By Jeff Sikes, USTA Missouri Valley

A small Kansas community’s girls’ tennis team devastated by one of the worst tornadoes on record was left broken but not defeated

Full Coverage of the Tornado

Normal Again

Normal is hard to come by still because the rebuilding effort is far from complete, including the school’s four tennis courts. The GHS courts were completely destroyed but should begin to be rebuilt this summer on the new campus site and could possibly be ready for the coming school year.

Luckily, the school had the use of the city’s two courts, which were remarkably one of the few things left virtually unharmed by the tornado. Those courts actually served as FEMA’s command post for relief operations shortly after the storm, since it was one of the few places that was free of debris and not mud covered.

So while Coach McMurry had no equipment, she at least had a place to play for her team. Soon after school let out last year and once everything had settled to a quiet roar, McMurry set about the task of seeing who might still want to play on the team for the fall of 2007. She found the answer to be a resounding ‘yes’ from almost every single girl.

Still, the girls were lacking in clothes and equipment. Prince Racquet Sports’ Dustin Perry, who handles much of the USTA Missouri Valley region for the racquet manufacturer, also came to the school’s rescue in early summer and donated Prince clothing, racquets, shoes and other items to the team.

“I wanted to do this for the town and the girls to get them back up and playing tennis as soon as possible,” said Perry.

Help came in many forms, including a sophomore from Lenexa, Kan., Sarah Snodgrass, who came to visit the girls’ team and help out as part of her Christian Stewardship Project for the year. The USTA has been in constant contact with Greensburg, as well, since the tornado, offering assistance. These were donations of generosity and time the girls would not forget and ones that helped them become a team again.

“When we all got together and I showed them the uniforms and all the racquets that Prince had sent us, it was like Christmas morning,” said McMurry. “A lot of people have been a part of seeing us through, which is just so amazing. When we started practice again when school started, we were just so happy to be there, just to concentrate for a couple of hours on something else besides cleaning up and rebuilding. Tennis seemed pretty easy after everything we all went through.”

Real Victory

Greensburg is a small 1A school in a primarily rural area of Kansas. With just 89 total students, it’s one of the smaller schools in the state. It’s a football-volleyball school, with no boys’ tennis team and no middle school feeder program for girls’ tennis, so McMurry’s job as coach is usually a tough one.

“When the girls step out on the court with me, I’m usually getting them fresh to the sport,” said McMurry. “We almost always have to teach them how to play from the start. It’s not easy, but it’s always fun.”

The 2007 fall season promised to be one of rebuilding, anyway, for McMurry, even before the tornado, since McVay was going to be the team’s lone returning varsity starter. One other senior-to-be relocated out of the district to one nearby in the summer because of the tornado, and many of McMurry’s returning players were young and inexperienced. Half of her 2007 squad had never even picked up a racquet before August of last year.

The GHS girls still finished last fall’s season with an almost .500 team record, below their normal best, but an incredible accomplishment given all that had transpired. Wins and losses, however, weren’t the measure of this group. A tight-knit team before, the GHS girls became even tighter on trips to away matches. Simply being on the court again to compete as Greensburg High was where the real victory occurred.

“It was nice to see that the storm hadn’t broken the kids because most of these girls took on a lot of responsibilities that surely weighed on them,” said McMurry. “Their attitudes were always great. I really had no expectations in terms of winning. We had a lot of fun as a team, though. We were goofy all year long. The girls didn’t care about all that had happened. They just wanted to play.”

Photo Attributions – Part 2

SaraMcVay: Senior Sara McVay was the team’s lone returning senior starter in 2007

Prince Greensburg players had a moment of sunshine last summer when Prince Racquet Sports donated equipment and apparel to outfit the team for the 2007 season. Most of the 11 players on the girls’ team had lost virtually everything they owned in the tornado’s wake, including their tennis equipment.