After playing soccer for five years senior Oliver Perez has decided to try something new in his last year of high school, so he joined the tennis team.

Perez enjoys the adrenaline of running and tennis is a sport that requires a lot of stamina. When he was asked why not do track he replied saying “tennis is more complicated” and offers more than just the bare minimum of running.

Tennis isn’t all about the running, it involves a lot more than just that. The sport is all about skill and technique — holding the racket, hitting the ball, positioning themselves, and most of all coordination. During practice Perez tries to improve on his hand coordination the most. “It’s different from soccer,” he said, “because I have more feet coordination than in my hands.”

He said that with the difficulty in hand coordination the challenge is hitting the ball. Being slightly off angle can ruin the whole hit. Not only that but when they practice the coach “always positions the ball machine to the right” of the court he said. And Perez being left handed has to “scoot over” just a little so he can practice hitting the ball.

Perez is the only left handed person on the team and he said that “if you are a lefty it’s harder because most people are right handed.” And being left handed “I have to work harder,” he said.

He joined tennis not to just be apart of a team, experience, and all the fun that comes along with the sport, but to have the “confidence” in “trying new sports,” he said.