Tennis fever back in Seymour with great camp activity

The rain couldn’t keep them away on Monday, the heat couldn’t slow them down on Tuesday, and nothing could stop Seymour’s youth tennis camp from progressing in high school this week.

The numbers haven’t been the highest on Seymour’s tennis court before, but that wasn’t the case this year.

The owls saw a huge turnout this week as more than 80 children flooded the purple courts between first and eighth graders.

“It’s really exciting in the game of tennis,” high school girls tennis head coach Sharon Wood said. “In recent years, our numbers have dropped in our camps, and we’re not sure why, but we think the tennis fever is back in Seymour.”

Wood believes the success of the programs at the moment will help tennis draw attention and interest to Jackson County.

Wood’s girls ’team has won the Hoosier Hills Conference and Sector Victory and advanced to the regional championship match last spring.

On Tuesday night, four different positions had been set for the camp, and the campers were divided into four different groups based on the color of the name tag.

The first position was run by Wood, who taught hand strokes as well as proper technique and footwork before hitting the ball.

The second position was led by assistant coach Bob Wood, who taught strikes.

The third position was led by boys head coach Brandon Davis, who taught some precision exercises where hula hoops were targets on the other side of the net.

The fourth and final position was led by assistant coach Liz Davis, who had kids with a bucket of water to sit in a circle and play “dripple, dribble, drop,” a variation of duck, duck, goose.

Instead of tapping someone on the head, they would pour water drops from a cup onto someone’s head, dropping the entire cup to mark a “drop” and rushing around in a circle to get an open seat unmarked.

The main goal of the camp throughout the week is to work on the basics and the attacks in advance, on the palm, on the volleyball and above.

Wood said they will start working on some services later in the week and try to teach the children terminology.

“What does a split step mean? What is a turn? What does tracking mean? What arrives? What are no boundaries?” Wood said.

In addition to the coaching staff maintaining the stations, they had more than 30 high school volunteers from both the boys ’and girls’ teams to help keep things in order.

“They’re a really good example. Their attitude has been good. Their enthusiasm has been good,” Wood said. “They’re really good at pulling kids to the side and offering advice, and kids love it when they participate in games.”

Each day of the five-day camp is designed to build on progress made the day before. The camp ends on Friday, and by that day Wood wants the kids to know the basics of teaching all week.

He wants them to know when they say a hand in advance, they know exactly which direction to turn and that the racket would be in one hand.

“We want them to have the basics and they know that when they go to practice with mom and dad, they know this is a hand, this is a palm, volleyball means the ball didn’t touch the ground, and we’re going there,” he said. .

With such a high turnout, Wood hopes it will only help grow Seymour’s tennis programs, either at the high school or high school level. Interest in the sport was strong this week, meaning the tennis fever was in full force.

“It’s really exciting and so much fun to look to the future that these many kids are excited about playing tennis,” Wood said.