When the Fannin County High School (FCHS) tennis team comes to the end of practice time, they often have one demand, coach Suzanne Pass said.
“Hey, can you hit me one more?”
This level of commitment drives the team to early-morning and weekend practices, she said.
The team’s dedication to getting in more practice might make them “very competitive” this year, Pass said.
“They listen. They pay attention,” she said of the program’s nine boys and nine girls.
“And they hate losing.”
In addition, playing in a league without private school competition this year boosts the team’s championship chances, Pass said.
While tennis players win as a team, tennis matches are one-on-one or two-on-two duels between players, Pass said.
This game demands intense focus.
“You don’t have a bench. You don’t have a clock. You don’t have a score. You do it all yourself,” Pass said.
As a result, tennis matches tend to be more quiet than baseball or soccer games, she said. But they are no less intense.
“We don’t have cowbells out here,” Pass said of the tennis courts.
In Fannin County, there’s not as much enthusiasm for tennis compared to sports like baseball and soccer, Pass said.
As a result, the FCHS students who join the tennis team tend to focus on achieving success in their chosen sport, she said.
Many students have tried tennis and discovered they love it.
“One of my best friends told me it was really fun,” said junior Karis Hurd.
Other students were conscripted to the tennis team.
“Coach Mark saw me play [pickleball] and he said that I need to join the tennis team. And I didn’t really have a choice,” said sophomore Odin Rea-Gutierrez.
After joining, Rea-Gutierrez said he discovered tennis was “really fun.” Now he’s eager to win.
“We plan to completely destroy and win,” he said of him and his partner’s plans for their March 11 match.
In past years, the tennis team’s low numbers have been a problem, Pass said. A few years ago, Rebels tennis had only two boys on the team.
One of them, Sam Jabaley, was one of the best tennis players in the region, Pass said. But he didn’t get to go to the championship because the team was too small.
“In tennis, you have to go as a team,” Pass said.
This year’s team knows that “they can’t be successful unless their teammates are successful,” she said.
But since then, Fannin has started on its way to fielding a powerful tennis roster.
Fannin County Middle school now has a tennis program, and more high school athletes have taken up the challenge of learning tennis, Pass said.
“They see their friends out here being successful,” she said. “Then they get out here.”