“Tennis is a very inspiring sport, it promotes team work and collaboration.” This is Laura's second season playing tennis for the Ames High School girls tennis (AHSGT) team and just another year of many playing tennis. With her experience in playing during both the high school season as well as the offseason, Laura acknowledges the characteristic team aspects of the high school season.
AHSGT practices everyday after school and has over 40 team members. Girls tennis is one of many sports teams at Ames High School that provide meaningful and supportive environments for members to learn in. Encouraging and supporting teammates you might not know well is very important to the team attitude. “You get to know a lot of new people,” Laura notes.
AHSGT provides a unique environment for tennis players of various levels to practice and compete as a team. While tennis is known to be a single or double player sport, the high school season allows individual players to come together to support peers and represent the school. The support that team members recieve from one another is a quality of AHSGT that stands out to its team members. It may be a one versus one tennis match, but the encouragement from off of the court is loud. This type of environment helps define AHSGT.
The support system is essential to AHSGT as teammates frequently play against each other during practices. “Even though we’re still ranked against each other, because that is how tennis works, but you don’t have hard feelings,” Laura’s teammate, Jiwen, describes. “I always say to my opponents, nice job, good shot.”
Though tennis is typically an individual sport, the team aspect really shines for AHSGT. Teamwork and communication are essential to the team. “We collaborate as a team when we talk,” summarizes Laura, “it’s like everyone matters.”
The Ames High Baseball/Softball & Tennis Complex sits next to the centralized district office, both built around five years ago. While the complex is a ten minute walk from Ames High School, the importance of the tennis, baseball, and softball programs do not go unnoticed by the district.
The team faces challenges as the spring weather brings wind, snow, and rain that make outside courts unplayable. But, the teammates adapt to adversities together by playing indoors, or modifying their workouts, when needed. Sometimes there is still snow out when it is 60F.
Despite the well-known single, or double, player nature of the tennis sport, high school tennis makes teams come together very well. You're always winning because you're with your team, Jiwen sums up.
Playing for both themselves and for the team, Jiwen describes some takeaways from her time playing tennis, “You learn to never give up; even if you lose the first half 0-6, you can still win the whole match.”