Imagine an entire football season with no home “Friday Night Lights” at Warrior Stadium. Imagine being a track star who never runs for Penn-Trafford on their own track. Imagine being a member of the field hockey, lacrosse or soccer teams and spending an entire season without getting the chance to score under your own home lights. Imagine being a wrestler, a volleyball or a basketball player and going an entire year without competing in your own gym.

     This is what the girls’ tennis teams have had to experience for the past two seasons.

     I have been very lucky to have played the No. 1 varsity tennis singles position the past three seasons and to be a captain of this team this year. Three years ago, when I was going into my freshman season I did not envision playing half of my high school career without a home facility to host matches. 

     The summer before my sophomore season the three upper courts that are used for the singles matches were torn up due to the slight slope of the courts. As the Warrior reported in its fifth issue last March, the initial project was delayed when workers discovered potential condensation buildup and movement. 

     While yes, they were not perfect, the courts were definitely usable for high school competition. I was naive to think that maybe we would have the courts for the latter half of our short season. Now here we are close to wrapping up our season and we will now have two years of seniors who have to celebrate their senior night without any courts.

     “It really sucks not being able to have my senior season that we got to see all of our previous teammates have and it was sad having senior night at some random school,” stated senior team member Megan Kamzalow.

     Because we only have the two lower courts, we can not host home matches so the school had to find us alternate courts. For my sophomore season we had all away matches which meant a lot of time on the bus with the longest bus rides being Armstrong which is an hour away, Greater Latrobe High School and Kiski Area High School which are both 35 minutes away in each direction and Connellsville Area High School which is 40 minutes each direction all on school nights. 

     This season we had our first three matches at Greensburg Racquet Club, which is 25 minutes away in each direction and the rest of our matches were away. Not only are these long and costly bus rides for the school it also means there was a lot of missed school. Once or twice a week since school started everyone on the team has had to miss their eighth period class so we can get to the matches. Since the matches start at 3 or 3:15 we have to leave class at 1:30 to 1:45 and leave the school and get to the matches with plenty of time to warm up. 

     “I have noticed a drastic difference in my grades for my eighth period class compared to all of my others cause we have to leave school early all of the time,” stated freshman team member Sammy Sadler.

     Junior doubles player Amanda Wendler agreed with Sadler, stating, “It is really inconvenient when I always have to skip my eighth period and miss out on all the work we do. It is a huge setback for my education.”

     Besides the fact seniors have to enjoy their last year with the team without courts and the team feels as though their education is being inconvenienced and the long bus rides the lack of courts also makes practice harder. Because we only have two courts, varsity practices right after school but junior varsity has to wait around for an hour to practice. This forces the junior varsity members to either go home for a little bit and then find a ride back to the school or be stuck just waiting around school every day for an hour, which can be annoying on those days when they have a lot of homework to do. 

     But the biggest problem with no courts is the feeling of being left out. While we know the school is working hard to get us courts, it is difficult to watch the track be completely replaced or the stadium installing a brand new scoreboard and we are sitting in the back of the school with a hole in the ground where there used to be tennis courts.

Mia Williams, Managing Editor