Over the summer, Wolfpack Athletics added Men’s Tennis to the 2010-11 sports line-up. Along with Men’s Tennis, Loyola now has teams for Men and Women’s Basketball, Women’s Tennis, Women’s Volleyball, Men and Women’s Cross Country & Track, and Baseball.
I have heard nothing but negatives from people about the addition of the Men’s Tennis program, so allow me to attempt to put some of these tensions to rest.
First, why do we need more sports programs? People do not go to sporting events in the first place, so why would we add another sport? The addition of the tennis program is an opportunity for the ‘Pack to take home more championships down the line. After all, it only took the Florida Marlins four years from their 1993 Inaugural Season to win the World Series. This addition also helps Loyola transition from the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference to the Southern States Athletic Conference, as most schools in the SSAC have fully-loaded athletic programs.
Okay, so now we understand why it is important to add more sports programs, but why not add something other than men’s tennis? Fun fact, the greatest tennis event in the world, Wimbledon, averages 2.5 million viewers per telecast. Wimbledon finals average around 11 million viewers. Superbowl XLIV had 106.48 Million viewers. Bottomline, tennis is not an American phenomenon, so maybe we shouldn’t add this to our athletics department.
On the contrary, tennis is great to add. In comparison to other teams, tennis is rather low-budget in the sense that Athletics does not need to shell out tons of money for a one to one coach-player ratio. Coach Zubin Engineer is more than capable of single handedly taking this program to great new places. At this point and time, building a solid foundation for a solid tennis program is the most financially ideal option available to Loyola.
The benefit here of adding more sports programs potentially means more students wanting to enroll at Loyola. No matter what people say, the more students we have, the better our college experience will be. Here’s the cliché, “more students equals lower tuition…in theory.” Also, it provides for a more entertaining and high-spirited campus atmosphere.
Tennis is a captivating sport for those who are open to it. Tennis can drag out at times, but the American way of instant gratification cannot be exemplified more than in tennis. Within a matter of seconds from serve to volley we see joy and anguish with every point and miss-hit. Students, let’s give these men and women their racketing respect they deserve and show some support at their matches this year.
Jeff Ramon is the current manager of the men’s basketball team and a religious
studies junior.
He can be reached at
