Behind the rackets, the boys tennis team has a range of upbringings and goals for this season. Many athletes have someone who inspired them to get into their sport, whether it be a family member, friend, neighbor, or even a famous person. Sophomore Ben Little is included in these athletes.
“Before I moved to Springdale, one of our neighbors always used to play tennis and he was really good. So I’d always go out there and play tennis with him,” Little said. “He was like an influence for me to play tennis and so he taught me how to play.”
Balancing school and any extracurricular activity can be challenging for anyone, and learning how to manage your time with everything can be an obstacle. Junior Noah Lazenby shares how he does it.
“For schoolwork, I try to do more during the school day so I have more time outside of school to do other stuff. So when there’s downtime in a different class, I just do other schoolwork,” Lazenby said.
Senior Taylor Hull also has his ways of maintaining good grades while playing tennis.
“Tennis usually ends pretty early, so I have time to go home and do my homework, but on match nights it goes really late because tennis matches take forever, so I usually have to do all my homework beforehand or do it during primetime or something,” Hull said.
As the tennis season continues, the players will definitely face some challenges, however, they won’t face those challenges alone. These players have an amazing support system as their team and will strive together.
“The community is my favorite part, it’s really fun to play with all of them. Over the past years, I’ve gotten a bunch of friends that are on the tennis team, so it’s fun to be friends with all of them,” Little said.