It has been a season of tight matches for this year’s girls’ tennis team. They have won five of them and only lost two, and the team is having fun right up until the end.

Ms. Scott coaches both the girls’ team in the fall and the boys’ team in the spring. Coach Scott, who is also an English/Language Arts and Minnesota Studies teacher, was inspired growing up by Chrissy Evert. Evert was a tennis player from the 70’s, and had the two-handed backhand. Ms. Scott played tennis starting in the 7th grade, because that’s when tennis began at her school, and continued all the way through college. After that she wanted to stay active in tennis and pass on her tennis knowledge. “I started coaching because I loved the sport and loved playing tennis,” she said.

Ms. Scott says that Valley students are  lucky since students can play tennis in sixth grade too. While she really loves playing tennis, she equally loves coaching. One of her favorite parts about coaching is seeing kids grow–not always winning, but growing in the sport and having fun. She loves to see her players work hard and have fun at the same time.

This year’s team is full of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. There are four sixth graders, four seventh graders, and five eighth graders.

Bella Lewis, an 8th grader, started playing competitive tennis in forth grade and joined tennis because her mom signed her up for lessons. Ever since then, she has been playing and having fun with it.

Seventh graders Jillian Treu and Jillian Gootee both enjoy tennis for the exercise without too much running. It’s the right amount, they agreed, and they like rallies–hitting back and forth to their opponents. They, like most people, also like  winning, but they say, “It’s all about having fun!”

This was sixth grader Hannah Soderbeck’s first year ever playing tennis. She joined tennis because she wanted to try another sport, and she thought it looked fun. The one thing she likes about playing tennis is the matches, and like everyone else, she likes to win!

The girls’ tennis team’s final match was on October 24th, so girls who are looking to give tennis a shot will need to wait until next year. Boys, however, only have to wait until spring!