AHS tennis team works hard and suffers the concequences

The tennis teams at Arrowhead practice often, and train hard, so they can be better at their sport. This often means meeting for hours after an already draining day of school, or giving up their weekends to attend tennis competitions. However what one does not see when driving past the tennis courts and seeing the team practicing, is the dedication and determination to the sport, and how much time they give up to become better players.

“We practice everyday from 3:00 to 4:30 after school, sometimes longer depending on whether or not we have a meet coming up.” Stated Drake Ferber, a member of the tennis team.

Although only about 50 students make up the AHS tennis program, it has won numerous awards and accomidations at multipal levels for their supremacy in competitions. The top tier tennis team at Arrowhead is varsity, which meet for about an hour and a half begining at 3:00. The second tier team is JV or Junior Varsity, which meet during the same time as varsity, but have varying degrees of skill.

All AHS tennis players bring their raquets to school, many of them carrying them along with their backpacks throughout the day, this is simplified in summer because there are no tennis practices during the summer. However, there is a tennis “camp” which the majority of the men’s tennis team attend. This summer tennis camp begins at 10:15, and ends at noon, and it is packed with exercises, practice drills, practice games, and much more activities to build up the players’ skills.

Drake Ferber had a unique view on the practice regimin, stating“We start every practice by doing the five tibetans. Which are five yoga excersizes which help with your performance during a match. We then continue with a drill called AVO (approach, volley, overhead) which helps us with our approach shiots to the net, volleys at trhe net, and our overhead shots.” .

The competitions are often held at arrowhead or a nearby high school, but occacionally can take place farther away such as the meets in Muskego or White Fish Bay. The travel to these events adds to an already stressed schedule, taking time away from the students, many of which also have homework and assigments due the following the day.

Tennis at Arrowhead is a unique sport which only a select few compete in, and dispite the challenges of completing school work, balencing a social life, and competing on the tennis team, the team appears to stick to the sport and represent Arrowhead when competing against other schools’ teams.