By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
SPRINGVILLE – Recently, there has been a good bit of talk in the main stream, about small towns. In the Trussville Tribune coverage area, we have several small towns and one of those is Springville, Alabama. In a small town, you have your seasons. Fall is all about Friday night lights and football with volleyball mixed in. Winter into early spring means two or three nights per week in the gym for basketball games. Spring into early summer means ballpark days and nights with baseball and softball paired with soccer. However, in Springville, there is another sport that not many folks may think about when they think about a small town. That sport is tennis.
“When you say tennis in a small town, if you go back 30 years, you could be talking about Trussville,” said Springville’s Tennis Liaison Carol Edwards. “We did this in Trussville. I taught at Hewitt and Clay Chalkville. We only had a couple of courts. It was hard to convince the board to get more courts because people weren’t playing at the mall courts because there was no restroom. We kept working and we got the rquet club. I coached junior high tennis. We moved to Springville about 25 years ago. We had 2 broken down courts and a ball field. The mayor said there was no hope of getting new courts. Richard Harvey had some children who played for Springville and he did the most to get our current courts.”
In June, the Springville Parks and Recreation team hosted the very first events as a club and they were very successful. In June, they began with “Ready to Learn,” a program sanctioned by United States Tennis Association (UTSA). The idea behind this program was to help beginners learn the basics of tennis. The 35 participants (the largest group in the state of Alabama) enjoyed more than four hours of instruction with a UTSA pro. You may not know it, but there are many pros in Springville. The pros present at this first event were Meridith Land, Carol Edwards, Paul Bauman, Ken Lambert, Annah Hall, Brian Harbison, and Conner Calhoun. They taught the basics of ground strokes, volleys, and serves; and by the end of the 4-week event, players were able to play a full set.
After the first event, players were given the opportunity to sign up for the second level of Ready, Set Tennis. The name of this level was Set To Play. 18 of the 35 previous participants continued to this level. They were able to have another four hours of instructions with a USTA Pro. This time consisted of game play and coaching opportunities. During this time, the players made great strides in their tennis game and were able to rally by the end of the 8 hours clinics.
Springville Parks and Recreation Director Rick Hopkins said, “What has really helped us is creating a tennis committee. We formed it 6 months ago and things really went quickly from there. We had people sign up and we have incredible people in the community. Our relationship with USTA has really helped us with the Ready, Set, Tennis program. We are really trying to create stakeholders in the community and move this thing forward. We have a waiting list now. Our numbers are the largest they’ve had so far for this program. This past Tuesday we had our junior clinic and we are at maximum capacity. Our courts have been full. We hope to continue to grow the tennis program. We are excited to see an alternative sport that is not one of the common sports in our area grow like it is.”
“Rick has been super supportive as far as building our tennis program,” said Edwards. “In May, he got a tennis committee together. Just people who wanted to know why we didn’t have courts. We first did Ready, Set, Tennis. It was a big success. There were people who wanted to play tennis but didn’t have a program. It turns out there are lots of people in this area and surrounding areas, who like the idea. At the end of May, we spoke with Jerrie Ciza Burns, director of USTA Alabama. She mentioned a Memorial Day coaches’ clinic. I had experience at the high school level but not with kids. We went to this clinic and learned a lot. We started our red ball and orange ball clinics. Red ball is for ages 6-8 and orange ball 9–11-year-olds. One ball has less pressure than the other. USTA wrote a grant and gave us racquets and balls and throw down lines. Red ball was first and then orange ball. We meet on Tuesdays. We’ve had 38-40 kids sign up total. After 2 clinics, they are wanting to bring friends and we want that. I have some outstanding help. Volunteers are Annah Hall, Sarah Colby, Mallory Knowles, Conner Calhoun, Wayne Edwards (Carol’s husband) helping us out. We’ve had outstanding help from volunteers who have helped teach. Next, we are going to have a middle school clinic that we hope will be free. The main thing is, we have backing from the city government and help from Rick Hopkins and he is really pushing and supporting it. That is how you have tennis in a small town. We owe a lot Jerrie Ciza Burns is executive director of USTA Alabama. Gave grant to buy raquets and balls and throw down lines. Children’s tennis today – take a 6-year-old and put in Yankee Stadium and tell him to play. We expect them to have adult equipment which makes no sense. But we’ve been able to create courts and equipment opportunities for them, thanks to the UTSA and that grant.”
In addition to these events, there were also Red Ball Clinics. These clinics were for 6 – 11-year-old kids interested in playing tennis. They were able to be coached by Carol Edwards, Conner Calhoun, Anna Hall and the Springville High School tennis team. The teachers taught the basics of tennis with age-appropriate equipment and smaller courts. The kids enjoyed games like ‘Simon Says’, Egg Drop Soup’, and ‘Walk the Dog’ while learning about showing respect to teammates and friends. These clinics focus on both the physical and behavioral aspect, specifically the R.E.S.T (respect, effort, sportsmanship, and teamwork) method. This was done during breaks before and after the events.
Remaining camps available are on July 25th, August 1st, and August 8th with 6-8-year-olds playing at 4:30 pm and 9-11-year-olds at 5:30 pm.