The tennis team is awesome

Tonight was no normal Friday evening (lingering on the internet), no no no, on this night Dan and I decided to do something other than get yogurt, ride bikes or go to volleyball games. This night, we decided to attend the Annual University of Oregon Tennis Fan Day. We anticipated a few fans to show up, meet with the players, eat some pizza and leave... but we quickly found out for this to not be the case.

As we showed entered the indoor courts in our casual clothes, every player from both teams (mens and women's) were there and ready to to take on the fans. I quickly realized that this night was intended to be much more hands on than we thought it would be, as dozens of people from ages 3 to 70 were there with their racquets and ready to show the UO team what they could do. My first thought was:  How awesome is that? What other collegiate sports here offer to socialize with their fans by playing their own sport with them? No one on either basketball team would even do a 3 on 3 game with fans, and  the volleyball team certainly couldn't invite their fans out to join them in a pick up game. Football? No. Golf? Cross Country? Baseball? Acrobatics and Tumbling? There's really no other sport here that there's even a possibility to get the people this involved.

As Dan and I are hung around on the benches watching others play, I made the decision that I needed to get involved in this tennis orgy. I sprinted back to Dan's place to pick up some more athletic type clothing so that I could hit with the players, borrowed a racquet from the rec center, and I was as ready as I'd ever be to play. I found a good court with a few guys on the team, but more importantly my favorite girl on the team was there as well. As immediately as I walk on the court Aaron Clissold grabbed a hold of me and told me I was his partner. Alright, sounds fun, let's play. After a few rounds of me really not doing much at all and rotating with a few random partners, I finally get a few balls hit to me... and man did I fuck them up. Not just once. No. Almost every time I just couldn't get it back. I was very hesitant with my swing, and couldn't get any top spin down on the ball at all. I can honestly, hole heartedly, without a single doubt in my mind that the tennis I played tonight was the worst tennis I have ever played. Ever. I really don't think I could understate how poorly I played. And of course it was in front of the people who were best at it in this university.

Alas, the night was for fans and for fun. There was a raffle with some really great prizes, including free private tennis lessons with the COACH. As luck would have it, my raffle ticket was called and I got to go up front to see what I won. Turns out it was a T-shirt that was a tad too big...

Knees locked to achieve maximum awkward effect

As Dan and I left the tennis center, I couldn't help but think of how awesome our team here is, and I'm fairly sad that I'm only now figuring it out. I will undoubtedly be going to every home game this year that I can to show my support, and I strongly encourage anyone who's here to do the same.