Bright wants to focus on physical fitness during offseason

With the fall season over for the girls tennis team, coach Eric Bright is looking to next year with ideas of what to have the girls work on.

The main thing Bright wants the girls to work on, though, is their physical abilities. During the offseason, he is telling the girls to try and run a certain amount every week and to get out on the courts as well, even in the cold.

“The other thing I’m going to do is that the USTA has a player development website that has a lot of good suggestions for injury prevention exercises,” Bright said. “I know both Alysha (Spencer) and Gretchen (Richardson) have had a lot of injuries this season, so I’m going to specifically have them work on some injury prevention exercises during the offseason.”

Spencer was bothered by a tennis elbow all season, while Richardson had pulled her back. Richardson also injured her rotator cuff at the sectionals in Casey, so Bright and the athletic trainer are keeping a watch on that to make sure the injury does not get worse.

Bright did see a few high points this season, though. He said a few of the players started really getting the slice serve down towards the end of the season.

“Michaela Cline, on j.v., she’s really got a good slice serve going,” he said. “Alysha has improved a lot, which it’s been two years since I’ve seen her. Both she and Gretchen have really shown a lot of forward movement in their game.”

Another thing he noticed was that the starting players could tell him what mistakes they were making and how to fix it. He thought the self-analysis was a great improvement.

With the two seniors, Amanda Thomason and Ashley Miller, gone after this season, Bright looks to see Spencer and Richardson step up, along with Kaitlin Nead.

“I think they’re going to be some big players, but I think they’re going to have to work hard to hold their positions because I think we’re going to have some upcoming talent,” he said.

While Bright would not give the name of one upcoming freshman in particular, he remembered seeing her play in sixth grade. Even in sixth grade, he thought she could hold her own against Shannon Kelly, his best player at the time who went to state.

“She was a really good hitter, she had a nice, low topspin shot,” Bright said. “It just kind of barely skimmed over the net. She had a lot of aggressive tendencies on the court, which is something our girls don’t have. So if she comes out and she’s really aggressive and she really goes for it, she may intimidate everyone else and become a varsity right off, just because she has that drive.”

Girls tennis ends state hopes at Casey Sectionals

With a chance for the state tournament on the line, the Charleston girls tennis team traveled to Casey for the sectional competition.

None of the players were able to make it past the second round though, as the team finished their season 1-9.

The only player to make it past the second round, Amanda Thomason, did not actually have a win. Instead, her first round opponent withdrew from the tournament, so Thomason did not end up playing her first match of the day until around 4:30 p.m.

“I think that contributed to her loss since the other girl had a win under her belt already,” coach Eric Bright said.

The closest player to winning a match at the sectionals, Gretchen Richardson, came back in her first set from being down 5-2 to tying it up 5-5 before losing 7-5. During her second set, however, her shoulder started bothering her as she lost 6-2.

The double teams also had their share of problems. Ashley Miller and Alysha Spencer kept hitting too many balls out to be able to stay in the match, while Kaitlin Nead and Kristin Nead ended up with a bad draw. The team had to play Mattoon, the No. 1 doubles team, in their match and were shut-out in both sets.

With the season over now, Bright has off-season exercises and items he wants the players to practice on before next season. The team will also have their end of the year banquet on Oct. 28, where Bright will hand out awards and tell the players his expectations for next season.

“With those in place we should be in a better position next season,” he said.

Singles:
Alyx Hays (Paris) def Amanda Thomason (C) 6-2, 6-0
Taylor Morthland (Decatur MacArthur) def Gretchen Richardson (C) 7-5, 6-2

Doubles:
Dexter/Sellers (Dec Mac) def Miller/Spencer (C) 6-1, 6-4
Miller/Kovacik (Mattoon) def Nead/Nead (C) 6-0, 6-0

Coach still finds time to read between band, teaching and tennis

Charleston girls tennis coach Eric Bright shows off two of his favorite enjoyments: reading and tennis.

Eric Bright is a big fantasy fan when it comes to reading.

From Lord of the Rings to DragonLance to Forgotten Realms and Dungeons and Dragons, he loves to be able to sit down and read.

In fact, even though Gretchen Richardson said he normally works on schoolwork during bus trips to games, she has seen him read on the bus from time to time.

But finding time can be hard for the Charleston High School girls tennis coach. Between coaching, teaching middle school, leading his church’s worship band, and getting ready to raise a family, Bright has his hands full with activities.

