Patience

Tonight was a night of patience for Cal and the rest of his tennis team.  As the match was scheduled to commence, a wind started blowing and the rain began to fall.  The heat of this past week had finally broken, but it came at an inopportune time for the young men ready to play.  Fortunately, senior night went off without a hitch.  There were some great posters, balloons and lots of support.

Cam and I were ready at 5 p.m. for the match to start.  That was about when the downpour started.  We were hopeful, but after 30 minutes, Cam gave up and left with Grandma.  Meg and Graham were planning to watch the match and finish Algebra homework.  That was quickly thwarted by the rain as well.  So, Meg went home, Cam went to the golf course with Grandma Jane and I watched Doug's soccer practice while waiting.  The rain did start to subside a little, so the coaches sent the JV players out to squeegee the courts.  Many of the father's ran home to get their leaf blowers and an array of towels showed up all in an effort to get the courts ready for play.

I was skeptical.  Tennis is not like any other sport.  A few drops of rain can easily suspend play.  Ankles and knees are easily twisted on a slick court.  I was wrong, however, and by 6:30, play was started.  Doug stopped by after his practice and before County Council to see how Cal was doing.  Although he got to see him warm up and play a couple of points, he had to leave before much action really took place.  As his meeting was a half hour away, I never dreamed that he would be able to make it back to see "the ending."

Cal's match this evening was against a conference foe.  They had only lost one match so far this year and it was to a state ranked team.  All four other courts were finished off fairly quickly and within the hour, Cal and the JV tennis players were the only ones still playing.  Cal had asked to play singles again as he did not like playing doubles on Tuesday.  Most non-tennis players do not realize that they are two different sports and most players prefer one over the other.  His coach told his that he'd let him play singles if he promised to hit the ball as hard as he does in practice.  Cal definitely listened and was winning pretty easily at first until the wind picked up.  It was a struggle to keep the ball in play.  The first set ended up going to a tie break with Cal finally winning 7-6.

The second set was a different story.  Most everyone was watching his match and Cal was struggling to get some quick points.  Close to 8:00 p.m. Doug called.  His meeting was over and he was wondering how Cal was doing.  I said, "Still going!"  He headed over and we watched for almost another half hour.  When Doug got there, Cal was down 1-4.  He rallied, however, with all of the support and closed the gap 3-4.  That is when the other player told his coach that he felt that it was too dark to continue.  Our team offered to have them move over a couple of courts as the light from the tennis hut was shining on that area.  Cal agreed, but the Northridge player did not.  Thus, play was suspended with Cal up one set.

Since it was a conference match, the coach did not want to forfeit.  He said he would bring his player back tomorrow after school for them to finish.  Cal would prefer to just be done, but we will see what tomorrow brings.  Tennis has definitely become a game of patience for him!