University Prep’s athletic program includes many sports throughout the school year. However, tennis is the only one played indoors and outdoors, which causes issues in the rainy city of Seattle. UPrep’s boys tennis season is in the fall, and while the Varsity team usually plays indoors, the JV and JVC teams typically play outside, where they’re more at risk of Seattle’s gloomy weather.
“Most days, we practice at the Laurelhurst courts along with the JVC team, but about once a week, we play at TCSP (Tennis Center Sand Point),” JV Tennis Head Coach Christian Keaunui said.
The tennis courts at Laurelhurst Park are outside, and the ones at Tennis Center Sand Point, where the Varsity team practices, are inside. While other sports can be played in almost any weather, rainy conditions make it almost impossible to play tennis outdoors.
“When it rains, the courts lose any grip and get super slippery, and the balls absorb lots of water, so they stop bouncing almost entirely,” Keaunui said.
Although it can be difficult to play outdoors, this fall has been drier than others, meaning the JV team hasn’t had to worry about the weather as much.
“This year, we only got rained out once or twice, which is pretty lucky,” Keaunui said.
Although the JV team has been able to play more this season, the JVC team hasn’t been as fortunate.
“It’s frustrating, we’ve only had two matches over the past month because we’ve gotten rained out so often,” said ninth grader Davis Glass-Hastings.
As captain of the JVC team, he feels disheartened by both the cancellation of matches and the failure to make up for them.
“They said they’re trying [to reschedule matches],” Glass-Hastings said. “But I’m not sure if they’ll be able to, which is frustrating because I want to play,”
He adds that he’s not the only one on the team discouraged by this challenge.
“Members of my team, they don’t see the point of coming to practice if we aren’t going to play,” Glass-Hastings said.
While he does attend practices, he still feels that the team deserves more playing time.
“We’re practicing five days a week, we should be able to put that practice into something,” Glass-Hastings said.
Keaunui agrees that for a team to truly advance, they have to compete against other teams, not just practice.
“Practices are fun and a good way to improve,” Keaunui said. “But it’s during matches that you discover where your true strengths and weaknesses are.”