Before he started coaching at Charleston, Bright was teaching math at Danville Middle school and then Charleston Middle School, a place he told himself he would never be at during his time at the University of Illinois.

“In fact, when I graduated from college, I swore to myself I’d never teach middle school and, since I’ve graduated, I’ve only taught middle school,” he said.

After graduating from the U of I with a major in mathematics and minor in education, he started to teach mathematics. Going into his eighth year now teaching, his fifth year at Charleston, Bright has taught a lot of the girls that have been on his tennis teams.

“I’ve found that, just by having that connection in the classroom, I’ve had a lot more of my previous students,” he said “I mean, I see half of the student body as eighth grade. And I’d say 75 percent, maybe 70 to 75 percent of the girls on the team I’ve had.”

Amanda Thomason said that if anyone would have problems in his class, he would try to help them out as much as he could.

Alysha Spencer agreed, adding that she understood a lot of what he was teaching.

Bright started out coaching at Charleston as an unofficial assistant coach in 2004, before moving to head coach in 2005 and 2006. He took 2007 off to try and pursue his master’s.

“My goal was to have a master’s in math and be able to teach dual-credit here at the high school,” Bright said. “I was trying to get that figured out and how that was going to work with Eastern, and being able to take classes while coaching I didn’t think was going to be able to coexist. I’m taking a little bit longer on my master’s to get it done so I can continue coaching.”

The coach from last year quit to try and raise a family, so Bright took the position back for the 2008 season.

Ashley Miller still remembers the first day she met him, and said it was “the most awesomest thing I really did in high school.

“I will never regret that day, because he is an awesome coach and I respect everything he does,” Miller said. “I understand when he’s being hard on us, and we just have to understand that he’s trying to make us better on the courts.”

His passion for tennis started long before he started coach, though. Back at his high school in Flora, he was the captain of what the players called the “Dream Team,” the group of players the coach wanted to cut.

The group would have been cut in most other schools because of their level of ability. However, because Flora High School is a no-cut school, though, they all stayed on the team, so the group called themselves the “Dream Team” because it was a dream that they were still on the team.

“In fact, I was so bad, I remember giving our No. 1 player a run for his money,” Bright said. “He beat me in a tiebreaker 7-6, and it wasn’t because I was good, it was just because I was so awful he had no idea what to do against me.”

It wasn’t until he met his wife, Amanda Bright, that he developed his love of tennis he has now. The two of them would play every day outside of their apartment in Danville.

Bright had never thought of coaching until he made a deal with a former Charleston head coach to become an assistant.

“I knew him from church, and I made him a deal,” Bright said. “I was looking for somebody to help me out with a bible study, because I was leading a bible study, and he was looking for somebody to help out with tennis. So I said ‘Look, if you’ll help me with bible study, I’ll help you with tennis.’ So that got me into coaching.”

Bright also leads the worship band at Salisbury Church. He said he is fairly involved with the church, and is there most nights. Bright plays mainly electric guitar in the band, but said he can play mostly anything.

“I play a little bit of bass, little bit of drums, little bit of keys,” he said. “I originally started on the alto saxophone, and I sing.”

Thomason, who attends the same church, said that he is very talented when it comes to playing instruments.

Bright was also involved in the worship band at his church near the U of I, where he met his wife. They both played in the same worship band, but, according to Bright, had “quasi met” at a concert band in college.

“We were both playing alto sax,” he said. “I was first chair, second part, and she was like, next to last chair, first part. I kind of noticed that she was very attractive, and had pointed her out to my friends. And apparently, that whole time when we were in band, she was trying to talk to me. She thought my name was Steve, so she would pass me in the hallway and say ‘Hey, Steve,’ and I would completely ignore her because I thought she wasn’t talking to me and I would walk away.”

After they both got involved in worship band, Bright started picking her up for practice and started getting to know her better.

Now, the two of them are expecting their first baby on Jan. 2. Bright is already planning to take three weeks off from teaching to be with his wife and their new child, and said that the student teacher he has at the middle school right now is a great help in allowing that to happen.

Jamie Carrigan, from Eastern Illinois University, started student teaching with him this semester.

“We plan together and stuff, but she still does a lot of the work as far as in the classroom, I’m just there to help out,” he said.

When next semester starts, though, Carrigan will be substitute teaching for him while he takes his time off.

For now, Bright uses the extra time he has to read. Even before Carrigan started assisting with the classroom, he would try to set aside a half-hour to an hour every night to read.

