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By Evan Mayer
Hometown Weekly Intern
The hot and humid 83-degree weather did not stop the kids from playing tennis at Medfield’s Tennis Camp, run by Richard Waterfall Tennis Academy. Medfielders from the ages of 5-13 were taught the basic fundamentals of the game on a picture-perfect summer day.
The kids were split up into three different groups and led by three different camp counselors. Recent Medway high school graduate Jaclin Dunne is completing her fourth year being a counselor for the tennis academy. She has continued working with kids because she “loves the interaction with them. I enjoy teaching them how to play tennis.” However, there are challenges with working with such a diverse range of kids. “It gets tough trying to make the kids listen to you the whole day. Trying to motivate them when they are discouraged and cheering them up when they get frustrated.”
The counselors ran practice drills, lobbing tennis balls over the net and having the campers return them. Both the campers and counselors tallied up their points and errors (not hitting the ball over the net, or hitting it out of bounds) after each round. Once all of the students took their turns hitting the balls, they all helped each other by collecting the balls scattered throughout the court.
Once the campers worked up a sweat, they stopped to take water breaks and refuel with some snacks.
After their rejuvenation, they picked up where they left off and began bettering their tennis fundaments anew.
