Women’s Tennis

    Talawanda High School has many legacies surrounding its sports teams, some good, some great and others, well, not as great.The 2013-2014 school year was a time of many pivotal changes for THS sports.

    The Varsity football team ended a victory drought, in which there have been just 5 victories since 2008.  The Varsity boys basketball team dropped two places in SWOC ranking. Both the boys’ and girls’ swimming teams continued as champions in SWOC. The Varsity baseball team received a new head coach, and a lacrosse team was formed.

    One THS sports team continued their reign as champions: women’s tennis. The 2013-2014 season resulted in a perfect conference record of 6-0, and an overall record of 14-4, placing the team first in SWOC. The team also won a state tournament game against Vandalia-Butler.

    But, the 2013-2014 season wasn’t the first victorious season for the Women’s Tennis team. According to head coach Pete Thomas, a THS business teacher, “The last five years have been great,” In fact, the team has won 5 titles in the past 5 years.

    Though the team had three more losses this season than the 2012-2013 season, Thomas views this as a very positive thing, as they “played some really tough teams,”

    Simply put, Thomas said every player on the team stepped up, which allowed them to compete at a much higher level. “Before we would have never even dreamed about playing them, and here we are playing them, and doing well,” Thomas said.

    He attributes much of the team’s opportunities to play at a higher level to two of the team’s senior players: Rachel Morton and Deanna Whalen.

    “They just made it easier on the rest of the team, took a lot of weight off the rest of the team’s shoulders,” Thomas said, crediting Morton and Whalen’s ability to face off with their opponents’ best players as a major reason for the team’s extensive list of accomplishments.

    Morton was named player of the year for the 2013-2014 season, as well as the 2012-2013 season. Both Morton and Whalen were named first team in SWOC, for first and second singles, respectively.

    Along with the two seniors, Katie Curry, the duos of Kate Hanley and Audrey Lipps, and Becca and Sarah Lockhart were all named first team.

    Thomas also points out the importance of the JV team, and how influential they are to the team overall. Keeping a full JV roster is very important to the group as a whole; by having a good, full JV team, the Varsity team remains at a high level.

     Thomas notes that all of the girls had to “step up from prior seasons” in order to achieve such high levels of performance, though it may not have been their prefered position. “There was some angst,” Thomas said. “But for the team’s goals, they fell right in line,”

     He credits the improvement in the level of play to the girls’ dedication in the high school  tennis offseason.

    “We don’t make players during the season, they’re made in the offseason,” said Thomas

    Many of the players dedicated their time in the offseason to bettering their playing ability, which shows in the season, according to Thomas.

    “Our girls work very hard in the offseason and it’s nice to see that their hard work pays off,” Thomas said.

     As far as the amount of fans present at matches, Thomas feels it is adequate, as oftentimes, younger spectators don’t know the proper etiquette.

    However, Thomas said “The family support has been tremendous,” Stating team goals, and a family-first attitude.

    Named coach of the year, Thomas said the accomplishment has no value if the team doesn’t do well. “It’s all about team goals. Having individual trophies and the individual accolades is great, but they mean nothing if the team goals aren’t met.”

    With a team centered approach, Thomas said to attain so many awards and titles means a successful program is being run, not to mention, “We’re having fun.”