By Alexis Clapper and Trezher Cone — “All us girls have a really close bond with one another,” sophomore tennis player Julia Esber said.

Despite experiencing a losing season because of the many seniors who graduated, Coach Jimmy Jefferies is striving to make a rebuilding season fun for the girls.

“We play a lot of games during practice,” Esber says.

Their practices consist of the players playing games against coach.  They play against one another for a prize.

“One of the teammates played against coach, if she won she wanted 10 slushies for her and her teammates,” Esber said. The following practice Jefferies had to bring slushies for the team.

“The games make this team closer and the bond stronger,” sophomore tennis player Cassie Conley said.  Many of the girls’ hang out after games and practices for sleepovers, lunch, to help build a team bond.

“After each match a few of us met up at Taggerts,” Esber said.

Even though they are having a losing season, the tennis team still keeps their heads up going into each match. GlenOak’s varsity team is made up of mostly sophomores, and the majority of the competition is upperclassmen.

“We are trying to build up confidence to win more matches,” Esber said.

[Updated Aug. 6, 2017: This article has been reformatted for consistency.]