THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610080170
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 88 lines
For a select few high schools in South Hampton Roads, fielding a girls tennis team means selecting the best available tennis players. Most of the other schools will settle for the best available athletes.
For Booker T. Washington coach Nathaniel Baxa, the task was to do his best with whomever was available.
Undaunted, Baxa began scouring the school's halls for volunteers, and it's too bad he's not filming a soap opera because he managed to round up a Skye, an Amber, an Iris and a Ravin, who in fact was named for a soap opera character.
Problem was, these girls had spent about as much time on a tennis court as they had on-camera. When the Bookers took the court last month for their first match, only one player, sophomore Skye Dennis, had ever played the sport before. Another, freshman Jamila Berry, had never played any sport before.
``Actually, she played rec basketball once, but I kept waiting for the ball to hit her because she was just standing there like this,'' Jamila's mother, Jackie Turner, said as she cowered and began biting a fingernail.
If energy and enthusiasm were forehands and backhands, Baxa's Bookers might be leading the Eastern District. But no amount of desire has been able to mask this group's extreme lack of experience. When the week began, the Bookers were winless as a team, every Booker was winless in singles and doubles and no Booker had won more than four games in a singles set.
Naturally, all Bookers figure to make early exits from the Eastern District tournament, which begins today at Old Dominion University.
``But you know, I still feel like I'm a winner anyway,'' said Rosetta Rose, the team's lone senior. ``All of us are winners, because we took the time to come out for the team.''
Having to make do with inexperienced players isn't uncommon among South Hampton Roads teams; six of the eight Eastern District teams start at least one beginner, and Wilson starts four. But this situation seemed a thing of the past at Booker T. Washington, which had already risen from humble origins once this decade to surprisingly become one of the area's premier teams.
Under enthusiastic former coach Paul Palombo, the Bookers went from a team that only had one girl turn out for practice in 1989 to an Eastern Region tournament qualifier in 1992. Two years later, the Bookers ended Maury's 13-year reign as Eastern District champions.
Baxa took over the following year, and while the team's record fell off in '95, the new coach was so confident that enough of a program was in place he boldly predicted no worse than a Top-Three finish.
What he didn't predict was losing his top two players to afterschool jobs. Or his No. 3 player to grades. Or his No. 5 player to Deep Creek. Or his No. 6 player to lack of interest.
Baxa has since retired from the prediction business. But instead of complaining about being in a tough situation, the coach reflected on the events of last spring, when he had to assume the boys tennis team's coaching duties after William Johnson suffered severe injuries in a car accident. Johnson died about a month later.
``Now that was a tough situation,'' Baxa said.
Having put his dilemma in perspective, Baxa then put out the ``Help Wanted'' sign. Qualifications were simple: must be female, a Booker T. Washington student and willing to learn. No experience necessary.
That last part was particularly attractive to Rose.
``I always join sports I can't do,'' Rose said. ``Last year, I joined the swimming team and I couldn't swim. But I ended up getting a letter.''
Baxa even saw a positive in the girls' novice status, to the point where he actually discouraged Lisa McHone from hitting on her own before official practices began.
``When you're new, you don't have any bad habits and I didn't want them picking up any,'' said Baxa, who played for four years at Western Branch.
Workouts six days a week accelerated the Bookers' learning process somewhat, but there was simply too much ground to make up. So instead of looking at the score sheet this season, Baxa has watched for signs of improvement. Dennis isn't quite as overanxious as she once was. Berry has become a tad more aggressive. And Amber Hoff, Ravin Hargrove, Iris Johnson and Carteia Basnight, like the rest of the Bookers, have just about perfected Baxa's no-frills volleying technique.
These are the Booker T. Washington girls tennis victories this season.
Meanwhile, Baxa is already planning for next year. Palombo, now the athletic director at Princess Anne, succeeded in part because he was able to lure some of the top athletes from the school's powerful softball team, which he also coached, onto the tennis court. Baxa, who hopes to be named the Bookers' softball coach early next year, said he plans to try the same thing.
But his players insist that won't be necessary. Everyone except Rose, who will graduate in the spring, claims they'll be back next fall. Berry and McHone say they'll even join the Tidewater Tennis Center. And all the Bookers insist they've developed a strong commitment to a sport that was foreign to most of them just three months ago.
``We've made a lot of new friends and had a lot of fun,'' McHone said. ``We're all definitely going to stick with it.''
``It's simple,'' Berry added. ``We love this game.'' by CNB