“Lately I’ve really been on a big Star Trek kick,” Bright said. “So, I’ve gone through about 40 books or so in Star Trek.”

In fact, he just issued a challenge to one of his math classes. If the class can read more books than he can in one semester, he will buy the whole class pizza.

“Since the beginning of the school year, I’m starting my 18th book today (Monday), since the beginning of the school year,” he said. “So, we’ll see if they can keep up.”

Lady Trojans lose last match of season

The Charleston varsity tennis team had a chance to beat Mattoon for their final win of the season on Wednesday.

Mattoon was able to make a strong singles showing, however, and hand the Lady Trojans their final loss of the season 6-3.

“It looked like we were going to split the singles, which would have put us in position to win the meet, but (Zoe) Roberts ran out of gas at the #6 position,” coach Eric Bright said.

Roberts lost her first set 2-6 before making a comeback to win her second set 6-4. While she was able to keep the third set close, she finally lost to Holly Hostetter 6-4.

In other singles action, the top three spots lost, taking a combined total of five games. Alysha Spencer and Kaitlin Nead, however, were able to give a strong showing during their matches. Spencer won 6-2, 6-2, while Nead gave up only two games in her first set before shutting out her opponent in the second set.

In doubles action, the team of Amanda Thomason and Gretchen Richardson were the only team to win. While the pair only gave up three games in the first set, the Mattoon pair was able to take the second set to a seventh game before Charleston could pull out the win.

Bright had also expected the Nead sisters to win their match as well, but the pair lost 6-3, 6-1.

“I really expected our #3 doubles to pull out a win as well, but Kaitlin Nead seemed spent after her tremendous win in singles,” Bright said.

Bright also said that the team currently lacks the physical stamina they need to back up their effort. He hopes that during the off season, the players will focus on running and other physical training.

The varsity team finishes their season at 1-10, while the junior varsity finished with a 3-2 record. The junior varsity’s final game, that was supposed to be played on Tuesday, was canceled due to rain.

The varsity will play their sectionals next Friday at Casey-Westfield.

Casey-Westfield spoils tennis’ Senior Night

With tonight being Amanda Thomason and Ashley Miller’s last home game, the Charleston tennis team was hoping to get them their second win in two years.

Casey-Westfield did not even let Thomason and Miller win any of their own matches, however, as the Lady Trojans were swept 9-0.

“We played a hard fought match, taking many games to deuce, but in the end Casey could place the ball better than we could,” coach Eric Bright said.

Miller was moved up one spot today for the No. 2 spot, but was not able to handle Shelby Lakins, who beat her 6-1, 6-2. Thomason did not fare any better at the top spot, getting shut out in both of her sets by Meagan Ramsay.

The only player to almost take a game from Casey-Westfield was Kaitlin Nead, who took her second set to a seventh game before losing 6-0, 7-5.

In doubles play, the team of Thomason and Gretchen Richardson were the only team from Charleston to take more than two games from their opponents. The pair came within two games in the second set before losing 6-2, 6-4.

Even though they lost, Bright said that Casey-Westfield coach Brad Hickox noticed the power of the teams serves.

“The Casey coach did comment on the power of our serves and how even our second serves had some kick, so our serving work in practice is paying off,” Bright said.

Bright also added that the team still needs to work on the groundstrokes.

The junior varsity team will finish out their season tomorrow against Teutopolis at home at 4:15 p.m., while the varsity team will travel to Mattoon on Wednesday for their final varsity match at 4 p.m.

Singles:
1. Meagan Ramsay (CW) def Amanda Thomason (C) 6-0, 6-0
2. Shelby Lakins (CW) def Ashley Miller (C) 6-1, 6-2
3. Kalie Snyder (CW) def Gretchen Richardson (C) 6-2, 6-1
4. Allison Hacker (CW) def Alysha Spencer (C) 6-1, 6-1
5. Kelsey Edens (CW) def Kaitlin Nead (C) 6-0, 7-5
6. Natasha Cox (CW) def Zoe Roberts (C) 6-4, 6-0

Doubles:
1. Snyder/Edens (CW) def Miller/Spencer (C) 6-1, 6-1
2. Hacker/Cox (CW) def Thomason/Richardson (C) 6-2, 6-4
3. Ramsay/Richards (CW) def Nead/Nead (C) 6-0, 6-1

Exhibition:
Acantha Gard (CW) def Mareike Eydt-Beebe (C) 8-3
Zoe Roberts (C) def Jessica Strong (CW) 7-4
Strong/Collins (CW) def Thomason/Izadi (C) 8-4
Collins/Gard (CW) def Cline/Haugh (C) 6-1

Editorial: Lady Trojans need to work on basics before sectionals

After watching the Charleston girls tennis team at the Apollo Tournament, one thing is clear that the Charleston team needs to work on.

