Gone for almost fifty years, soft tennis is making a comeback at MHS as a new fall sport this school year.

     “It was back in the early seventies, then it was discontinued because the tennis coach at that time felt that it was not conducive to tennis, you know, different kind of stroke, different kind of ball, so we discontinued it,” said Athletic Director Glenn Nitta.

     Soft tennis was brought back this year at the request of the current tennis coaches, Jason Tamura and Jason Agsalda who will also serve as head coach and assistant coach respectively. “Honestly, to give our regular tennis players more conditioning as well as providing the rest of the student body an opportunity to play a sport,” said assistant coach Jason Agsalda.

     But getting students to play soft tennis has been one of the challenges that the team has been facing. “We didn’t have too many players come out, but we had a lot of, I would say, probably about six or seven varsity tennis players who came out to try it out,” said Agsalda.

     Another challenge in reviving soft tennis was the lack of proper equipment. “We had to basically get equipment from other schools because we haven’t had it for so long, we didn’t have any equipment and it’s not like you can get soft tennis equipment from the local sporting goods store,” said Agsalda.

     For some of the players, adjusting to the game of soft tennis has been a challenge. “It’s been hard adjusting to the different racquets and balls that we use in soft tennis. The balls aren’t as bouncy and the racquets are smaller so it’s definitely harder to move and hit the balls the way you want to,” said Senior Reannon Suzuki.

     The sport not only serves as an extracurricular, but also as a preseason prep for the regular tennis season. “I wanted to join because it seemed like a fun sport and to prep myself before tennis season,” said Senior Halie Chang.

     The team has many goals that they want to achieve by the end of the season. “To play together as a team, give our hundred percent on every point and with that hopefully we’ll make it far in the OIAs. We just want to get acclimated to this new opportunity and have fun,” said Agsalda.

     The first game for soft tennis was on Aug. 26, 2017 at Aiea High School. Girls lost 0-3 and boys lost 0-3 to Pearl City. Girls won 3-0 and boys lost 1-2 to Aiea. The next match will be at MHS on Saturday, Sept. 2, at 9:00 am against Kapolei and Waipahu.

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