Tennis a sport not every teen thinks of when they think of high school sports, but the Carolina Forest High School Women’s Team has been in the eye of the community recently!
The CFHS Women’s Tennis Team is coached by Alexis McNabb and Whitney Lesaine. The team is made up of 15 young ladies. They are very talented and had an outstanding season, winning 11 matches in regular season and an additional four playoff wins. They then went on to win the State Championship. These young ladies put many hours into practicing for their season starting in August and continued to practice throughout the season, which ended on November 4.
Alexis McNabb has been the head coach of the tennis team for three years. In her years of coaching, there have only been three losing matches. The girls’ record with her as head coach is 47-3.
Head Coach McNabb shared, “My favorite part of coaching is always getting to know the team. The girls make the season so much fun. The girls always give their best effort, and this season they were very determined and focused on bringing a State Championship back to CFHS. I am so proud to be their coach and had another successful season with this incredible team!”
Katie Godfree, a sophomore who attends Atlantic Collegiate Academy, has played tennis for seven years. She began playing for CF during her seventh grade year. This year she won the Individuals at the State level!
“All of my teammates are so kind, and honestly, I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls to be around. Everyone works really hard, but we always have fun from the bus ride with music, trips as a team to get Chick-fil-A and the fun little things like hairspray and hair bows for the games. It’s been great to be a part of a team that is so driven to reach the same end goals and we were able to achieve them this season,” stated Godfree.
Sydney Sparks, a senior at CFHS, has played tennis since she was six-years-old, and she has played for CF since she was in seventh grade.
Sparks added, “Tennis is an individual sport at heart, but there’s so much love and comradery in our team that it doesn’t feel that way. Everyone on the team was dedicated to winning the championship. There were multiple practices where we stayed late just to work on small things as a team in order to help individual players. Being a part of this team was an amazing experience. I’ve made so many memories from bus rides, team dinners and matches that I’ll cherish forever.”
With Sparks being one of the three senior girls on this year’s team she shared a little more about her teammates and coach!
“All of these girls dedicate so much of their own time to lessons, clinics and practices to help make them better players, and that level of dedication is inspiring. We’ve been lucky to have such an amazing, understanding and driven coach to bring us all together to play. I’m so excited to see what they do next year.”
The CFHS Women’s Tennis Team had an outstanding season and their hard work really showed this season. Their talent does not go unnoticed. Congratulations on winning States and a special congratulations to Katie Godfree on her States Singles win! We can’t wait to see what you all do next season!