By Alli ’27
Hello families! My name is Alli and this Fall, I was a part of the middle school girls tennis team! I am here to explain to you what it is like on the team and the process to get on it….
Tryouts: This year, tennis was a very popular sport for the 7th and 8th grade girls. There were over 40 girls trying out and 24 ended up being on the team. The tryouts were over a course of 3 days at the Middle School. There were 2 courts and originally they separated them by grade. On the first day, the 7th and 8th graders stayed together to get a first impression of playing. Once it came to the second day, they moved players around. For me, they sent some of the 7th graders downstairs mixed with some of the 8th graders where we played doubles, team singles, live ball, king of the court, and much more. This second day gave the coaches a pretty good idea of which girls play better than others and start an image of the team. On the final day, they were building up the last bit of the roster.
Announcement: The next day, an email was sent out with the 2 teams. There were 12 girls on each team: red and black. Both teams were placed in the “A” division where they would be playing Marlborough, Paul Revere, and Brentwood. In the end, we learned we would also be playing each other (the red and black team).
Dismissal: When playing a sport, you may have to miss a class or two for early dismissal. Dismissal times will be featured at the bottom of the daily bulletin (which is sent to students at the end of each school day to let them know about what is happening tomorrow). It is important that you let your teacher know if you’re going to miss a class and explain to them the reason (this applies to all sports).
Home and away matches: Once the season starts, you will have home and away matches. Since Harvard-Westlake has only 2 courts on campus, our “home courts” are at Los Angeles Valley College. Depending on if your match is seen as a home or away match, you would play at LAVC or wherever the other teams home courts are.
Individuals tournament: After the season is over, there is one more competition for specific selected players from each team. Two singles players and two doubles pairs from each team are chosen to participate in an event with all the other schools in our league. It lasts over two days: one dedicated to singles and the other to doubles. In this tournament, there is a bracket of players. The loser(s) of the match will be eliminated while the victor(s) moves on to the next round.
Bonding: Playing sports at HW can really help you interact and meet new people! Tennis is a great way to foster friendships through bus rides to matches, cheering each other on while playing, practices at the middle school, and much more.
