By Chris Cox
Shawnee High School senior Olivia Stobbe has been around tennis a long time. Her dad is the girls tennis coach at Shawnee and her older sister starting playing when Stobbe was young.
“When I was in 3rd or 4th grade my sister started playing tennis and that’s when I started getting interested in it,” Stobbe says.
Playing a sport for almost 10 years requires a strong devotion and passion for the game. Stobbe regularly takes lessons in Edmond, which is about an hour from her home in Shawnee, and plays in tournaments outside of school. Stobbe says the individualistic nature of tennis is something she really enjoys.
“It’s a team sport,” she says. “But you have to rely on yourself the whole time.”
Stobbe also thinks tennis, especially at the high school level where there are no on-court referees or line judges, teaches integrity, honesty, and good sportsmanship.
“Not only do you have to call your own lines and keep score, but you have to trust your opponent to do the same,” Stobbe says. “There’s a lot of trust between opponents that you’ll call a fair game and that they will too.”
Stobbe, who is a senior, knows that her tennis career is winding down. She says she will likely not be playing competitively in college, so she wants to take full advantage of her senior year.
“We got kind of a head start on this year after last year got cancelled,” she said. “I used that head start to work harder and improve as much as I can for this year.”
Stobbe, who plays number one singles for Shawnee, recently helped lead her team to the Suburban Conference Championship. She is now hoping she and her teammates can continue playing well and qualify for the state tournament.
While tennis keeps Stobbe plenty busy, she still finds time to be involved in Tri-Hi-Y and Shawnee’s student council as the class president. After she graduates, Stobbe will attend Oklahoma State University and major in psychology.
