Since its inception at the beginning of this year, the PCS girl’s tennis team has been holding practices at the Harbor High tennis courts at 6 PM, a time that was chosen so they could practice after the Harbor team, and that was originally convenient for everyone. But as winter creeps closer and daylight hours become fewer, the team have found themselves playing on a dark court. It was one such evening at the tail end of practice that the players found themselves playing in almost pitch-black. Darkness advanced until, as one girl lamented, “you could barely see the ball in front of your face.” An early end to the practice seemed imminent–all was lost! But in a burst of inspiration, Coach Masha Lobastov ran out to her car and moved it to a spot courtside, pulling right up to the wire fence. She put the car into park. And then she cranked the headlights on–illuminating the court.

The girls played by the light of Coach Masha’s headlights for another 30 minutes, finishing off practice at a tidy 7:30 as usual. And while this latest SNAFU demonstrates the resourcefulness of our tennis team, our girls likely won’t have to hit around in the dark for much longer. At first, Coach Masha looked into getting the court’s flood lights turned on during practices, but Harbor High staff explained that they are not working. Since then, Harbor High has offered to let us use the courts at earlier times, as they only need to use half the courts on certain days. The high school girls tennis team adjusted those times in order to start practices an hour earlier, and with the season coming to its end, every hour of daylight counts. What is clear from all of this is that our girls have continued to persevere–in dark times and in light.