LEBANON — Sure, girls just wanna have fun. But the likes of Lebanon High senior Kaeley Skakalski have grown to enjoy rocketing a few tennis balls past you, too.
Four years ago, Skakalski took a flier on a Lebanon girls tennis program that was coming back from a period of dormancy due to low numbers. Now a senior, Skakalski is part of a Raider roster enjoying a 9-3 season and holding legitimate hope of advancing in the NHIAA Division III state tournament.
The key, Skakalski said, has been combining learning, winning and competitive attitudes under the guidance of two coaches who take complementary approaches to teaching the game.
“I think we’re so successful because everyone’s competitive and willing to try and work hard,” Skakalski said prior to the Raiders’ chilly Friday workout on the CCBA courts. “That’s what’s setting us apart from previous years. Everyone has a really good matchup on the team, so they always have someone to challenge them. Everyone’s welcome, and we’re pretty much friends.”
Longtime boys soccer coach Rob Johnstone accepted the girls tennis job five years ago, expanding on an interest in a sport he’s played recreationally most of his life. He inherited a program whose only girl had joined the Raider boys for the lack of female teammates.
Lebanon numbers have largely been healthy since. Success has followed, too, from a winless debut in 2017 to 2-12 and 6-8 slates the next two seasons. The Raiders lost last spring’s schedule to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It doesn’t matter how coordinated you are, but when you add in competitive spirit and some natural athleticism … you’ve just got to hit the ball,” Johnstone said. “How do you hold the racket? How do you hit the ball? How do you then throw in movement? And then how do you throw in movement and actually try to win a point? That’s what you see eventually, and it could maybe be an analogy for the program.”
Johnstone has been able to capitalize on capable help to continue the progression this spring. He got to know Rick Hines at Our Court, the White River Junction-based tennis club where both play. When it became apparent Hines’ senior daughter, Keira, might be willing for forgo softball for tennis, Johnstone convinced both to jump the net.
If he can’t offer the technical tennis knowledge he possesses as a soccer coach, Johnstone can at least set goals for the Raiders to achieve. Rick Hines handles the nuts-and-bolts instruction. Tammy Arado, Lebanon’s first-year boys coach and the tennis director at the River Valley Club, has also lent an occasional hand.
“I know how to coach, but he’s a true tennis coach,” Johnstone said of Hines. “That’s the thing that’s really helped these guys, those subtleties that in a game of soccer I’d be very comfortable recognizing and pointing out and teaching. I just like to play tennis. This is a guy who really studies tennis and tendencies and how to break people down.”
The Raiders have made up for a general lack of on-court experience with a teamwide level of competitiveness that Keira Hines said belies the program’s on-and-off past.
“I think that my technique has definitely improved; I think everyone’s technique and strategy has improved,” said Hines, who tops the Raiders’ singles ladder and teams with Skakalski at first doubles. “Coming on to the tennis team, I would have never known the program had struggled in past years, because all these girls are so passionate and competitive. I would have had no idea that tennis has struggled.”
From progression comes success, and from success, confidence. Although Lebanon, which was granted a first-round forfeit decision over Stevens on Friday, lost twice to Kearsarge — arguably the D-III tourney favorite — twice in the regular season, the Raiders don’t fear a potential quarterfinal encounter with the Cougars on Monday. Kearsarge’s 8-1 and 6-3 victories were littered with close encounters that, with a game won here or there, could have reversed the final outcome.
“I think that was a big thing for the team as a whole,” Skakalski said. “Not just watching my match, but a lot of other matches were close. … The individual scores of each match were encouraging, to see you can win. You’re right there; you just got a little extra push.”
Skakalski picked up field hockey and Nordic skiing, along with tennis, as a freshman, all for the first time. She stuck with the former but gave up the skis after one winter.
She’s stayed on tennis, too, and been part of the Raiders’ steady renewal. She and her teammates will happily take that regardless of what happens next week.
“I’m really happy this is the team that I’m finishing my senior year with,” she said. “It means a lot.”
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.