Whitney Lott ~ Sports Editor
Lynchburg College has many Club Sports on campus. The Tennis Club was revived in the late fall of 2015, but as of now it is no longer active.
The recent founder of the club, Peter Conlon, loved the sport and wanted to enjoy it with other students on campus. Conlon spoke to fellow colleague Kelvin Whitehurst, who also wanted to bring back Lynchburg College’s Tennis Club. The two originally started when they had a significant amount of students who wanted to attend the tennis club.
“On the GroupMe we had at least 30 people who were interested and wanted to be part of it,” Conlon stated.
After establishing a following, the two received all the necessary paperwork they needed to fill out in order to become an official club on campus. When the club started up there was the problem of trying to get everyone at the court; with everyone’s schedule being different, it was a challenge. When practices started up, only about four people out of the original 30 showed up. With only a few people dedicated to the club, the team could not play any games against other schools.
Conlon went on to say “We had another college who wanted to play against us, but I did not feel comfortable with the level of the club yet.”
With so few active members in the team, the club began to come to a halt towards the end of last year.
“What the club lacked was a strong foundation,” Whitehurst said. “We had a huge amount of hype that Peter did a great job providing but no follow-through.”
In contrast to last year, the two had more time to be dedicated to the program. As time progressed, Conlon and Whitehurst became more occupied with other obligations as they entered their junior years. This year Conlon plans to have a bigger role in his fraternity community. Whitehurst also plans to be more involved with the Critograph this year as well as holding another job.
“I would not mind keeping the club going, but I would need more people to get involved in leadership roles,” Conlon commented.
Students who are interested in continuing or playing on the LC Tennis Club should speak to Peter Conlon or Coordinator of Intramurals and Club Sports Steve Bradney for more information.