That is to just focus on getting the ball over the net.

Coach Eric Bright said that team had been working on their groundstrokes for the past week in practice.

“We were either clipping the tape, or hitting them long, so we really went back and concentrated on the groundstrokes,” he said.

This couldn’t be seen in Gretchen Richardson’s match against Salem’s Amanda Miller. Granted, Miller had a strong serve and return, but many of Richardson’s returns would either hit the net or sail over Miller’s head.

Another problem the Lady Trojans have is with their mental game. Bright said the girls often beat themselves if they fall behind in a set. He said the team just needs to get a fresh set of players in.

“I think the freshmen and sophomores coming up are going to do us well for the next couple of years,” Bright said. “I think that’s going to help our attitude as a team when we get some people in who can say ‘you know what, we did win.’”

Unfortunately for the team, that outlook is good for next year, but doesn’t help the team for the rest of the season. The team has their Senior Night on Monday, which Bright said is always a nerve-wracking experience for them because it’s their last home game.

“Of course, we’re playing Casey, which is probably going to trounce us,” he said.

After Casey, the team travels to Mattoon before getting a week off and traveling to Casey for the sectionals.

While Bright doesn’t see the team improving the mental game before sectionals, he plans to work with the team on their groundstrokes during that practice time.

“We can’t get in our forehands; we can’t get in our backhands,” Bright said. “They’re floating out because we’re not putting topspin on it. So we’re just going to go back and try to re-hit that again for a whole week leading up to sectionals.”

Having to face three Decatur opponents, two conference foes, and a rival Mattoon team, the Charleston girls need to get the basics down quick to have a chance at moving on in the state tournament.

Ashley Miller and Alysha Spencer talk strategy between points during their first round doubles match

Charleston finishes last at Apollo Tournament

The mental game plagued the Charleston girls tennis team during the Apollo Conference Tournament this weekend that was played in Charleston.

Instead of showing a strong performance at their home courts, coach Eric Bright said the girls gave up when behind and beat themselves.

“They’re just not strong in the mental game,” he said. “They’re not confident.”

Bright said this is due to not winning any games last season, and coming in to this season with the same attitude.

This was apparent in Amanda Thomason’s first game of the day on Friday. Ranked No. 6 overall in singles, she played the unofficial No. 7 seed. While she was able to hold her first game close at 6-4, Bright said an apparent bad call in the first set upset her mental game, and lost her second set 6-0.

The mental problems continued for her when she faced Newton’s April Webb. Webb was beaten earlier in the season by Kaitlin Nead, but was able to beat Thomason 6-2, 6-3.

Newton’s coach Pete Pasero said the team had just worked on forehands, backhands, and serves in practices leading up to the tournament.

“We just kind of reviewed,” Pasero said. “Like taking a test.”

The other singles player for Charleston, Gretchen Richardson, had to face No. 1 Amanda Miller from Salem in her first round. Bright said it went downhill from there, as she lost 6-0, 6-0 and lost her first match in the back draw as well.

Miller would go on to win the singles bracket, beating out teammate Lindsey Waters in the final 6-2, 6-2. An interesting note in the singles bracket is that, besides the two Salem players playing for first and second, two Olney players played for third and fourth, and two Effingham players played for fifth and sixth.

In doubles play for Charleston, the team of Ashley Miller and Alysha Spencer were the only players for Charleston to earn points for the team, winning their first match against Mt. Zion 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. The pair then had to play the No. 1 doubles team, losing to them, 6-0, 6-1, then lost to Olney in the back draw. The Olney pair had also beat the Nead sisters the match before.

“The Neads are good players, but as freshman, coming into their first conference tournament, I think it’s probably going to be a rough tournament for them this year,” Bright said.

The doubles team from Mt. Zion ended up upsetting the No. 1 seed in the final match 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, to win the doubles championship.

The team both Bright and Pasero said would be tough this year, Salem, ended up winning the tournament with 23 points overall, 16 of which came from singles play. Effingham took second place, with Olney coming in third.

