AISG Tennis: Serving Up Exciting Changes

This year, the tennis team has faced some changes, from a new coach to a greater number of people who came out to play. For many returning players, this causes them to view tennis practices more positively: the new players have raised the level of play, and also, increased general enthusiasm. “I’m more confident and excited about the team this year,” explains Jason Wu. “I think we have a chance to do well at APAC this year.”

Apart from the new players joining, one of the biggest changes this year is the AISG coach, Mr. McSwiggan, who is also a new P.E. teacher. Thanks to Mr. McSwiggan, the team is more prepared than last year in regards to fitness and warm-ups. The other coach, Kiven Zhang, has returned from last year and has shown that his hard work and passion to improve the AISG team has not diminished.

Including the returning players, there were 20 people that tried out for the team, and for the first time in four years, cuts were made. This was exciting for many of the returning players, because it raised the level of competitiveness between the people that tried out. “Since freshman year, there has only been 1 person cut or people have quit, but this year there were more people joining,” says Grace Tang, who has played first singles on the team for the past three years. “I’m really looking forward to this season,” she added.

The tournament that is coming up is Tricities, which like every year, is held at the Western Academy of Beijing. For now, the roster for the team has yet to be decided. New eleventh-grader Megan Harwood describes that she’s “very excited about the tournament,” because it is the first time she is going to Beijing to play against international schools. The second and final tournament for this tennis season will be the Super APAC Tennis Tournament, also held at WAB, from October 19 to 21. Hopefully, the team will be more prepared than ever in their encounter with the other 11 APAC schools.

Good luck this season, tennis team!