Taking Weekend Tennis Seriously

I’m constantly amazed by life and how life unfolds. I probably didn’t know you a year ago. I probably was not on your tennis team a year ago. And now here we are. Texting buddies.

So much happens in one year. So much has happened. So much will happen. Will you and I still be texting buddies this time next year? Will we still be Facebook friends? These are life’s important questions.

I’ve been saying for most of 2013 that I would be good at tennis in 2014 to my doubles partners right after the “Sorry!” for missing yet another shot. I was actually hoping I’d be good last year but then came the first loss in the first match of the year in TCD (one of the non-USTA city-spanning local doubles leagues in my area) and then the first real-USTA loss two matches into the season and welp, there went that dream for 2013.

I’ve already suffered losses in match play this year (while some people haven’t so much as touched a racquet, yet, at the time of this writing 😯 ) so now I’m eyeing February 2014 as when my tennis will really all come together. None of these losses count is the defensive mechanism talking in my head. Never you mind that the matches in question are technically of an organized league variety so they mean something to someone somewhere – certainly they do to all my victorious opponents. Hey man, the world can’t look up these losses. Totally don’t count! 😉

Since I don’t qualify for the 40 and Over USTA league going on in my area right now – honestly, I’m thankful for the reprieve from super ultra-competitive match play so much so that I don’t think I’ll ever complain about not getting to play that league for the next nearly decade and a half, but the rest of you crazy kids keep having fun in that cold you love so much now, ya hear! – my tennis year doesn’t officially begin till February when Spring TCD starts. That league has an extremely working website with up-to-the-day results, playing history, and everything. Darn that league and its band of merry volunteers. But that is indeed when I need to get my tennis together. There’s a first place trinket to be laid claim to!

Seriously though, TCD has awesome first place prizes. Fall TCD’s prize was a travel folding chair. A chair for Pete’s sake! Just by being a chair automatically makes it awesome!

What’s that? Do I captain USTA teams solely for the captain’s gift generously handed out by my local USTA league office? In my defense, I had no idea I’d receive a captain’s gift when I forgot to say “Not it” in the Not It To Captain game that I lost last spring (it’s a hard game). Did I list my very comfortable long-sleeve Love All T that I wear all the time during these trying, chilly times as one of the pros for my Should I Captain A Tennis Team Again Pros and Cons list? Whhhhaaaaatttt.

So, technically no, I don’t captain solely for the captain’s gift. That’s just one of the pros. For my other pros, I listed out each of my players. Awwwwww. I KNOW, right?!? 😀

For my closing arguments, I hope you and yours and everyone in between fall in love with tennis in 2014. It’s still early. There’s still time. It could still be awesome. I’m going to repeat that to myself after my “first” loss of the year; heck, I’m saying it to myself now. I hope you never have to this year. 🙂