Recreational sports offered by the athletic department such as tennis do not have a team and are constantly overlooked at Skyline. Tennis is a very popular sport, played not only at the high school and college level but now even elementary and junior high schools, which have tennis teams.

Many of the schools in our corner of the Bay Area have active tennis programs, such as those at surrounding high schools like Terra Nova, Oceana, Cappuchino and South San Francisco. There are also programs at local colleges and universities, such as those at Stanford, USF, and City College of San Francisco. At CCSF, the tennis coach was recently named coach of the year in the Coast Conference.

Since all of these schools and universities are in close proximity to one another and pull from the same demographic pools, that cannot be the reason Skyline does not have a team. There are students at Skyline who probably played for a high school team and would have brought that talent and interest to a program at Skyline. Maybe the problem is one of exposure, and it could be beneficial for the athletic department to put out a questionnaire to all students asking what sports programs they would like to see become part of the Skyline experience. As popular as tennis is not just at the local level, but nationally and internationally, I would bet tennis would get a lot of student interest. Let’s start with a survey and see where we go from there.

With the popularity of the Williams sisters (Venus and Serena) and how much they have inspired women of all ages and color to play tennis not only as a hobby sport, but as a profession, they way has already been paved for women who want to play tennis. With inspiration for so many at the junior age level, shouldn’t every college, including Skyline, offer a tennis team? Especially for incoming high school students who planned on playing on a tennis scholarship? Or for any other college student who attends Skyline, since it is more affordable, but cannot play on a tennis team, because Skyline only offers a tennis course.

It is time to make college students more aware of how important it is. Even though it is sometimes considered a “hobby sport”, it’s prominent to people who wish to play it professionally one day.