Not far from Pohl Gym on the Mississippi University for Women campus, Garrett Tennis Courts are well lit on a brisk February night, with a handful of tennis players warming up before practice.
Sort of.
“We have eight guys and about 12 girls,” Owls tennis coach Daniel Talley said. “Now, how many of them are tennis players? Not eight guys, and not 12 girls.”
That’s not an insult, just a statement about the experience level of the student-athletes on the courts. And it sure doesn’t do much for the win-loss record. But you work with what you have, and Talley cites Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense under two presidents, to sum up the situation.
“You don’t go to war with the army you want. You go to war with the army you’ve got,” Talley quoted. “This is the army I’ve got.”
Talley’s “army” might be more “Stripes” than “Saving Private Ryan,” but the players are having a good time while learning the game.
Take Allen Lewis, for example. The Columbus High School graduate said he had played when he was younger, but never as part of a team. He wanted to play a sport, and just like that, he’s an Owl. For two weeks, so far, but there he is, enjoying every minute.
“He just wanted to be on a team, and I just needed a guy who could hold a racket,” Talley said. “So he got a sweatshirt. I got a tennis player. He quits the team, I get my sweatshirt.”
Quitting seems unlikely considering how much fun the Owls were having at practice, but quitting has happened. A lot. The program often has been in a somewhat chaotic state during its brief history, and the roster has not been entirely stable.
Talley himself is a somewhat accidental college tennis coach. He coached at New Hope High School for five years, where he built a program from “a handful of players and a basket of tennis balls” into a district champion. When the Owls’ first coach suffered a massive heart attack and went into a coma, Laura Marro, a friend of Talley’s, was hired to take over the program, and Talley came over to help out.
Fast forward a couple of years, and he’s The W’s tennis coach, which has been a crazier ride than anyone could have expected.
“This time last year, I had seven guys who knew how to play tennis,” Talley said. “Since then, four of the guys left the team. One didn’t love the game any more, another decided he wanted to join a fraternity so he transferred to Mississippi State, and over Christmas break I had a sophomore who told me he wasn’t quitting the team, but he was quitting the university.
“The guy was a cornerstone player, putting in extra hours, really developing, good character, he was a great teammate, and he got offered a job. He decided he’d rather do that than go to school. It wasn’t that he hated the team and hated us and hated me.”
The exodus from the men’s team means other players will be moving up in the lineup. One is Caledonia High School graduate Sam Yarborough, a 6-foot-5 right-hander who can be heard on the internet calling Owls games.
“Sam probably would have been my 5 or 6; he’s now my 2,” Talley said. “Good player, great serve, it’s just the level of competition which we’re playing. Even at the D-III level, we’re going against teams that have a lot of experience, a lot of private coaching. They’ve been playing for 10, 12 years.”
A communications major, Yarborough said he picked up the game as a high school sophomore, which makes him an old hand at The W.
“If the teams that I played for my freshman and sophomore years had stayed the way they were, we’d be competitive,” he said. “The unfortunate thing is we have four guys who are brand new to the game. But we want to use it as a teaching opportunity and to have fun.”
And Yarborough has found positives in the situation, even if it meant starting from scratch.
“We need to make sure everyone knows how to hit a forehand and backhand and serve,” Yarborough said. “We also have to teach them the game itself. We’ve been playing legitimate games and matches to teach them the scoring, where the outlines are, where the ball should be landing.”
Now that’s starting from scratch.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to just teach these guys how to play,” Yarborough said. “We’re all close to each other here; we hang out off the court. It’s fun for us as well as a good workout and being able to play the sport we love.”
Those last two sentences are music to Talley’s ears. While he admits to thinking about the day banners are hanging around the Garrett Tennis Courts, right now, and for the near future, things like having a real team atmosphere and loving the sport are more important.
“One of the things I really want is to have a team that likes to be around each other,” Talley said. “The last thing I want is that diva mentality, where ‘I have my bag, I come on the court, I put my bag down, I don’t talk to you, I don’t talk to anyone else, I play the game, I get my bag, and I go home.’ So many times, those are the players that are out there.
“Do I want to win and be miserable? Do I want these kids who I’m just going to hate myself to be around? Or are we going to go out there and find kids who are good kids, who are looking for a school?”
What Talley does have are people who want to be there, to be part of a team and have some fun along the way.
Sarah Kackley, one of three freshmen on the women’s roster, is another player with tennis experience. Kackley was home-schooled and spent six years playing with Victors Homeschool Sports.
“I played constantly in high school,” Kackley said. “We had a homeschool sports league where I’m from, so that gave me the opportunity to play tennis in high school.”
Talley said bringing Kackley and fellow freshman Karen Calzadilla into the program was a big step toward stabilizing the women’s roster. “They have made an immediate impact,” he said, noting they are playing a little further down in the lineup at the moment, “just getting their feet wet.”
Kackley, whose mom went to The W, figures to play a key role on the team going forward, if she has the time.
“Here at The W, we struggle with the fact that our greatest program is not very good for tennis, and that’s nursing,” Talley said. “Sarah’s a nursing student. I really only have her for two years.”
Overhearing her coach, Kackley shouted, “Not necessarily!” That earns a grin from Talley. “See? I sense an elementary ed major!” Kackley doesn’t sound enthusiastic about that idea, and being able to play tennis while pursuing a nursing degree is a challenge from which she is not ready to back down.
“I’m going to try my absolute hardest,” Kackley said. “Junior year is when all the hardcore classes start, so I know I’m not going to be able to promise much. Hopefully, senior year I’ll be able to come to more, but I’m not just going to give up the second classes start getting hard because I do love the sport.”
Talley appreciated the thought but can’t assume even the dedicated Kackley will be able to pull that off.
“Once you’re in the nursing program, you’re in the nursing program,” Talley said. “You need to work at that. Even I don’t want tennis to be your top priority.”
Tennis certainly is not a top priority in the Mississippi sports landscape.
“Mississippi is not known as a tennis state,” Talley acknowledged. “We’re still putting a group on the court, and, I might add, in the state of Mississippi we’re probably the only college program that has this many players from the state of Mississippi.”
Talley points to Yarborough and Kackley, but the roster is filled with Magnolia State products, including some from the Golden Triangle. All 12 players on the women’s roster are from Mississippi, including three New Hope graduates.
Down the road at Mississippi State, the men’s team has one player from Tennessee; the rest hail from Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy, Argentina and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The women’s roster features two players from Canada, two from Greece and one each from France, Spain, Italy and Jonesboro, Arkansas.
While Talley would love to have the experience the Bulldogs have, he’s perfectly happy providing a college tennis home for in-state players.
“What I want to hear from my athletes when they leave is, a year or two down the road when I run into them, and they say, ‘You want to play tennis?’” Talley said. “And they say, ‘Yeah, let’s get together.’
“That’s what I want to hear from my kids down the road.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
READER FAVORITES
Related Photos
Karina Garcia, a sophomore from West Point High School, works with Mississippi University for Women tennis coach Daniel Talley during a drill at Monday night's practice at the Garrett Tennis Courts. Tom Rysinski/Dispatch Staff
Freshman Mallory Parker eyes a return during Mississippi University for Women tennis practice on Monday night at the Garrett Tennis Courts. Parker played other sports at Itawamba Agricultural High School but signed with The W to play tennis last year. Tom Rysinski/Dispatch Staff
Join the Discussion