exhibition match on April 24th with our current number 1 men's player, Dean Loock. I don't have all the details yet, other than the date and the time, but I will certainly post when I find out more. Doubles is often a lot more fun for me than singles, and being as how its an exhibition, I'm thinking it will be a pretty good time. I'll leave you with a picture of me and my doubles partner, Hillary Collins, after the regional finals last year. That's all for now!

Monday Practice and Other News

Practice today was fairly routine. I won't bore you with the details, but I'm really looking forward to some practice match-play on Friday. Its always nice to get a little competitive after a long week of classes. Given that today is only Monday, I probably shouldn't get too far ahead of myself.

SCAD Tennis has a major issue that needs to be resolved. Our players don't have enough cars to transport everyone to and from practice, which is ironic considering the message in my last post. Its a really unfortunate situation in that players frequently end up missing practices due to scheduling conflicts or miscommunication. Compared to other athletic teams, SCAD tennis has a pretty small roster. We're having problems just getting 8-10 players to practice every day. I can't imagine what would happen if we had to transport 25-30 players each day like the Baseball or Softball teams. We'd be a mess.

When I mentioned in my Nonfiction 1 class today that I was writing a blog about my tennis team, my professor seemed genuinely interested and asked me where we played our home matches. When I told him how far away the courts were, he asked a really valid question: Why don't we have a shuttle that transports students/players back and forth from the tennis center on match days. I know SCAD doesn't have the resources to delegate a bus specifically for SCAD tennis matches, and SCAD tennis certainly doesn't have the budget to shuttle us back and forth from practice, but its not a bad idea considering we have so few home matches a season. The Regional tournament is a pretty big deal for us. It would be nice to actually have some people show up for a change.

Before I say good bye for now, I'd like to congratulate Coach Keenan on a career milestone. He reached his 100th career win on February 13th with resounding victories over Southeastern University and Webber International. Its been over a month since, but I don't think this blog would be complete with out a well-deserved shout-out. Congratulations!

Catching Up

With the first week of Spring quarter coming to a close, the SCAD tennis team is only now getting a much needed week-long break after a grueling first half of the season. A week without practice is a rarity, and the lack of play gives me very little to write about. Fortunately, I've linked this blog to the SCAD athletics web site so you can see exactly which schools we've played so far and how many matches we've won. The SCAD women have managed to hold on to their number 8 spot in the rankings with only one loss to rival school Embry-Riddle University of Daytona Beach, Florida. Four consecutive wins against Shorter College, Olahoma Baptist, Campbellsville University, and Georgetown College over Spring Break put us back on track and ready to take on Georgia College and State on April 11. Unfortunately, the SCAD men haven't been quite as successful with nearly half of the line-up forced to bow out of competition due to injuries. With any luck, most of those injured players will be rehabilitated by the time we play our Regional tournament.

Speaking of which, this year's NAIA Regional tournament (April 17th-18th) will be hosted by SCAD's home facility, Bacon Park Tennis Center. Since the new clubhouse and seating area was opened earlier this year, we've yet to have one home match. Sadly, even when we do play at home, so few people come to watch us play because the tennis center happens to be so far outside downtown. Its actually only a 15 minute drive, but our student following is slim to none because so many people either don't know where the tennis courts are or just can't find the transportation to get there. Fortunately for you, I've posted a link to the tennis center's web page. I'll even post the directions too, if only because I'm so desperate for students to come watch us play. It would be an awesome show of support and a decent way to spend a couple hours on the weekend. Hope to see you there!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the first ever SCAD Tennis blog! Fresh off spring break and ready to tackle the second half of the season, the SCAD Bees face Georgia College and State University next weekend in their last match before the Sun Conference Regional tournament. I look forward to updating you along the way as we prepare for one of the most competitive season ending tournaments we've ever experienced. Though we've had a few setbacks this season, more injuries than we'd like to count, and some painfully close losses, we've had a great time throughout it all and would love to share the journey with you. Feel free to look around, meet the team, and catch a glimpse of what its really like to be a SCAD Tennis player.