Sports Tournament Insider, #3: Tennis

By GABRIELLE SHIOZAWA

Moapa Valley Progress

The purpose of high school sports tournaments is to compete with other teams, learn new skills, and come away stronger.

Some of the best parts of tournaments, however, are the moments that happen off the playing field.

This week, we’ll take a look at what goes on at tennis tournaments when our boys and girls come off the court.

Tennis just wrapped up their 2018 season with some impressive performances at regionals and state. In the regular season, they competed in fifteen tournaments. Seven of the tournaments were at home, but the rest of the competitions included long bus rides and lots of downtime between matches.

“On the bus ride there, the boys always brought a speaker and played music, so we’d all just sing together!” commented girls’ team captain Averee Widdison. “That was always fun!”

Widdison added that sometimes Coach Coburn would even tell the team about his personal life—albeit reluctantly.

“And at tournaments, we’d play spike ball and mess around,” said Widdison. “We had this area in the grass that we’d always go to, and then Coburn would bring us snacks, and we’d all eat snacks and hang out together!”