The Lady Trojans will play their final home game on Monday against Casey-Westfield at 4:15 p.m.

Singles bracket from the Apollo Tournament

Doubles bracket from the Apollo Tournament

Lady Shoes shut out Charleston at home

A strong singles showing by Teutopolis Thursday evening was more then enough to beat the Charleston girls tennis team at home, 9-0.

In seven of the sets, The Lady Shoes allowed less than one game to be won. Leah Westjohn was able to shut out Ashley Miller, while Michelle Probst only allowed one game to Amanda Thomason.

In doubles play, the Lady Trojans were able to hold Teutopolis a bit closer, taking two games to a tie-break and winning a set in the Nead sister’s match. They lost the third set in a best of 12 tie-break, 7-4.

“Both our No. 2 and No. 3 doubles had good games taking many games from T-town, but couldn’t quite pull out the win,” coach Eric Bright said.

Charleston hosts the Apollo Conference tournament this weekend and then their final varsity home match, Senior Night, on Monday against Casey-Westfield at 3:30.

Singles:
1. Michelle Probst (T) def Amanda Thomason (C) 6-1, 6-0
2. Dakota Esker (T) def Gretchen Richardson (C) 6-1, 6-3
3. Leah Westjohn (T) def Ashley Miller (C) 6-0, 6-0
4. Brooke Ruholl (T) def Alysha Spencer (C) 7-5, 6-1
5. Amy Probst (T) def Kaitlin Nead (C) 6-3, 6-3
6. Jody Kenter (T) def Zoe Roberts (C) 6-4, 6-0

Doubles:
1. Probst/Esker (T) def Miller/Spencer (C) 6-0, 6-1
2. Ruholl/Fuesting (T) def Thomason/Richardson (C) 6-4, 7-6 (8-6 in tiebreaker)
3. Probst/Kenter (T) def Nead/Nead (C) 6-7 (5-7 in tiebreaker), 6-0, 7-4 (third set played as a tiebreaker)

Exhibition:
Michelle Weber (T) def Alyssa Thomason (C) 8-1

Junior varsity doubles sweep for the win

Going into doubles play, the Charleston junior varsity tennis team and Casey-Westfield were tied 3-3. To win, the team needed to win at least two of the three doubles.

The doubles team did just that and more, sweeping all three matches to win the meet 6-3 on Tuesday night. All matches were played as an eight-game pro set.

“The girls played well this evening due in large part because of their hunger to win,” coach Eric Bright said. “Their last two meets had been losses and they didn’t like that, so they redoubled their efforts to bring in the win.”

All three doubles teams won by at least three games, with the doubles team of Elena Davis and Sheeva Izadi giving up only two games. This was a payback game for Izadi, who faced her opponent Sarah Purcell in singles play and lost 8-6.

In other singles action, Alyssa Thomason was the only one of the top three singles players to win a match, beating her opponent 8-2. This was also the score of Mareike Eydt-Beebe’s game.

The person that caught Bright’s eye, though, was Michaela Cline. Not only did she win her match 8-0, but Bright said her serve was working better during the game.

“Her slice serve was spinning into the body of her opponent forcing many errors,” he said.

The Charleston junior varsity team (3-2) finishes up their season next Tuesday at home against Teutopolis.

Singles:
1. Maci Collins (CW) def Zoe Roberts (CHS) 8-2
2. Alyssa Thomason (CHS) def Carley Edwards (CW) 8-2
3. Acantha Gard (CW) def Elena Davis (CHS) 8-5
4. Sarah Purcell (CW) def Sheeva Izadi (CHS) 8-6
5. Mareike Eydt-Beebe (CHS) def Cloe Daugherty (CW) 8-2
6. Michaela Cline (CHS) def Brandi Kemper (CW) 8-0

Doubles:
1. Thomason/Eydt-Beebe (CHS) def Collins/Gard (CW) 8-4
2. Davis/Izadi (CHS) def Daugherty/Purcell (CW) 8-2
3. Cline/Haugh (CHS) def Moore/Bollinger (CW) 8-5

Tennis match against Rantoul rained out

Monday night’s varsity tennis match against Rantoul was canceled due to rain, coach Eric Bright said.

The team is trying to schedule a make-up match against the team, but they have no date set yet for it.

The varsity team will resume action on Thursday when they host Teutopolis, while the junior varsity will host Casey tonight at 4:15 p.m.