Fillmore’s girls tennis player as she warms up before the match against Santa Paula.

A note from coach Bowman
As of today, the Fillmore high school girls tennis team has rounded up their season. We played our final matches against St. Bonaventure, Nordoff, and Santa Paula high schools. Thank you to all of our opponent’s coaches. They were all great, hospitable hosts as all of our matches were “away.” Of course a big thanks to Fillmore high school for supporting the team especially Principal Tom Ito and Athletic Director Kim Tafoya. Hopefully Fillmore high school will have enough courts in the future to have home matches as parents love to watch their teenagers play a sport. Tennis courts would benefit the team as well as an additional sport for students in P.E. classes at the high school. As the season progressed this year, I saw more confidence in Fillmore’s players as they began to have trust in their backhands, and were serving powerful serves. Instilling confidence in the team members, as you know, is important to me as a coach. Learning to play this technical game of tennis has been no easy task for the team. It is a challenge to learn, and will help them to face other difficulties in the future. Maybe down the road, one of the girls will say, “I’m up for the challenge of medical school...after all, I learned how to play tennis!” Specifically this year, serving the ball “in the court,” was a priority as they practiced this part of the game on a daily basis. Once the serve is in, the game begins. Also, learning the tactical game of tennis was trickled in as the basic strokes were the first priority. A tactical skill is standing in the correct position on the court. Learning to stay out of “no man’s land,” is a challenge as it is tempting to stand in the center of the court when one is learning the game. An example of the wrong position might be a few feet in front of the baseline; tennis balls will most likely land at your feet with no time to return the ball. Especially for a beginner, standing further behind the baseline may give ample time to take a backswing to hit the tennis ball. Timing is everything. Standing too far away from the net in a volleying position may also be a bad position on the court. A volley may be more of a success if the player is standing closer to the net, as most volleys are hit from a high to low angle position. Getting back to the players, returning from last year, players Briana Lopez and Karime Renteria excelled in all of the strokes of the game and were a pleasure to watch on the tennis court. The new girls Jessica Lopez, Maria Gonzalez, Amairani Aragon, Ashley Tamayo, and Marisa Herrera picked up the game quickly, were competitive, and became better players by the day. Thank you to all of the parents, especially for raising such a great group of girls. The girls were kind and respectful all around.