As the tennis team’s fall season comes to an end, the team reflects on what to work on and adjust for their spring season.

“The season has been great so far!” Coach Ryan Dodd said. “Our Lions are ranked #8 in the state, and finished 5-4 in the district. Unfortunately we did not qualify for the playoffs, but we improved from 8th in the district to 5th in the district, and we hope that our Spring tennis season will have even more success for our students.”

The team has four team captains, and these captains are picked democratically by the team and the coach.

“Captains are decided 51% by the coaches, 49% by the team,” Dodd said. “We have players vote to see who they would like to see considered, and then the Coaches select the most deserving candidate based upon the respect they show each other day-in and day-out.”

These team captains consider their role to be significant, as they boost morale for the team.

“I plan to help the team improve by encouraging each other and being there for one another,” team captain Delaney Welch said. “I’m excited to make memories with this team for one last year.”

The team has been working diligently to improve for the spring season and the Spring Tournament.

“We are going to get better at putting more 1st serves in play to start in control of the point and limit double faults.  We want to get more aggressive at the net in doubles, and we also want to be the best team in terms of supporting each other in the district,” Dodd said. “When all of our players can feed off of each other’s positivity, we’re never out of a match on any court!”

The Reedy Lions tennis team has set out a plan to improve these things, and they will be working assiduously to ameliorate for next season.

“[We plan to improve these] With a lot of communication between the Coaching staff and the players.  But communication from both sides.  A lot of what we are working on is dependent upon our players telling the Coaches what they are seeing on the courts in competition, and not just what the Coaches are seeing from our third-person perspective,” Dodd said. “Mutual communication is required in order for our Coaches to plan more comprehensive and intentional practices.”

The coaches have high expectations for next year, and hopefully our Lions will be able to reach just that.

“I expect our students to look forward to getting better at practice every day.  Especially our seniors. There’s an old coach saying that goes, ‘If you didn’t push yourself to get better today, I feel sorry for you, because you wasted a day.  And we don’t get very many days to waste.’” Dodd said. “We have to take advantage of every opportunity, even if we may not feel like it because we’re struggling.  That’s when we need to lean on each other to stay focused, and maybe have a fun day.”