This week Courtney was nominated and voted for by her teammates as the Whittie of The Week, check out her award here and tell her congrats if you see her.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
What a first week in Walla Walla!
No, it's not the first week of the year; but it IS the first week of:
-school
-practice
-snow (and maybe the last as it is melting as I type)
Lot's went on this week as everyone got back. Many of us wrapped up an amazing Winter Youth camp while Erin endured a 10 day training and is now Wilderness First Responder certified! Lizzy took her senior written exams for Psychology (fingers crossed, though I'm sure she did great). Everyone got to return to campus and friends and the daily routine of training together. It's a lot of excitement to start, but on top of that, the Northwest was hit with a big storm and Walla Walla got some snow!
Our first Spring 2012 Whittie of the Week is Kate. Voted to have contributed the most to the team by her teammates, I'd say KKP was making up for lost time while studying the civil war in Gettysburg this fall, but really, this is what she brings every day with tremendous effort and enthusiasm. You can read more here.
We finished off this exciting week with a super fun trip to the Ice Chalet downtown and had team skating and dinner; check the flickr page as I am uploading photos right now.
Welcome back everyone, its going to be a great season of Whitman Tennis!
John
-school
-practice
-snow (and maybe the last as it is melting as I type)
Lot's went on this week as everyone got back. Many of us wrapped up an amazing Winter Youth camp while Erin endured a 10 day training and is now Wilderness First Responder certified! Lizzy took her senior written exams for Psychology (fingers crossed, though I'm sure she did great). Everyone got to return to campus and friends and the daily routine of training together. It's a lot of excitement to start, but on top of that, the Northwest was hit with a big storm and Walla Walla got some snow!
Our first Spring 2012 Whittie of the Week is Kate. Voted to have contributed the most to the team by her teammates, I'd say KKP was making up for lost time while studying the civil war in Gettysburg this fall, but really, this is what she brings every day with tremendous effort and enthusiasm. You can read more here.
We finished off this exciting week with a super fun trip to the Ice Chalet downtown and had team skating and dinner; check the flickr page as I am uploading photos right now.
Welcome back everyone, its going to be a great season of Whitman Tennis!
John
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Remembering Dr. George Ball
Dear Whitman Tennis Community,
If you have not yet heard, our dear friend, teacher and inspirational supporter Dr. Ball passed away January 1st. In my time at Whitman, I'm not sure I encountered anyone else who so embodied what makes this community so great. The words that come to mind when remembering George, and those that I hear and read when corresponding about him, are compassion, inspiration, support, kindness and other adjectives that only begin to tell of his bottomless well of compassion.
His impact on our team has been great, though some of our younger players may not have had the chance to talk with him, only to see him riding his bike up to the courts to watch a match and even practices. They didn't all know that every semester Dr. Ball would make a special trip to my office to inquire about the team, check up on our ability to compete and also on our character, and finally to provide loving encouragement for the upcoming season.
I'll very much miss this meeting in the coming weeks as we prepare for our spring campaign and even more so the helmet clad rider on his blue cruiser making his way through the campus where he taught, mentored and stimulated greatness for so many years.
Personally, I have been reluctant about social media, but reading posts from students online is a good reminder that Facebook and Googleplus can be wonderful ways to stay connected. Our team has a page at http://www.facebook.com/WhitmanWomensTennis
We will all certainly miss you George and know that you are in a good place.
~Coach John
If you have not yet heard, our dear friend, teacher and inspirational supporter Dr. Ball passed away January 1st. In my time at Whitman, I'm not sure I encountered anyone else who so embodied what makes this community so great. The words that come to mind when remembering George, and those that I hear and read when corresponding about him, are compassion, inspiration, support, kindness and other adjectives that only begin to tell of his bottomless well of compassion.
His impact on our team has been great, though some of our younger players may not have had the chance to talk with him, only to see him riding his bike up to the courts to watch a match and even practices. They didn't all know that every semester Dr. Ball would make a special trip to my office to inquire about the team, check up on our ability to compete and also on our character, and finally to provide loving encouragement for the upcoming season.
I'll very much miss this meeting in the coming weeks as we prepare for our spring campaign and even more so the helmet clad rider on his blue cruiser making his way through the campus where he taught, mentored and stimulated greatness for so many years.
Personally, I have been reluctant about social media, but reading posts from students online is a good reminder that Facebook and Googleplus can be wonderful ways to stay connected. Our team has a page at http://www.facebook.com/WhitmanWomensTennis
We will all certainly miss you George and know that you are in a good place.
~Coach John
Monday, December 5, 2011
Quickstart Tennis Workshop
Happy December Everyone!
Here at Whitman we have two weeks of class between the week off for Thanksgiving and final exams for the Fall Semester. For most students this is a stressful time full of papers, exams, projects and hopefully a little bit of sleep in there. It goes against my nature as a coach to be in the offseason during an important time like this because I like to be involved and supportive of my players so not knowing day by day how they're doing and how their on court off season training is going is super tough for me.
Fortunately, I am blessed to have a team (and campus) of AMAZING students who not only have athletic and academic ability, but also a ton of compassion and community involvement. So, during the fall, we visit schools to provide free tennis lessons (with help from the guys team and club team this year!), we offer low cost clinics after school and we will host a fundraising camp January 9-13th in partnership with the City of Walla Walla Parks and Recreation. All of these activities provide the team with ways to give back to Walla Walla as well as enjoy tennis and pass it along to the next generation of players. But, if you ask the team, most of them just love working with kids and have a great time.
So, on Saturday, I hosted a USTA Quickstart Tennis Workshop. About half the team volunteered half of their Saturday to learn and improve their coaching skills, it was great fun and thanks to the USTA and Tracie who was an outstanding teacher. You can check out some pictures of us in the Bratton Tennis Center for the workshop. The link is here.
Here at Whitman we have two weeks of class between the week off for Thanksgiving and final exams for the Fall Semester. For most students this is a stressful time full of papers, exams, projects and hopefully a little bit of sleep in there. It goes against my nature as a coach to be in the offseason during an important time like this because I like to be involved and supportive of my players so not knowing day by day how they're doing and how their on court off season training is going is super tough for me.
Fortunately, I am blessed to have a team (and campus) of AMAZING students who not only have athletic and academic ability, but also a ton of compassion and community involvement. So, during the fall, we visit schools to provide free tennis lessons (with help from the guys team and club team this year!), we offer low cost clinics after school and we will host a fundraising camp January 9-13th in partnership with the City of Walla Walla Parks and Recreation. All of these activities provide the team with ways to give back to Walla Walla as well as enjoy tennis and pass it along to the next generation of players. But, if you ask the team, most of them just love working with kids and have a great time.
So, on Saturday, I hosted a USTA Quickstart Tennis Workshop. About half the team volunteered half of their Saturday to learn and improve their coaching skills, it was great fun and thanks to the USTA and Tracie who was an outstanding teacher. You can check out some pictures of us in the Bratton Tennis Center for the workshop. The link is here.
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