Tennis is one of the many sports at Bryant High School. Mary Claire Harper is a sophomore player on the school’s Tennis team.

Harper explains her future plans that don’t necessarily involve tennis. 

“I’ve always kind of thought about doing it in college, I think I might just take the route of continuing my studies in college because I’m planning to be a lawyer. So I probably won’t continue it in college but for sure when I’m older, I will definitely be calling up some friends and going out on courts and playing with them,” Harper said. 

According to Harper, tennis requires a lot of devotion and extra time.

“Tennis takes up most of my week. I’ve had three games, and we have practice on days that aren’t our games. I definitely probably put studies over tennis, but I try not to miss a practice. Tennis is basically like you win based on everyone else, so when we go to matches and we are playing other people, for our team to win, it’s everybody’s score combined,” Harper said. 

Harper explains that was involved with other things that led up to tennis.

“I, my whole life, have been wrapped up with basketball and volleyball. When I was probably 5 or 6, my dad put me in basketball and I played basketball for a while and started volleyball in 3rd grade and played in my old school. When I got to Bryant, I knew it was going to be tough to make the volleyball team. 

According to Harper, volleyball was one of her main sports until she realized how much she loved tennis. 

“I knew coming into varsity volleyball, or high school volleyball in general, I knew that it was going to be harder and a lot more pressure filled to make the team and so I decided from probably when off season started, in November-December that I should probably have a backup option in case I didn’t make the team,” Harper said.  

Harper explains her journey throughout tennis. 

“So I signed up to play for Bryant, and I kind of went back and forth. I played off season with the volleyball team and then went to tennis practices afterwards and tried to keep up with both, but I started to fall more in love with tennis and out of love with volleyball.

Harper explains the importance of the community behind the team.

“The community behind all the people on the team, everyone’s so positive and sweet and I think there is not one person on the team I don’t get along with. I’m friends with probably most all of them, and it’s just the best environment to be around,” Harper said.