As an athlete on the boys’ tennis team, Khalil McKenna (11) shares his experiences and challenges that he has overcome during his time on the tennis team. McKenna recounts how the team has changed his high school career and how it has given him the social life he has today.
McKenna decided to join the boys’ tennis his freshman year of high school. After hearing about it, he decided it would be a fun change and activity to experience.
“Joining Tennis definitely helped me with making a lot of new friends. It had a lot of positive and new experiences for me,” McKenna said.
Despite all of the fun that McKenna has had during his time with the Tennis team, there were some mishaps that he was forced to overcome.
“I struggled with an injury during tennis. I got injured while running, and ended up injuring my elbow and hip flexor,” McKenna said.
McKenna explains that while he had been injured, he overcame it by putting in the work of healing through stretching in order to assist the process of healing. While reminiscing about his injury during the season, McKenna digressed about advice he would give to his younger self and boys who may be new on the team.
“My advice for new players is probably just to work hard and to get as good as you can for the team. If I could talk to my younger self, I would definitely say to play a lot more to just keep going,” McKenna said.
Through all of McKenna’s experiences with the tennis team, he is sure about his future with Tennis and schooling; he knows that he wants to continue to play when he goes to college.
“After high school, I plan on playing in college. I want to either keep playing baseball or Tennis in college. I’m not sure what college [I want to go to] yet, but I plan on playing somewhere and continuing to play,” McKenna said.
Even though McKenna has one more year of high school, he is sure of himself and his plans. He looks forward to being able to continue his passion for sports in college thanks to his experience with the teams he has been on in high school.
