Girls and boys entering fifth through ninth grades are invited to Liberty High School’s free summer tennis clinics run by Hurricane head coach Chris Conrad on Mondays and Fridays at the Liberty tennis courts.

“We have a lot of kids who returned (from last summer) and 77 who signed up for the entire program, but kids will come and go because people go on vacation, so we want to accommodate people who have an interest and want to learn this game because it helps our program and it’s a lifelong sport,” Conrad said. “What’s most impressive with tennis is you can play it at any age, and if you have certain disabilities, you can still play it. They even have wheelchair tennis, and those people are incredible athletes.”

Monday sessions (July 17, 24, 31; Aug. 7, 14) run from 4:30-6 p.m., and Friday sessions (July 21, 28; Aug. 4, 11, 18) run from 9:30-11 a.m.

“We start with a jog stretch and then go into a fitness game where they’re working on hand-eye coordination, and after that we work on technical skills. Then, we go into some games,” said Conrad. “I break them off based on ability and/or age. We have one fifth grader who’s probably our best player, so he’ll be with kids who have more experience, but a lot of these kids, because they’re new to the game, we want to give them as much attention as possible, so we have some extra hands on deck to help them out.”

High schoolers who play on Liberty’s tennis teams are the extra hands who help Conrad during the sessions. Also, tennis racquets are available for use by the attendees.

“We work on ground strokes, getting them to be able to hit a clean shot, and we work on technique because a lot of them are coming with nothing,” Conrad said. “We want to encourage kids to come out and just try it.”