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TENNIS ANYONE?

High school season ready to start

By Jay Young 5 min read

This year's girls tennis season was never going to look the same in the wake of COVID-19, but heading into the first matches of the year coaches and players are certainly pleased to be back on the court.

While close contact sports such as football and volleyball have been suspended for the fall season in New York state, Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association tennis matches are scheduled to begin this week.

Players will have the opportunity to compete for county championships in singles and doubles at the Lakewood YMCA beginning on Oct. 15, and will also battle for Section VI honors the following week.

Teams have been required to hold 10 practices before their first match, after getting word that the season would take place about four weeks ago.

"I was always in my mind thinking, there is a possibility, I hope we can do it," Fredonia coach Lisa Johnston said, "but really not expecting it until the decision came. I was really happy, even though I knew it was going to be a short season. I just miss having students."

Johnston has coached Fredonia's girls program for seven years and the boys for 14, but has never had to prepare for a season during a pandemic.

Following New York state guidelines, players will now remain socially distant during practices, wear masks and avoid touching common surfaces and objects.

"I guess the hardest thing is just abiding by the rules to start with, like setting out cones to make sure everyone is separate," Johnston said. "And making sure their bags are separate, wearing masks. That side of it was hard at first and I decided we're not going to be doing a lot of conditioning and running, because it is just really hard to breathe when you are wearing a mask. We've just been mostly on the court doing a lot of hitting."

With the fall volleyball season canceled due to the pandemic, Johnston has seen an increase in numbers this year.

"I'm really happy with it. I have 16 girls, six came from volleyball, and I feel bad for volleyball but I am thrilled to have the volleyball players," she said. "(It's) the social, emotional thing. To me that is just as important as the tennis, to be honest. Is my number one thing to win a league championship? No it's not, it is to give these kids just a chance to play some sport, to be outside and catch up with each other."

Bernie Gens enters the year with back-to-back county singles championships to her name, including an undefeated campaign for Fredonia in 2019. Unfortunately this year she will not be able to compete for a chance to travel to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing to pursue a state championship.

"Bernie is a senior this year, which is crazy because she has been on the team since seventh grade," Johnson said. "That is something that she would definitely be aiming for. So now her goal would be to win the county championships. That would be her aim, and to go and do as well as she can at sectionals."

Even with concessions being made, there is an undeniable appreciation by players and coaches that the 2020 season will move forward.

Frewsburg hit its 10-practice quota this week, and is preparing for a season opener on the road against Salamanca on Friday.

"The kids have been amazing because I think they just really wanted to play sports again," Coach Jamie Sposato said. "They are like willing to do anything to play again. It has been so nice in that aspect and I'm so thankful that our (athletic director) and superintendent have been so positive in wanting to bring the kids back for some kind of normalcy. The kids that I have are doing such a great job in just kind of following protocols. The different areas where they want us to have that social distance, the mask thing, trying not to touch the tennis balls."

The Bears got back onto the court beginning last Monday, and spent a significant amount of time going over the new safety procedures in place for this year.

While senior leadership is often relied on for motivation and competitive drive, this year it could play a different role.

"You always want your senior leadership to step up and I have seen them remind our younger ones (of procedures)," Sposato said. "We had a big practice in the beginning, just kind of going over those things. I think it is going to be really neat to see how we do our first match and just seeing what goes on there. We will probably have to remind some of our players."

After getting the green light from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association and Section VI, Sposato worked with Lakewood YMCA director Tom Anderson to make sure that the county championships could be held safely as well.

"We're going to put this on for the girls because, especially for the seniors -- oh, my goodness -- you don't want to see another season be lost for them. I was concerned about that. Just having that opportunity for them I think would be huge," Sposato said. "We are so deep with girls and their talent this year, I was so thankful that they could at least get a county tournament and a sectional tournament under their belts."

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