Impacts of COVID-19 on College Tennis

The Day Of

The morning of March 12, 2020 was a normal day. That afternoon the most anticipated college tennis match of the season was set to take place at the Los Angeles Tennis Center as the UCLA Bruins hosted the top ranked USC Trojans in what was guaranteed to be an intense match. For both teams it was a normal morning. The Trojans had done their warmup at USC and were about to load into the vans and head up to Westwood. The Bruins had just finished their annual pre-match breakfast and were warming up and getting treatment in the training room. The biggest threat to the match that was not even the coronavirus, it was the impending rain that was looming. Then, just a few hours before the match was slated to start the coaches told their team that the match and their season had been cancelled due to the pandemic. 

“It was surreal, when Billy told us the match and season were cancelled I didn’t even process it. Less than 48 hours after getting the news I was driving back home for who knows how long” said Max Wild, currently a junior on the UCLA team. “It was weird that day. I remember no one was even bothered about Corona being the reason the match would be cancelled. The team was more worried about the forecast which said it was supposed to rain. We all thought if this match gets cancelled it’s because of the rain and it will just be rescheduled to tomorrow” continued Wild. “I had just hit on court and was getting treated when Billy (Martin) texted us and told us to come into the team room, then he dropped that bomb on us.” As Wild was explaining this his roommates, who are also on the team, nodded in agreement. “It was so trippy and weird,” Bryce Pereira, Wild’s roommate and a senior on the team and hitting partner for a professional tennis player.

All the players had very different reactions to news. “That day I was going through my typical routine. I came from the diner where we had a team breakfast, had an hour groove session, hitting serves and returns with some rallies, on the court with Will and then headed into the training room to get stretched and tapped” said Pereira. “I was lying on the trainer’s table when Billy texted us to come to the team room and then he said the match and season are cancelled. I just sat there super confused” continued Pereira. 

A few days prior to the match it was announced that fans wouldn’t be allowed, but families would still be permitted to come. Then the day before it was said that families couldn’t come to the match and game day personnel and the people on court would be greatly reduced. The biggest rivalry in college tennis would suddenly be played behind closed doors. “The days leading up to the match we were told no fans, and then the day before no family too. So at practice and in meetings Billy really emphasized how we had to be vocal, loud, and create our own energy for the match” said Pereira. This match would be the exact opposite of what it had been the year before where there were thousands of people backed onto the back courts as one of the most epic college matches of all time came down to the wire. “It was kind of a big deal that fans and families couldn’t come to the match. Obviously the match in 2019 was insane and now it’d be the exact opposite. Families not being allowed to come hit the hardest because for the majority of both teams we are all from Southern California so our parents are super close to us” said Pereira. 

Once home the athletes had a whole different challenge to cope with. They were training with no end in sight. “I was super lazy at first. I wasn’t really doing much, maybe hit down the middle with my dad for 30 minutes everyday but that was about it. After a few weeks I started running, but it was bad. I ended up losing like 20 pounds” said Pereira about being back home during lockdown. “When we left school I was on this major workout kick so I was bummed to lose out on the gym at school. When I was home I made sure I would workout for 1-2 hours a day, but hitting I wasn’t consistent. Some weeks I’d be super motivated and on it but other weeks I couldn’t be bothered to be on court” added Wild about his lockdown situation. 

This scenario was not just occurring in Los Angeles. This was a reality that college tennis players and programs had to deal with across the country. Players were being sent home with no real end in sight or direction. They all had hopes of returning back to campus for the fall, and that is where the real challenge came. Most all of the Southern and East coast schools had returned to a full fall slate of tennis. For the players who couldn’t compete this was the most difficult thing to deal with. “Yeah, it was obviously super tough. Your friends and peers are out competing and doing what you signed up for when playing college tennis. They have a full fall schedule, on campus, and traveling while I can’t even go into my own facilities and practice because they were all closed down. At first it was whatever, but around October/November it became tough as they all started playing tournaments” explained Pereira. He continued saying, “More than anything though it made me super eager to be back competing, there was this massive buildup and finally a few weeks ago I finally got to compete and play a match again against UCSB, it was one of the best feelings ever being back on court”. 

