Nearly every Friday night in the fall, the Brunswick High School football team plays a regular season game with rows and rows of students, staff, and parents in the bleachers cheering. Meanwhile, later in the spring, a girl on the varsity tennis team could be playing against an opponent from one of the most dominant schools in Frederick during the County Finals, and she looks over mid-match from the court to see … well … her dad, her coach, and her three or four teammates. Speaking from someone who practices tennis nearly eight hours a week to perfect each stroke and serve, I find it frustrating to see how other sports get much greater attention. Tennis should be more respected compared to other high school sports because it takes a great amount of fitness and extreme mental toughness, plus it has a very interesting, important history that impacts our current lives.
“Tennis is just hitting the ball with a racket; it is much easier than most other high school sports and therefore cannot be taken seriously.” This is a common misconception about tennis, one that I heard in eighth-grade physical education class very often by all of the basketball/football-obsessed boys. But fitness is essential. Tennis players require spectacular endurance, agility, and flexibility–more so than football players, according to sports scientists from the U.S. Olympic Committee researching for ESPN. This doesn’t mean football is less difficult. However, it does mean that saying, “tennis is an easy sport,” is not valid.
Tennis also requires mental toughness that people playing team sports do not understand because they are just that–a team. When tennis players make mistakes, they cannot talk to a teammate, sit out for a quarter, or let their anger get the best of them. For example, I had to figure out how to mentally regroup in the middle of a three-hour match without any emotional support from friends or family. Additionally, tennis matches have no set stopping time; players must stay focused and present for the length of the match, which can occasionally last over six hours. How does someone stay active for six hours straight? Along with fitness, the player’s mentality plays a vital role.
Tennis has the potential to become a popular sport due to its physical and mental aspects. However, its history also shows it is respect-worthy. A 1973 match called the “Battle of the Sexes” took place between professional tennis players Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, who said that no female tennis player could defeat him. King won the match, a victory for all female athletes being told that they are inferior to men. It also showed that female tennis athletes are just as powerful as their male counterparts. This history demonstrates that tennis is an extremely respectable sport.
Despite common misconceptions that tennis is easy, it is a very respectable sport and should be treated as such by the majority of Brunswick High School. Tennis is a physically demanding, mentally challenging, and historically impactful sport that deserves to be taken more seriously and admired compared to other high school sports.