“I think we peaked at 41 people [during our last meeting],” Sinnott said. “Usually we sit around 20 people, but we’re hoping to average around 30 people each meeting this semester.”
The Tennis Club was founded in the middle of the Fall 2024 semester by Owen Duffy (junior), the club’s president.
Duffy said while playing on the McKinnon Tennis Courts, he and his friends had the collective idea to start up a club that would allow others who were interested in tennis to come out and play together.
“Our goal is to spread our love of tennis and make sure everyone can enjoy the sport we all enjoy playing,” Duffy said. “We weren’t seeing many other people out playing tennis, and since it’s a sport where there are some barriers to entry, we want to lower those barriers to get more people to be able to play.”
Sinnott said that while meetings are currently held on Sundays from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., the e-board is working on finding other times they could meet throughout the week.
“We’re looking at adding a time on Friday evenings, probably [around] seven to nine,” Sinnott said. “Meeting on Sundays in the afternoon doesn’t work great for everyone.”
Sinnott said that as the club’s secretary, he works with the Student Leadership, Involvement, & Community Engagement (SLICE) office to organize events for the club. He said this year, he and other members of the e-board plan on hosting more watch parties.
“We watched the US Open about a week ago,” Sinnott said. “We’re planning on watching some tennis-based movies this semester; maybe watching some old tennis matches we think were good. If there are ever any major tennis tournaments, we’re open to watching those.”
Elijah Kurian (junior), the treasurer of the Tennis Club, said he has some specific movies in mind.
“I’m really interested in screening movies because I feel there are some good tennis movies, namely ‘Challengers’ and ‘King Richard,’” Kurian said.
Kurian said in addition to those watch parties, he has been working on fundraising to get more tennis balls and rackets for the club.
“We’re planning to figure out how to fundraise since we’ve had so many more members than previous semesters,” Kurian said. “Fundraising is one of the things we want to work on, in addition to publicizing events, to get people to want to come out to the Tennis Club.”
Kurian said a normal meeting consists of a warm-up and tennis games, which usually generate a lot of fun and chaos.
“We start with a warm-up, because you’ve got to get your flow, then we play some different games,” Kurian said. “We don’t divide by skill level, because that’s not of interest. It’s more about having fun, so we play larger games like doubles, win two points in a row, king or queen [of the court] or touch the fence.”
Duffy also said the club wants to provide a platform for people to compete and that they are planning to create a ladder for people to find others to play matches with.
“A ladder is where you start people in a random order and then you can choose to challenge someone ahead of you,” Duffy said. “If you beat them you switch places. Over time the best person will make their way to the top of the ladder.”
Max Nakanishi (first year), a new member of the club, said he joined at the Involvement Fair and attended the first meeting. Nakanishi said he played tennis in high school and wants to continue playing because it is an interest and hobby of his.
“It was really cool to meet a bunch of new people and make some new friends,” Nakanishi said. “There was a wide range of levels, so it’s open to anybody and it’s really inclusive. You could be a beginner and not know how to play and still have a really good time.”
Contact Miriam Arenal at arenal@oxy.edu
