The announcement is out - tennis is returning to Taylor University next year, but first they need a team.
“Technically, we don't have a team this year,” Josh Grubbs, head coach of men’s and women’s tennis, said.
Grubbs’ No. 1 job this school year is to recruit players; the very reason Taylor hired him a full year in advance, he said. Eventually, he looks to have 10 students on both the men’s and women’s team.
In early October, he opened tryouts to the Taylor student body. As of now, there are six Taylor students on campus who have signed on to play next year.
For now, the students on the roster are pretty much on their own, he said. They initiate their own practices, hitting with each other when the weather allows it before the winter rolls in. They also have access to the athletic weight room to lift and workout and play at the new courts where tennis balls are provided.
Starting a team from scratch is not easy. The biggest challenge is getting prospective tennis players to campus, but once the athletes reach Upland, Taylor will sell itself, Grubbs said. It’s difficult to recruit when Taylor has not fielded a team since 2019 and has not built any recent tennis achievements to showcase for prospective players.
Grubbs hopes to build a competitive tennis team. Obviously, he said, every coach wants the most talented players. However, he also wants to find the right fit of players for the kind of team culture he hopes to build.
Afterall, the players for next year will be crucial in laying the foundation as to what kind of team they will be.
“The most important thing is bringing in kids that are going to be great tennis players, great kids on campus, great kids off campus - that kind of stuff,” Grubbs said. “That is the whole goal of every coach here at Taylor; we just want great kids spiritually - you know - the whole package, pretty much. So yeah, we win some tennis matches along the way, that's just icing on cake, for sure.”
Coming in to Taylor and building a brand new team is very different, as most coaches add to existing teams. Grubbs said his team will be entirely new.
New, all except for junior Ian Helfert who is majoring in mechanical engineering. Helfert played on Taylor’s tennis team his freshman year from 2015 to 2017. He left Taylor before finishing his bachelor degree to pursue another career.
Helfert has since come back to complete his degree and took the opportunity to play for Taylor once again.
Grubbs told him playing on the tennis team was going to be serious. They are not going to start the team with the expectations of not performing well. No, the goal is for the players to try their hardest to train during the off-season while Grubbs is recruiting. Next year they can try and win.
The hope, he said, is to get to play tennis, have a good team of friends that can hang out together and have that same goal of winning. And, at the end of the day, support each other, he said.
Since Helfert has played college tennis, he has experienced the tug between sport and academics.
To the newcomers coming to play college tennis, Helfert said, “It depends on your major … you just got to do what you got to do… Every time that you can get to work on your schoolwork you should use - and you'll have to give up some of the fun things sometimes - but if you want to play tennis, it’s what you got to do."
In a way, Helfert said he gets to finish his last year at Taylor the way he came in: playing tennis.
