Unified Tennis Team Dominates at 2016 Tournament and Sends Two Teams to States
by Taylor Seabolt for Walkersville High School Lion’s Pride
On Monday October 17th the Walkersville High School Unified Tennis team competed in the 2016 county tournament. The team had been working really hard to improve their skills at each and every practice. “All of the kids did awesome — during practice they were very dedicated and I’m proud of them just for that,” said Special Education teacher Carol Desimone.
The bus ride to Bakers Park was quiet as silence seeped into the air and hopes set in. Ten minutes later the team stepped off of the bus one by one with smiles from ear to ear prepared for a fight. WHS arrived at 12:05pm dressed and ready to compete for the county title. Student athletes hit the courts at 12:15pm for some easy practice before the real games began.
“Going to states would be nice but the most important thing to me is that the kids have fun while they’re out there,” said Coach Will Scheetz.
The tournament was set up to divide the ten high schools in Frederick into four different groups called flights. Each flight contained four teams with eight people on each team.
WHS had such a big team that they had to split the team up into three smaller teams which were then scattered among three different flights. As teams were setting up and the day began to fall into place players reported to their designated area. With their rackets in their hands and friends by their sides the games began. The sun beat down on the unified tennis team and the competition looks tough.
Walkersville was off to a great start with Teams B and C winning 4-0. The teams showed tremendous effort to rack up the points. Team A gives their absolute best and radiates positive spirit. Every single person on Team A brought their a game completely throwing their opponents off.
Tired teams step off to grab snacks and prepare for their next match, practicing in the beautiful green fields of the park.
Towards the middle of the match Team B was still going strong with the score being 6-0 along with Team C’s score of 5-0. Players began to get hot from the rays of the sun and began to tire out. WHS catches a second wind though as most teams step on for their second match. Towards the end of the match Teams B and C remain undefeated with a stellar score of 16-0. With that, Walkersville sends two teams to states this year. The whole team will come out to support on November third at Towson University to hopefully watch the Lions dominate.
The bus ride seemed longer going home but was over before anyone could blink. Tired students wear a gold medal around their necks representing their awesome victory.
Some of the student athletes react to the news of going to states as well as the wonderful Coach Will Scheetz.
“I feel amazing absolutely [freaking] amazing,” said junior Quanai McClain.
“I’m so happy we are going to states. I worked really hard on my tennis skills at practice,” said junior Dakota Lovejoy.
“I feel really great about it and I hope we can beat em at states,” said senior Giovanni Penate.
“It feels really good to go to states, Walkersville is really nice because there’s a lot of encouragement,” said freshman Bradley Phelps.
“It makes me really happy,” said sophomore Eva Lopez.
“We had some really good combined teams this year. Every athlete worked so hard to get to counties and at the end of the day it makes me even prouder to be their coach,” said Scheetz.
Walkersville will go to states ready to give it their all and hopefully crush the competition. The team walks with their heads high on their way to another state title.
