This afternoon, senior Ammar Rizwan and junior Richard Wang will represent Uni in the IHSA Urbana tennis sectional. Play will begin 3 p.m. at Lindsay Park near Centennial High School. Matches will also be held Saturday at Blair Park in Urbana. Rizwan and Wang's appearance in the IHSA postseason culminates the first year of Uni's tennis club, sponsored by chemistry teacher David Bergandine. Sophomore Chris Yoder has been a club member from the start, and he offers a first-person look at this group of dedicated athletes.

[UPDATE: In the Urbana IHSA tennis sectional held Friday, May 16, Ammar Rizwan lost (6-1, 6-1) to Vibhav Reddy of Danville, and Richard Wang lost (6-0, 6-1) to Kyle Benson of Decatur Eisenhower. ]

CHAMPAIGN — I'm standing across the net from junior Greg Atherton, with a bright yellow tennis ball in my left hand. “Forty-30,” I say. I toss the ball high in the air and hit it as hard as I can across the court. Greg raises his index finger in the air as the ball sails far past the service line.

I grab another ball from my pocket. “Second.” I hit the ball more softly this time, and it goes in. Greg runs forward and smashes the ball hard to my left. I run to the ball and lob a backhand to the far right corner. It goes in. “Game,” I say. “Nice shot!” Greg says. “Thanks,” I say.

It’s all part of the chivalry of tennis. For two hours after school each day, several dedicated Uni students travel to this year’s inaugural tennis club to hit bright yellow spheres back and forth across a meter-high net onto green asphalt. When the buses aren’t in service, some are even dedicated enough to walk to walk to the courts, located a mile and a half away. That's dedication.

The Rise of Tennis Club

One of the first signs tennis was becoming popular came at last year’s disorientation picnic. Chemistry teacher David Bergandine had sent out an e-mail a week in advance inviting Uni students to play tennis on the courts at Illini Grove. There was enough interest at the picnic for Bergandine to think about organizing a club.

According to Bergandine, the idea to form a club came collectively at the end of last school year from students, himself, former Director/Principal Kassie Patton, and Athletic Director Sally Walker. Over the summer, after Walker had made arrangements for courts and purchased equipment, all that was left was to let the students know.

Last fall, tennis club was born. Informal practices started about a week before classes began, and slowly the half-hearted players were filtered out. The people who came every day varied in skill level and experience, but all came to the club to have fun.

After everyone makes the trip to the courts at First and Stadium, Champaign, each day — via bus, someone’s car, or their own set of legs — we warm up with some light hitting, some light running, and some hardcore stretching.

Those are just the appetizers, however, and everyone is always eager for the main course. Sometimes we play singles. Sometimes we play doubles. Sometimes we do drills. But always we have fun.

At the start of the year lots of us were rusty, but it didn’t matter. I hadn’t played tennis regularly since I was taking lessons at Atkins as an 8-year-old. Some of us had played regularly for years. Some hadn’t ever played before. But none of it mattered when we were in the game.

“I think that the joy that you get from playing a sport is intangible,” said sophomore club member Danny Ge. “But you can only get such joy from sports that you like. And for me, tennis is one of those intangibly fun sports. That is why I play tennis. That is why I come to tennis club.”

The Daily Routine

As the year wore on, it became harder for everyone to make it to practice every day. Some days in the early going, we had as many as a dozen or two people on the courts. Yet as August became September, the homework load increased, and fewer people were able to make it to the courts each day. We moved from the courts at Illini Grove to the ones near First and Stadium.

As September became October, the weather only worsened, and only four or five people could made the trek to the courts every day. And then it was winter, and tennis club was on hiatus until the spring.

As practices resumed in the spring, some people were able to come who had conflicts in the fall. Nearly every day, we’ve had about six to 12 people on the courts, most of whom come nearly every day.

This spring the regulars have been me, Atherton, Ge, seniors Ammar Rizwan and Jie Han, and juniors Richard Wang and Alan Kessler. Our semi-regulars have been senior Isaac Radnitzer, sophomores Liz Allen, Zack Goldberg, Nile Hamer, and Maritza Mestre, and freshman Mike Zhivov.

For the most part, the routines have stayed about the same, but for the past few weeks, sectionals have been looming in a couple players’ eyes. Since Rizwan and Wang are head and shoulders above everyone else (save perhaps Bergandine, our sponsor and coach), those two have spent the last week exclusively preparing for the Urbana sectional.

“It will be an interesting opportunity for a couple of our guys to demonstrate the ability that they have,” said Bergandine. “Because we haven’t played competitively outside of our school, it’s really hard to predict that the outcome might be. But I think that they should hang in there and play well.”

The rest of us haven’t been left out. With the U of I students gone for the summer, court space is much less in demand. So the rest of us can usually play doubles — or even singles — without worrying about having to give up court space to college students.

Projections and Reflections

The future looks good for Uni tennis, even if it doesn’t become a recognized sport. Three seniors will be graduating, but everyone else will be coming back. Six regulars will return, and four semi-regulars will be eligible as well. That’s not including people who are injured, incoming students, and younger students who may have been scared off.

In my opinion, no one should be intimidated by tennis club. Not this year, not next year. Never. All of us (well, most of us) are happy to show each other how to hit a forehand, hit a backhand, or how to make one’s serve spin.

If you hit a nice shot, chances are you’ll hear some nice words coming from across the net. It’s quite remarkable that we maintain the level of respect for each other that we do, even as a cross-court backhand is hit in our court for a winner.

I’m glad to have had the opportunity to play this year. Like just about everyone else, I’ve improved, and I’ve rarely gone a minute on the courts without feeling glad to be there.

I’d be satisfied to play the same sport in the same setting next year. And though the club’s continuation depends on student support, Bergandine thinks the club will be back. I hope so.

“It’s been fun,” said senior Jie Han.

And really, that pretty much sums it all up.