WYNNE — The Wynne tennis season is underway.
Wynne tennis coach Adam Goins said he has a mostly young team this year, but he is excited about watching their growth throughout the season.
“We have eight, nine, maybe 10 new players to the sport. We do have about 14 that are returners, but they’re not juniors or seniors. I do have three seniors that are on the varsity girls’ team and I have maybe one senior on the boys’ team,” he said. “I have some ninth graders that are showing some promise. If they stick around with it, if they survive this season and they have a little bit of fun, I think we’ll get them back and come back stronger next season.”
Monday will be a special day for the Wynne tennis program. The team will host its first match on the new courts at the high school. Goins said it has been since before the tornado that his team has had a facility to call its own.
“We had a home match on the two courts that we had against Harrisburg and it was dreadful. It was so long to try to get everybody through. It is remarkable we were able to get four courts over here,” he said. “I think that’s going to allow us to have more home games and we’ll be able to get matches out pretty quickly and there won’t be a bunch of teenagers just standing around waiting on their chance to play.
“Also, with the team, it gives them a sense of pride having Yellowjackets on the court and something to call your own.”
Goins said he believes the continued growth of pickleball will ultimately help the tennis program. Several of his players have a background in playing pickleball.
“I think it has a positive impact on tennis,” he said. “They have pickleball courts going between the library and the bank. They have plenty at Village Creek. They have some pickleball lines on our tennis courts over here by the football field. Pickleball is definitely not going away anytime soon.”
The team will host two of its three matches scheduled for the new tennis courts next week. They’ll open conference play against Batesville Southside Monday and then host Harrisburg Thursday. The third match on the courts will be played Tuesday, Aug. 25, against Jonesboro.
