History Of The Tennis Team
To be on Dallastown's Tennis Team is a privilege, considering how much Dallastown is into sports. Many tennis team members work hard and show great leadership and teamwork. Was expectations so high back awhile ago? And was tennis so big then as it is now? During the following interviews many of these questions were answered.
During the matching, the spectators were mainly family and friends, but there were no bleachers. Dallastown is lucky though, because it has more courts then other schools. Did you also know that the seasons were different? The Girl's Team was in the spring and the Boy's Team was in the fall, which caused Coach Pat White to resign, even though he enjoyed coaching.
Now what you might not have known was that there was a girl on the Boy's Team. The girl was Jenni Goodling. There were no complaints of the parents or the guys mainly because she won most of her matches. Jenni played #1 on the Boy's team. The reason she was on the Boys Team was because she could beat most of them, and had more competition there. Coach White commented, "at times I didn't want Jenni to practice anymore, she practiced too much". Ms. Goodling made it to finals in the Boys County Tournament.
There are many changes that occurred with Dallastown tennis. Uniforms, balls, equipment, and aggressiveness are some of them. As Ms. Goodling states "Technology has changed, there are more instructors and more opportunities" Rackets have changed to; they use to play with wooden ones. Jenni Goodling said "new rackets are great, especially for players not as good because there's a bigger sweet spot". But not everyone liked these new rackets. Coach White told me he prefers wood because "he likes the feel, you could hit anywhere on the racket and get power." The training and effort may be the same; it just depends on the person and their goals. The coaching is really similar, working a lot of conditioning and running. Coach White also commented that "some boys put more effort into practice then others." Mrs. Jill Rexroth said she didn't do that much conditioning she left that up to the players to do on their own. Another change Coach White pointed out was he thinks that "there are more year-round players and more amounts of indoor facilities now."
What about uniforms? Well the uniforms have been changed (which is probably not a bad thing.) They use to be a blue and white striped shirt, a white skirt for girls and shorts for girls. Now, there's a fancy white shirt saying Dallastown Tennis and a blue skirt, for girls. Also they have warm-ups.
Perhaps the biggest change is tennis balls use to be white! Yes, not the bright yellow\green balls today. The purpose for this was for visibility. The white balls didn't stay as fresh. Mrs. Rexroth says, "the white balls lost their bounce faster". Plus, there are different covers on the balls. Different balls for clay, grass, and indoors.
Dallastown Tennis is very lucky to have so many dedicated players, coaches and fans. Tennis in general is just a great sport. It has changed for the better just like most things do. Although through all the changes no one ever will forget the history of Dallastown Tennis.
