Fort Campbell Courier
Fort Campbell, KY | March 1, 2012
Fort Campbell’s boys and girls tennis teams are getting into the swing of things as their first matches approach March 19.
This year’s team is chock-full of several returners with varying levels of experience, which means less time working on basic techniques and more fine tuning for the team.
For junior Rileigh Jorstad, she’s excited to see where the season goes as they face opponents in Region 2.
“I’m looking forward to having fun and improving,” Jorstad said. “The past two years, I’ve been number one on singles.”
Jorstad, who also participates in several other sports and activities including volleyball and cheerleading, enjoys tennis because of its benefits emotionally and physically.
“You get to run, which blows off steam,” she said. “You can smack a ball as hard as you want. It’s just an all-around fantastic sport. It’s hard to explain – you got to pour yourself into it.”
Head Coach Tricia Keenan is looking forward to facing some regional teams, such as Union County, on a more regular basis this season.
Many other schools in the area have strong tennis programs, including Hopkinsville, Caldwell County and University Heights Academy, so Fort Campbell will face competitive opponents throughout its 18-match regular season.
“We really do play against kids who are serious about it and this is their sport,” Keenan said. “We’re so small compared to a lot of the other schools.”
With eight boys and four girls so far, Keenan hopes to field enough players for singles and double matches. The small team is a change from last year, when a record number of students were involved.
“I’ve got like half the amount of kids, which is really good as far as [playing],” she said. “[In past years] I’ve had 80 percent of kids who’ve never touched a ball before and 20 percent returners. It’s the opposite this year, and I only have two boys that have never played before. So that’s encouraging, but it’s also hard because I don’t have a full team this year.”
Despite the inherent competition that comes with high school sports, Keenan’s goal remains for the team to have fun and learn as the season progresses.
“I want them to have a good time, and this is another way to get them active and see a different sport,” she explained.
While Keenan is teaching basics to a few of the newer players, other Fort Campbell participants continue to focus as the first matches near.
“Everybody else is just keeping up their forehands and working on their serves,” Keenan said. “So it really is just getting back into the swing of things.”
Sophomore Andrew Grammel, who has been playing tennis for one year, reinforced the true Family aspect that Fort Campbell brings to the court.
“[I’m playing] because of Coach Keenan,” he said jokingly at a practice, Feb. 21. “It’s amazing. It’s fun.”
While Grammel didn’t win a match last season with his doubles partner Josh Boren, he is determined to improve their record this season.
“We hope to win a game,” he said.
MATCH schedule
Tennis
March 19 – at Hopkinsville
March 20 – at University Heights Academy
March 22 – at Caldwell
March 27 – at Henderson
April 2 – at Madisonville North
April 3 – Lyon County
April 4 – at Christian County
April 10 – at Webster County
April 16 – at Hopkins Central
April 17 – Caldwell County
April 21 – Tournament at Hopkinsville
April 23 – UHA
April 24 – at Union
April 28 – Tourney at Henderson
May 2 – at Lyon County
May 3 – Madisonville North
May 4 – Union County
May 8 – Christian County
May 13 – Region tournament starts in Hopkinsville at UHA