Rebuilding ECU鈥檚 women鈥檚 tennis program has been no easy feat
GREENVILLE, N.C. —聽ECU Women’s tennis has been back thanks to Coach Kirsten Burgess and Title 9. After the heart-breaking news that the Swimming and Diving program and the Tennis programs at ECU were cancelled due to lack of funds and Covid, the ECU Women’s Tennis program returned by popular demand.
The girls’ team was able to return because 53% of the students at ECU are female and the loss of the Womens Swimming and Tennis programs made the school non-Title 9 compliant.
Kirsten Burgess was given the opportunity to start a new program. It was not an easy task, however. All of her players except for one left ECU and went to other schools after the program was initially cancelled. Most recruiting starts up to 2 years before the season begins and Kirsten only had a few months. She was given the option to miss the 2022 season, but she opted to try to get a team together. Because she is so dedicated to the school and the program, she knew she had to give it a shot.
She managed to get 7 freshmen players to come to ECU. Usually recruiting entails going to show cases and national tournaments where you can see the girls play and meet them and their parents. Kirsten did not have this opportunity because of time constraints and Covid protocols. All she had at her disposal were videos of the girls playing. She did not get to meet the girls in person, but only had video chats with them. She told me that the best way to recognize how a player might behave is watching them with their parents. If they disrespect their parents, they probably are going to disrespect their coach. But she did not have that luxury this time.
Her team is incredibly diverse. The team members come from the following countries: Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Morocco, Columbia, and Wake Forest. Imagine the challenge for these girls being from other countries without a solid grasp of the English language and playing tennis at the college level for the first time! Kirsten said they have really been holding their own in spite of these challenges. They had a match against UNC Chapel Hill, the top ranked team in the nation, and UNC had scheduled limited time thinking that they were going to wipe ECU off the map. In the end, it turned out that UNC had to delay their next match because the ECU players were fighting hard, and the games lasted much longer than expected.
The team has a GPA of 3.4. Most of the players take 18 hours per semester and play tennis and some also have jobs. These girls are dedicated and excel in all that they do! Laura Becker, the player from Wake Forest, is a Junior in the biology program, teaches tennis at River Burch and has 20 hours of PT training a week. She has a 3.9 GPA. She was teaching at River Burch when Kirsten discovered her and asked her to be a walk on for the team. This group has an amazing future in front of them. It will be very exciting to see this team in 3 years!
River Burch is the home of ECU Womens Tennis. Please come and support these young women and their fantastic coach Kirsten Burgess.
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.