ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997 TAG: 9704170052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM THE ROANOKE TIMES
It began as a joke, but Jason Mosser has proved he can play tennis well with his left hand.
Jason Mosser has made ambidextrous a four-letter word.
At least that's how his beaten opponents might feel if they had known Mosser, always a right-handed player, had switched to his left hand this spring for the Salem boys' tennis team.
Through Monday, Mosser had won three of four matches as a southpaw and also used his left hand to challenge for and win the No. 6 singles position.
Without the change, Mosser's season would be over. It was discovered after tennis practice started that he had suffered a stress fracture in his right wrist. The injury apparently came during the football season when he was a backup defensive back for the Spartans' Group AA Division IV championship team.
Mosser, a sophomore, played point guard in junior varsity basketball with some pain.
``We were practicing when all of a sudden Jason complained that his wrist was really hurting,'' said Mike Gibson, Salem's tennis coach. ``His father took him to get it X-rayed and found out it was broken. Evidently, he had been playing through pain.''
``I don't remember breaking it,'' Mosser said. ``I had it taped up for about a week. After practice, it bothered me a little, but I just kept on playing. It didn't bother me enough.''
Trainer Chris Tucker said the injury was treated as a sprain in football. ``It got better and in basketball it didn't bother him,'' Tucker said.
When he checked Mosser this spring, Tucker said he knew the injury was more than a sprain. ``He had less range of motion in his right wrist than the other one. I decided to get it checked out and [doctors] said it was a healing stress fracture.''
Mosser decided to fix the problem immediately. His right wrist was placed in a cast for three to four weeks. He hopes he bone will heal properly. If not he faces surgery.
So this was the end of Mosser's tennis season? Wrong.
``Jason was going to be a strong No. 3 or No. 4 player for us,'' Gibson said . ``He would be on my No.1 doubles team. This changed my lineup completely. I thought I'd lose him for the year.''
During a scrimmage against Cave Spring, Mosser was fooling around, hitting with his left hand. ``Coach Gibson joked and said I should play with my left hand. I really thought I could,'' Mosser said .
``Jason really wanted to be a part of the team. He said how about hitting left-handed?'' Gibson said.
The Salem coach thought he was joking. ``I tried hitting left-handed. I couldn't do it. Some of the other players tried. They had no control of their left hand,'' Gibson said .
Mosser, though, was a different story.
``I saw he could control his left hand,'' Gibson said . ``I was concerned if he could get his serve in. He kept practicing and came up with a system for his serve.''
Finally, Mosser challenged for the No.6 position and won. Then came his first match against William Byrd.
``I didn't have that much confidence because the serve wasn't good yet. I'm a lot better now, plus I got that first match out of the way,'' Mosser said.
He lost in split sets but since has won three matches in a row.
``I've never done anything with my left hand,'' Mosser said. ``But being a basketball player, you use your left hand to dribble as a point guard. It has to be strong enough to take care of the basketball.
``I'm a little surprised [this worked]. But I don't like giving up. I didn't want to sit out this year. I would rather play left-handed than not at all.''
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CARY BEST THE ROANOKE TIMES. Jason Mosser hasn't let aby CNBcast on his right arm stop him from playing.