Sunshine, Tennis, Fitness and Fun

Welcome to 2010!

We have been treated to two days of brilliant outdoor tennis, I was going to take photos, but we were enjoying practice so much I couldn't even let myself grab a camera.

Our start to the year began before school with 5 players volunteering a week of their break to teach tennis to 42 local youth players in our annual Winter Tennis Camp. It was so much fun for all and such a joy to see great players be great teachers of the game.

Practicing in the sun has me as excited as ever and many of the women will compete this Saturday in a one day USTA/ITA campus showdown, a tournament at Whitman to bring together both Whitman campus members and outside players to play on campus.

Today was also a big assessment day, with fitness testing right out of the gate. I know we'll continue to get faster, but our fall strength has paid off with the team averages for sit ups and push ups going up from last year at this time.

We are speedy as well with Whitman records being recorded by Elise Otto in the beep test (a crazy soccer endurance test, Elise got a 14.5), Kate K-P in the overhead medicine ball throw at 267 inches, and Alyssa Roberg in our agility test at 26.87 seconds. Still, no one dethroned recent graduate and assistant coach Katie Oost in the 20 meter sprint with her average time of 3.50 seconds last Spring.

Keep in touch and now that we've started I'll be updating the blog much more frequently.

Best,
John