With everything so disjointed nationally in terms of college tennis many players were left to watch from the sidelines. The resounding feeling though from those who couldn’t play wasn’t much jealousy, but as Pereira suggested it more of an itch that turned to a burning desire to return to competition. The lack of play, however, did play a role in early season form. “Yeah we definitely started slowly because the fall is a great chance to gel as a team and find the right doubles combos, etc. So we are finally starting to find our groove and rhythm after a handful of matches. It’s really underrated how important chemistry is in college tennis” said Wild. “Billy tried really hard during the lockdown to have Zoom meetings and everything with the team and he was very open and communicated a lot with us which was helpful and made this all easier on us” explained Wild. 

March 12, 2021

Fear

Today, the college tennis season is in full swing with teams competing. These players across the country are grateful to be back. Some teams, however, will not be playing this season, or any season ever again. With tennis being a non revenue sport schools were forced to cut programs. It wasn’t just at smaller schools and programs such as Sonoma State or Appalachian State, larger schools and programs were also cut including Iowa and Minnesota. 

“It was tough to deal with. All us girls were in shock when the announcement came out” said Tiani Jadulang, a freshman transfer at Sonoma State. “I had just gotten here after transferring from Cal State Fullerton and the program is now cut. It’s still a shock all this time later.” Jadulang’s story and problem is the reality for hundreds of players across the country who all had their tennis programs permanently cut. 

While the aforementioned tennis programs were all cut immediately, other teams will be cut next season. One of such programs is Fresno State. This announcement in particular shocked the tennis community because it is a historic and successful program that has produced some of the best players and coaches in the sport. 

“What basically is happening is we are playing out this 2021 season, but once this spring season ends the team is done for good. Next year, in 2022 there won’t be a team” said Diego Castillo, a freshman on the Fresno State tennis team. “Basically what happened was I got to campus in January and we could kind of train, but not in our facilities. Then we got a text from Coach after my first week here saying we had a team Zoom that night. We all thought he was going to tell us the gym and courts were open and explain the rules for using them. That night when we got onto the call gave us the news that this would be the last season of the tennis team” Castillo continued. Having spent his entire life working at tennis to play college tennis it was all suddenly ripped away from Diego, a week into starting it. 

“It’s kind of a messed up situation because the entire team is essentially playing for nothing. Come next year none of us will be on the same team, we’re building toward nothing” added Castillo. “Right now we are all just sort of putting everything into this season for one final huge push. All of us are looking at other schools though. I’ve been talking to coaches at UCSB and at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. We don’t really know what is going to happen though. All I can do right now is focus on playing here for this season, getting matches in, and then over the summer figure out what I will do” continued Castillo.

It’s not just the smaller programs who have had to deal with a similar form of uncertainty. Even established blue blood programs such as USC, UCLA, Georgia, and Florida faced similar levels of uncertainty regarding their future. “Everyone I know at every school, even big programs like us and in the SEC, were all worried we could get cut. Once Minnesota was cut it became a very real issue because they were a top 25 team and hosted indoors just a few years ago. During the summer we were all wondering what would happen to us” said Keegan Smith, a senior at UCLA and top ten player in the nation. “I was legitimately scared that we could get cut. Everyone knows tennis doesn’t bring in money and with big programs like Iowa, Minnesota and Fresno State getting cut I had a real fear that we could be next. I think every player at every school in the nation had the same thoughts. No one was safe” explained Wild with a real sense of concern in his voice. “Even now a little part of me is still afraid that the team could get cut because of the pandemic” he added. 

Across the country tennis programs now face a daily level of fear of their team getting cut. The unfortunate reality is that it is an expendable sport that has been shown to be one of the first to be cut by athletic programs. The daily mental strain alone would be unbearable for most people, yet for tennis players this is something they have had to carry with them since March of 2020 when the first team was cut. As for now the teams that are competing again are looking to get fans back soon and play out the rest of their season. For those that had their programs cancelled they are scrambling to find a school to play at next year and have some form of certainty for their future. For the majority of these players tennis has been their lives since a young age and been their driving force. To have it suddenly ripped away from them or threatened to be taken away has made this season even more of a mental challenge than it normally is. The way to define the past year for college tennis is fear. It is something every college tennis player has experienced at some point over the past 12 months.