Tennis is back in action in Franklin County, with matches set to begin May 10. In what was a grueling, frustrating almost two years away from competition, excitement now filters through the fresh spring air as the sport finally returns.
On the boys side, teams in the area have struggled with low numbers across the board. As a result, Greenfield will be the lone local side to field a team after Turners Falls was forced to cancel the spring campaign due to lack of participation. The Green Wave are still one player short of a full roster.
On the girls side, there are four Franklin County squads geared up and ready to compete in this shortened spring season as Frontier, Greenfield, Turners Falls and Mohawk Trail have all put together complete teams.
With such little practice time to prepare for matches this spring, coupled with a roughly one month-long season, coaches said they are looking forward to enjoying the simplicities that may have been taken for granted in the past. After COVID-19 took away the entire 2020 season, it has allowed coaches to appreciate the game of tennis even more than ever before.
“I am extremely excited to be back on the courts,” began Greenfield girls head coach Alexis Silk. “A whole season and year without tennis has been a bummer. To see not only my team, but all other sports teams outside playing their sport and doing what they love is such a wonderful thing. It’s bringing back a sense of normalcy and excitement into the players’ lives.”
Dealing with the differences and difficulties the pandemic has brought can make it challenging to set goals while staying positive and motivated during the season. New Frontier girls coach Carl Cyr, who is also the school’s AD, alluded to his team’s ability to take action in practice while preparing for the season on their own time — with the help from his seniors.
“We have great senior leadership, and they have been in contact with other players and set up times to have kids play together on their own time,” Cyr stated. “This year our goals are to have fun, improve our tennis skills, and be competitive in our matches.”
Simply having fun and enjoying time together as a team out on the court seems to be a common generality among coaches this year. Rightfully so, as missing an entire season certainly makes for an anticipated return.
“I can see the thrill in the returning players and the ambition in all the new members as well,” said Silk. “We hope to have some solid match play, but most of all have fun.”
Flipping back to the boys, Greenfield head coach Andrew Varnon expects his team to be extremely skilled this season, no matter the circumstances present, because of the amount of tennis some of the members of his roster have played during their time away.
Varnon & Co. will be doing a great deal of traveling, competing against teams all around Western Massachusetts with no local opponents available.
To field a complete team, there must be seven players in the starting lineup (three singles, four doubles players). Greenfield will take the courts with one less player than required, meaning they will have to forfeit a spot each match. While that will start them at a disadvantage, Varnon said he hopes to find a solution soon.
“It’s definitely going to be an interesting season. I think we could do really well even though we might end up forfeiting a position every match if we don’t get a seventh player. I’m hoping we can either schedule some more matches, or there will at least be a team tournament at the end to give us the opportunity to play some more,” Varnon offered.
Varnon lauded the initiative his players have taken to perfect their craft and improve their skills during the offseason, and believes he will see a big jump in production this year.
“We have some players that text each other over the weekends and play with each other all the time,” noted Varnon. “I would like to take credit for that as a coach, but really it’s been a player initiative. I know two years ago we had a really good season (a WMass semifinal appearance), and a lot of the returning players from that team wanted to keep that going. Hopefully we get a chance to rekindle some of that fire.”
Similar to all spring sports, each and every tennis player and coach said they are thrilled and delighted to be back after the prolonged, extensive amount of time off. This should make for quite the competitive tennis season.