By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
Allegan High School tennis coach Damien Arthur wanted to introduce the sport he loves to a younger generation.
And out of the desire came the Allegan Elementary Co-Ed Rec League for students in grades three through five.
The month-long league—which included 36 players in its inaugural season—wrapped up its month-long run with a season-ending tournament at the end of November.
Current high school players joined Arthur—who is the head coach of the AHS girls team and the co-coach of the AHS boys team—in serving as coaches for the elementary league.
“It was a lot of learning for myself, my coaches and for the elementary players,” Arthur said. “A majority of the players have never played tennis before, not even in our summer program. Overall, the players improved a ton, my coaches grew from this new experience and I am looking forward to continuing this next fall.”
The elementary league was the offshoot of a program Arthur started last year for students in grades one through eight that ran on Saturdays. He plans to run that program again this year.
“We really haven’t had much for our elementary kids other than Summer Tennis,” Arthur said. “So any program for the younger kids is a good thing.”
Arthur said introducing younger students to tennis is important for several reasons.
“Number one, it’s good to show them how fun the game is early on,” he said. “Allegan offers a lot of sports, and if we can get the tennis bug in their mind early, we can get them to commit to the sport until they are seniors in high school.
“Second, it gets parents in the program early. Granted, a good proportion of parents are former players or relatives of former players. But showing the parents that the Allegan tennis program offers almost year-round tennis opportunities provides a positive environment for their kids to grow up in.
“Lastly, it is how you build and maintain a great program. My dad always taught me that the way to have a successful high school sports program is to start kids at three years and not 14. Gary (Ellis) and Tom Essenburg started, maintained and grew our program into what it is nowadays by getting kids on the court at three years old in summer tennis. We wanted to continue our success at the varsity level, and that starts with our youth programs.”
Players were divided into three teams: Team Black, Team Orange and Team Gray.