Tennis Tigers host yearly youth camp

Four to seven year old participants: Koli Ma, Ayden Suresh, Hazel Chua, Zanette Lim, Ben Kreutzer, Nathaniel Sia, Reuben Bay. Not pictured is Liliana Sandoval.

Mountain Home High School's tennis team wrapped up its annual summer tennis camp at Richard Aguirre Park on Friday.

The camp, which is the primary fundraiser for the Tigers' tennis team, had 25 students participating, ranging in age from 4 to 15 years old with the children and teens divided into three age groups.

Tennis coach Tamzy House said the camp had another successful year thanks to the "outstanding help" from 2017 team captains Miguel Pelletier and Rhyan Kelly, singles players Rebecca Martin and Eddie Guadarrama and former team member Karina Guadarrama.

Eight to 10 year old participants: Waylon Monasterio, Zane Richins, Xander Fry, Ryan Teo, Brogan Bolthouse and Evelyn Davidson. Not pictured are Noah Schafer, Malaya Schafer and Manuelito Brooks.

"The goals of the camp were to introduce tennis to the Mountain Home kids, provide them a basic tennis skill set, improve their overall fitness and just have a great time playing tennis with each other," House said. "On the last day, we had parents or siblings watching the camp come join us on the courts and play with their kids."

The coach indicated the camp was designed in the USTA Quickstart Tennis format where the instruction, courts, racquets and balls used are designed for the age and physical development level of the child. Emphasis is placed on body and eye-hand coordination, agility, balance and reaction speed, as well as learning basic tennis skills.

"Kids 4 to 8 years start on a 36-foot court using large low-compression balls and smaller racquets. Once they have mastered some of the stroke techniques and learned how to play basic tennis games, then they move to a 60-foot court with normal size and low compression balls designed for the court length," House said.

Eleven to 17 year old participants: First row, Tyler Fry, Mathew Fry, Aileen Lee, Justin Forbes, Amber Forbes, Landon Georgianna. Second row, helpers Karina Guadarrama, Rebecca Martin, Miguel Pelletier and Eddie Guadarrama. Not pictured is Anastasiya Prouty.

Those ages nine and 10 start on a 60-foot court. The 11- to 15-year-old group uses the full court with low compression balls designed for 78-foot court play.

"Once the kids feel comfortable stroking the ball, they are moved up to using regular competition balls," the coach said.

Parks and recreation will continue to foster children's interest in the sport during an indoor tennis clinic for those ages six to 17. The clinic starts Oct. 25 at North Elementary School.

For more information, call the city parks and recreation office at 587-2112.