The fall sports season is already packed with lots of coverage for sports. Now, the girls’ tennis season is being added to the already hectic mix.
The Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union (IGHSAU) made the decision to transition from spring to fall was not an easy change. Going from playing their 2024-25 season in spring to now having their 2025-26 season in fall was an abrupt switch.
Fourth-year tennis player Larkin McMorris (she/her), 12, doesn’t see this season change in a positive light.
“I didn’t really like the change in seasons so quickly. I feel like we didn’t have enough time to prepare as a team,” McMorris said.
Jake Binggeli (he/him), head coach for the Liberty girls’ tennis team, has a certain view on the change in their season.
“This year was really good, way better than spring tennis, in terms of weather. But the season is super condensed. We play a lot of matches super quickly, which has led to less practice time. I think we’ll find out as the season ends, which time of year really is better to play in,” Binggeli said.
This season was Binggeli’s first year as the head girls’ tennis coach at Liberty, making things a bit more stressful as he had to guide the girls through their immediate change.
“I was named the head coach about a week before the season started, so the last week of July. I’m learning a lot, as this is my first year doing girls’ tennis, which I’ve learned is a lot different from boys’ tennis,” Binggeli said.
Now with different seasons between girls’ and boys’ tennis, there are fewer problems overall. Binggeli shared that one of those now fixed problems was court time. Now, the girls’ and boys’ teams have equal practice times and space.
Although a growing problem is the loss of publicity for the sport.
“Tennis coverage by the media is pretty limited as it is, now we’re competing against the bigger sports like football and volleyball, instead of boys’ tennis and track. So we’re not gaining anything, but the people that are just interested in tennis are able to shine that spotlight a little more,” Binggeli said.
Another added challenge is the multi-sport athletes, making it harder for them to play tennis.
“Because of the season change, less girls have joined because of volleyball. Volleyball is a pretty popular sport in comparison to tennis. We’ve had some girls leave for that, or some girls on our team that try to do both,” McMorris said.
Due to the short offseason, athletes can generally feel tired or burnt out of their sport.
“I know I haven’t felt burnt out this season yet, but the people that are doing multiple sports right now or played tennis throughout the summer might be burnt out a little bit more,” McMorris said.
Binggeli shared about how he hopes the girls will be able to accomplish more of their goals this season as they are drawn closer to regionals. Regionals for girls’ tennis will be held Sept.20, 24 and 27, with the state tournament to follow.
