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Girls’ tennis about to start it’s first season in the fall
After being part of the spring season since the sport's inception in 1956, tennis has been moved to the fall and practices began on Monday
Mike Condon
Aug. 6, 2025 12:14 pm
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It is the start of a new season for high school girls’ tennis in Iowa — literally and figuratively.
After being part of the spring season since the sport's inception in 1956, tennis has been moved to the fall. Practices began on Monday for a season that will have seven weeks of regular-season play. Postseason begins Sept. 17 with singles and doubles regionals and concludes Oct. 6-7 with the state team tournaments.
"This offseason has been a little crazy just coming off another season, so working out the logistics has been a little interesting. But next offseason should be much cleaner," said Xavier Coach Matt Foxhoven. "I think some adjustments with the schedule going forward will be necessary but we are all guinea pigs this year testing things out."
Coaches surveyed by The Gazette are in agreement that the move will allow players to have more court time and get them away from playing in the tough weather conditions that often hit Iowa during March and April.
"The transition to fall is exciting," said Linn-Mar Coach Bruce Croy. "We can look forward to better tennis weather, more available court space, and I think an overall improved atmosphere.
"We should also see the level of play increase since our players can hit starting in March, giving them much more time to put in some extra work before the season starts.“
As is the case with any change, adjustments have been, and will continue, to be made. The move has allowed coaches — such as Jefferson's Tim Preston and Western Dubuque's Jackson Healey — to now coach both the boys’ and girls’ programs.
"I do think we were fortunate to have a number of our girls be energized by the change, even if they are nervous about the realities of this change," Preston said. "That helped us have a good summer turnout for our hitting and match play sessions. So, kudos to our players and their families for that work and support."
The season will be condensed with about half of most schedules completed before classes begin at the end of the month. That aspect of the change has Preston concerned for the health of the athletes.
"We struggled with heat and hydration in June and July when we’d be hitting for an hour or 90 minutes," he said. "What in the world are we going to be looking at when our athletes are playing six to eight hours on our double dual meet days, let alone three to four hours on a normal day.
“Tennis courts can be anywhere from 10-20 degrees warmer than air temperature. In the middle of August, that could mean temperatures above 110. I’ll be honest, that’s scary."
Tennis used to compete with soccer, golf and track and field for athletes. The shift to the fall now puts tennis in competition with swimming, cross country and one of the state's most popular sports, volleyball. Some teams have lost players to volleyball while others said they will be navigating having athletes in two sports at once.
"The positive is that more golfers can now play tennis as well," Healey said. "Some negatives I could see are that we are losing girls to volleyball. Dead week is right before the first week of practice and practice officially starts three days before the first meet, which caused difficulties in prepping.
"Lastly, we rely heavily on recruiting in the school and there have been difficulties recruiting and getting in contact with incoming freshmen as the school year has not yet started."
It was just two months ago that Foxhoven and his players were celebrating a clean sweep of the Class 1A postseason. Gabi Fleming won the singles title, Izzy Tobin and Ruby Smith took doubles and the team took down Pella, 5-2 to complete the sweep.
Foxhoven admits his team may be in a better position than most for this transition year. With all but Tobin and Smith returning, the move to the fall should benefit more programs.
"Our team is excited to be a part of the new season," he said. "I think in the long run, this will be a good change. Teams will get to work together over the summer and I think it will create more competition throughout the state."