Marble Falls tennis taking advantage of open courts

In less than a month, the Marble Falls High School tennis team is back at the Charlie and Nancy Herrington Tennis Center for fall training camp to prepare for the 2024 team tennis season.

Marble Falls returns Monday, Aug. 5, for its first official practice then hosts Lockhart Tuesday, Aug. 6, travels to play at Copperas Cove Thursday, Aug. 8, and welcomes Leander Glenn Monday, Aug. 12.

That schedule is a big reason why head coach Sam Whitley commended his players for taking advantage of two nights of open courts throughout the summer, which have drawn lettermen Chloe Brown, Cooper Kelley, Nevaeh Nelson (Montoya), Sophia Trudeau and Cooper Womack.

The open courts nights start at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“It’s been a tremendous increase in participation by the students, parents and middle school kids all the way down to the fourth grade,” he said. “It’s open to everybody.”

Students from Burnet, Faith Academy of Marble Falls and Lago Vista have made their way to the facility, which also made the coach happy.

“The idea is to get interest in tennis, to get joy out of it, and get passion for the game,” he said. “We want to keep the kids in shape. I’m also doing this to keep the interest.”

Some nights, as many as 40 people are at the facility that has eight courts. The sheer number of participants forced Whitley to add triple tennis that allows as many as eight players to take a single court. Each team has at least one player at the net and two on the baseline. After every point, each player rotates.

“The scoring is more like in volleyball,” the coach said. “Every time a mistake is made, somebody is scoring. We play a time limit of seven minutes. Whoever has the most points wins the match. We’ll rotate teams around.”

The attraction to triple tennis is it allows a large number of people to play at once in shorter matches.

“It’s not pickleball,” he added. “It doesn’t matter what skill level you’re at, you can compete. You can have fourth-graders competing against adults. It’s a fun game and quick game. We want to get them interested and get them in shape.”

And it gives flexibility for the use of the other courts.

“I spend more time running that than I do watching my own kids,” Whitley said. “We put 20 people in two courts for 40-plus people out there. That opens up the other courts for doubles or singles.”

Ensuring skill levels are lined up on the other courts is a hurdle because Whitley wants to make sure players feel challenged as they’re competing.

“That’s what you have to do to get better,” he said.

Currently, more middle school and high school girls are making their way to the courts than boys, which illustrates one key point for the coach.

“You don’t get better sitting on the couch,” he said. “They want to get better — that’s the bottom line. Last year, we had 20 kids out there. Last year, that was a good group. We’ve doubled that for the most part.”

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