Comet tennis team ready to head outdoors

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Gene Hackman’s “Norman Dale” character in “Hoosiers” caused an uproar among townsfolk when he conducted basketball practices without the ball.

During an indoor practice in the old Charles City Middle School gym, the Comet girls tennis team was practicing serves without the racquet.

“The overhand throwing motion is the same as the overhand serving motion,” Charles City head coach Brian Parrott explained as his team long-tossed tennis balls to each other from across the gym.

With the courts at Sportmen’s Park still too wet and icy to play and practice, the Comets spent much of last week doing indoor work before heading outdoors (hopefully) by Monday.

“Yesterday, we held a classroom at the high school … using a blackboard … going over strategy and proper positioning on the court,” Parrott said. “Today (last Friday) we worked more on footwork and stroke production.

“We got a lot of things done indoors. We’ve got two weeks before our first meet, and we should be better prepared for when we finally get outdoors.”

Among the returners for the Comets is senior Jodie Sindlinger, who was the team’s No. 1 singles player last season. At the Class 1A Singles and Doubles Regional, Sindlinger advanced as far as the quarterfinals.

This tennis season will be the final sports season for Sindlinger as a Comet. In both volleyball and basketball, she was a multiple all-conference player.

“It’s sad that it’s finally coming to an end,” Sindlinger said, “but I’m excited about spending this last season with my teammates.

“When I finally leave here, I want to leave a mark.”

Sindlinger, who will attend Iowa State University next school year, plans to stay active in athletics.

“But only at the intramural level unless something unexpected comes up,” she said.

As a freshman last year, Kayla Kellogg won five varsity matches for the Comets. She’s hoping for more wins this season.

“I worked a lot on my serves (during the offseason),” Kellogg said. “What I’m going to try to do this year is shake-off my mistakes and not let them affect the rest of my game.”

Senior Taylor Walters, who like Sindlinger was named to the North Central Tennis Conference All-Academic Team last season, returns after being the Comets’ No. 2 singles player last season.

Parrott is a long-time tennis coach as well as a renowned promoter who organized several Davis Cup tournaments and other events featuring the top players in the world. His son, Travis Parrott, won the U.S. Open Mixed Doubles title with Carly Gullickson in 2009.

Parrott grew up around baseball as his father, Harold Parrott, was the publicity chief for the Brooklyn and then Los Angeles Dodgers. There are some similarities in tennis and baseball, like the aforementioned comparison to throwing a ball overhand to an overhand serve, as well as the term “error” in the vernacular of both sports.

But according to Parrott, unforced errors happen more frequently in tennis.

“Nine out of 10 points in tennis come from errors,” Parrott said during the end of Friday’s indoor practice. “If you can work on being consistent and limiting mistakes, you’ll win a lot of points.”