As tennis is approaching, the players begin their off season practices and Coach DeMarco starts recruiting.
Gracen McDonald, junior tennis player, had a record of 22-1 for doubles and 19-4 for singles in the season of 2018. Gracen and her doubles partner Alura Parsons won the state title of 3rd seed doubles. Gracen says, "My experience with tennis has been overall good. Freshman year was a lot of learning with a lot of seniors and sophomore year was also learning but I gained more experience by being seeded in singles and doubles. I was Big 10 runner up in singles and Big 10 and a State Champ with 3rd doubles. For this year I hope to be seeded higher and go undefeated."
Coach Demarco says, "I actually wasn’t interested in the sport of tennis until my senior year. But once I started playing, I was hooked. I played all the time over next year. After I graduated, I came back to watch my previous teammates play. During one of their matches that I attended, the coach then, Mrs. Julie Smith, approached me and asked if I would coach the team next year. I was very surprised that she asked me because I was only nineteen-years-old with no experience. But I eventually told her yes and have been coaching the tennis team for the last eight years. And even though I am a better coach than I was my first year, I have learned a lot from coaching so young and wouldn’t have been the coach that I am today without that push from Mrs. Smith. In my eight seasons of coaching, I’ve had so many amazing accomplishments, but last season was probably my favorite. We broke a record of mine by sending the most players to states with 10. Many players made it to the state final match in their respective seeds and Gracen McDonald and Alura Parsons came out as State Champions. Most of the team were seniors and I had coached them throughout their high school years. They were not only great tennis players, but they were great people and I am truly going to miss them. Because most of the team were seniors, that means that this upcoming team is a bit of a question mark. I do have several state bound players coming back, but we are inexperienced other than those few. From the summer practices, however, I believe we have a lot of potential and am excited for our tennis season to start!"
We are excited to see where this season takes the tennis team this year.