Ashley Snyder attends Gilbert Christian High School and is a member of the AIA's student SID program.

Colby Johnson is a sophomore at Gilbert Christian High School. This is his first year playing tennis. Colby has emphasized how much he loves the sport and is considering playing the rest of high school. His favorite position to play is right up at the net, saying “I return one of my opponents serves and then I rush the net and spike it to where my opponent can’t return it.” Colby’s favorite memory so far this season would have to be when he was down 4-0 and came back and won his first match 6-4. Although the memory when he first walked into his first tennis practice and everyone was willing to help him in any way that they could is really what grew his love for tennis. Johnson said “it was probably one of the best teams I’ve been able to be a part of.”

Colby Johnson has many friends on the tennis team, however, playing with one of his closest friends, David Rusell, has really impacted his performance and pushes him to be better in the sport. Colby and David have known each other since elementary school and used to play football together. Colby said, “it feels like everytime I would push myself to be better than David, and sometimes I would thrive and others would surpass me. Although now I received the opportunity to once again be able to push myself to try and be able to compete with David in a completely different way.”

After asking Colby what he believes the most important aspects that make a good tennis player are, he described being an athlete and having good endurance. He strongly believes good endurance is the key to success which enables you to out play the opponent. Colby also uttered, “other important parts about being a tennis player in a game is keeping a good head space, being in the zone, and getting in your opponent’s head. Once you get inside their head they play mad and once they're mad the game gets a whole lot easier.

Colby passing the ball back over. Photo Credit : Laura Fellows

Colby catching the ball just in time. Photo Credit : Laura Fellows