Shelley Knight sets up players at different courts for singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
Some are still coming in to practice with waivers for their Nov. 9 trip to the Tennis OnCampus Southern Fall Regional tournament in Murfreesboro. As finger-biting cold as it is on the tennis courts by the Sports Bubble, there’s nothing to keep the UT Tennis Club vice president from smiling.
“We all say she’s too nice,” Kathryn Bradley, mixed doubles teammate, said. “She’s got a really good attitude.”
The Tennessee Tennis club has had a great year, winning the Tennis On Campus Tennessee State Championship, finishing second in the United States Tennis Association Virginia Fall Invitational and winning the Virginia Tech Fall Invitational Bronze bracket.
Most importantly, she’s smiling because she’s playing a sport she initially “hated,” but eventually has grown to love.
“I’ve kinda grown up around it,” Knight said. “I worked at a club in Hendersonville, so I’ve been around tennis a lot.
The UT sophomore’s father was a high school tennis coach. Her siblings also played, but Knight didn’t like it.
“My brothers and sisters all played,” Knight said. “My dad was a high school coach. I was around it because my parents put me in tennis lessons when I was little and I absolutely hated it and I said I didn’t want to do it anymore.”
Instead, however, the Hendersonville native had other interests from the time she was four to when she was 17.
“Ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical; you name it, I did it,” Knight said. “My favorite was tap dancing. I don’t know, I just grew up on it.”
When she wasn’t rehearsing cake walks and pirouettes, Knight was still on the tennis courts until it came time to make a decision.
“Either keep dancing or play tennis,” Knight said.
Despite 13 years of dance, the Station Camp High alumna chose tennis, a sport in her family’s blood.
“I still kind of miss it … ,” Knight said. “I still do some (dancing), but only in my room where nobody can see.”
The decision paid off; Knight had scholarship offers from out-of-state schools and even practiced with the University of Alabama-Huntsville tennis team, but she didn’t like seeing how “burnt out” it was there.
“It just wasn’t the environment I wanted,” Knight said.
That’s when the Human Resource Management major found the Tennis Club, an opportunity where she could be an impact not just on the court, but off it as well.
“Officer elections were coming,” Knight said, “and it was one of those things where I decided I can either let someone else do it or … I wanted to be the one to make things happen instead of watching everyone. I just wanted to do something about the club, I wanted to make it better because I’m passionate about it.”
“She’s very motivated,” Bradley said “and when I get down on myself, she’s the positive Shelley.”
The second-year club vice president’s future in human resource management also plays a key part in her future; she volunteers at the USTA’s Pro Men Circuit and even has a future volunteering position in the organization’s $50,000 Challenger event this month.
Tennis wasn’t the popular choice in the early going, but — in the long run — Knight says it was the right one.
“I’ve loved it ever since,” Knight said, “but it’s a lot of work.”
