Tennis 2022

Mrs. Rebecca Feather started coaching Mooreville’s tennis team last year. This is her second year coaching and she has “…loved every minute of it”. I asked her what some of the goals for her team are and she says, “My goal for the tennis team this year is to be better than last year.  To me, it’s not necessarily about winning, I just want them to do their best every time that they are on the court. I want them to work to make today better than yesterday..on and off the court. Every day that you play tennis is a day for improvement. I believe that when you do your best, the wins will come.” This year, there are a lot more people on the team. With 35 people on the team and only 2 courts, things can get complicated. I asked Coach Feather how she felt about this obstacle and she said, “Honestly, 34 players is A LOT of tennis players and there are times when I feel overwhelmed when I think about it. There have been times where I have asked myself…what have I gotten myself into! But, I am trusting that they are here for a reason this season. I am very excited that we have so many people who are interested in playing tennis. I want each player to improve their game and have fun while doing it.  Tennis is a sport that you can play at any age. I am hoping with all of the interest in tennis that it will help us build more tennis courts in the near future.”  I asked what she planned on doing differently this year with the challenge of having so many players and only 2 courts. She replied, “My goal is to not have people standing around. We have 34 players this year and only two tennis courts.  So, I had to get creative with our practice schedule. We will have to have three different practices where some players will be on the court and the other will be doing conditioning exercises. I am excited that we were able to purchase a tennis ball launcher for the team to use at practice. This will be very helpful this year!” The team may not be excited about conditioning, but I can guarantee they are eager to use the tennis ball launcher. Additionally, the tennis team got a grant to resurface the courts last year, and it was truly a blessing. Now they are trying to build two more courts, which would make practicing with so many people a lot easier. Having these extra courts would even let them play some matches at home. Feather says, “It would make practice much easier and we could host our own tennis matches.  Currently, we play our ’home’ matches at the tennis courts at Rob Leake Park in Tupelo and it is rather difficult to schedule our matches there because Tupelo and TCPS use the courts as well. To create some ‘hype’, I scheduled a varsity-only match against Baldwyn here at our Mooreville courts.  It will be a long match, but it will be fun.  I hope that it will help raise awareness that we need to add additional courts. I plan on having a tennis camp in April after our season is over. The tennis camp and many different fundraising efforts will help us raise the funds needed for the new courts. We have some fundraising goals for next year too.” So, if you are interested in playing tennis, or know anyone who is, keep your eyes and ears open for news about the tennis camp fundraiser and help our tennis team get more courts! This year’s senior tennis players are Manjot Nagra, Emily Garcia, Kevin Griffin, and Conner Smith. Mrs. Feather says, “I love each one of these seniors, and they are all very special to me. I want them to have a great season and be able to look back on their time on the tennis team with fond memories. I hope that they all continue to play tennis recreationally, if not on another team.” As a tennis player, I can say that we are like a family and we are sad to see them leave. The tennis schedule and roster are listed below!

Tennis 2022

  Date         Opponent         Location       Time

Monday, February 14th Amory Tupelo 4:30 p.m.

Thursday, February 17th Baldwyn Mooreville (Varsity Only) 4:00 p.m.

Thursday, February 24th Booneville Tupelo 4:30 p.m.

Friday, February 25th Starkville Starkville 4:00 p.m.

Tuesday, March 1st Pontotoc Pontotoc 4:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 3rd Nettleton Tupelo 4:00 p.m.

Friday, March 4th *Itawamba Tupelo 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, March 8th *Corinth Corinth 4:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 10th *Caledonia Tupelo 4:00 p.m.

Monday, March 21st South Pontotoc Pontotoc 4:00 p.m.

Tuesday, March 22nd *Tishomingo Tishomingo 4:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 24th *Shannon Tupelo 4:00 p.m.

Monday, March 28th District Tournament Tupelo TBA

*District Match

All home matches will be played at Rob Leake City Park Tennis Courts in Tupelo. 

Roster

Girls: Boys:

Alyssa Lewis Caleb Roberts

Analynn Keith Clayton Rupert

Brianna Badeau Conner Smith

Caroline Harris Davis Feather

Ella Beth Honeycutt Drew Baldwyn

Emily Garcia Grey Cruse

Gracie Pittman Grisham Cruse

Hannah Harmon Gus Ray

Jesse Brooks Jake Bostick

Layla Carol Kason Mathis

Lydia Spencer Kevin Griffin

Macie Mangum Morgan Bostick

Manjot Nagra Myles Wafler

Meredith Keith Parker Harris

Mya Mott Rock Cummings

Nan Pittman Sam Pittman

Sadie Downs Sutton Scruggs