How do tennis players stay in touch? They meet at the net. Even though that’s just a humorous Google pun it rains true for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s club tennis team. Kyle Helmenstine, UWW club tennis vice president, solidifies that claim by expressing what club tennis brings to UWW.
“It brings a safe social place for people to go and hang out with friends and play tennis,” Helmenstine said.
Helmenstine has been a part of UWW club tennis for three years, he was previously the treasurer but was promoted this semester to vice president.
“I am basically Michael’s right-hand man to make his job easier and do whatever Michael can’t get to and we work together,” Helmenstine said.
Michael Kraus is UWW club tennis president, he has been a part of the club for the past four years. This is his third year as a member of the board and he was previously a risk manager but is now on his third semester of being club president. Kraus describes club tennis similarly to
Helmenstine.
“Club tennis is more of a social sport than a competitive sport and more for social interaction who are also interested in tennis and building relationships,” Kraus said. “It is more of a two-hour social session where we also play tennis.”
UWW club tennis is a no-cut year-round and mostly outside except for during winter and everyone is welcome, regardless of tennis experience. The club practices Monday-Wednesday 7-9 p.m. and currently has 47 members and is looking to continue to expand.
With social fun being their priority, the club also has a competitive side highlighted by Kraus and Helmenstine.
“On the competitive side for a DIII school we are very competitive and we care about growing the club, a goal is to continue to increase the club numbers and continue to maintain our club’s integrity as a social escape.”
Recently the club hosted their first meet of the season, the annual Warhawk Invite. The meet features eight teams and consists of three Whitewater teams and is hosted at the Wangerin Tennis Courts on campus. According to Kraus, the meet was a Warhawk blowout.
“UWW Purple and UWW White both went 3-0 as a team before meeting each other in the first-place match that ended up getting rained out.”
The following Warhawks competed at this invite: Payton Smith, Gavin Eckerman, George Zimbric, Austin Kearney, Riley Vaughn, Kyle Helmenstine, Jordan Oppenneer, Adam Gross, Carly Meeks, Laney Runde, Domenic Badalamenti, Tristan Sheldon, Angela Hark, Bella Nuon, Alyssa Heckmann, Ben Marecek, Makayla Millhouse, Ryan Bitney, Domenic Badalamenti and Ethan Uhlmann.
Like any club, in today’s day and age social media coverage is essential to grow numbers of participants. That’s where Emma Rung, Whitewater club tennis social media manager has been a part of the program for the past three semesters. Rung describes club tennis in a very warm light.
“Club tennis is a club for everyone who doesn’t want to be committed to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) team but still wants to play in college,” Rung said, “it is really chill and I love it.”
The club’s social media are UWW_club_tennis on Instagram and UWW.club.tennis on TikTok.
Looking forward to the club, they plan to compete in the DI competitive Badger Classic held at UW-Madison from Nov. 22 through Nov. 24. To prepare, Kraus is looking into making more invites with Madison, Marquette and others.
A fun fact about UW-W club tennis is that they competed for a spot in the USTA TOC National Championships last spring.
“Last spring we competed in the USTA TOC Midwest Championships (United States Tennis Association Tennis on Campus). We ended up losing by a couple of games in the semifinals of the silver bracket last year,” Kraus said. “This year our goal would be to win the silver bracket and earn a spot in the USTA TOC National Championships.”
