Semoball

Good Sports: Donna Ryan coaches a game of discipline and good manners

Notre Dame co-coach Donna Ryan looks on during a girls match vs. Kennett at Brother David Migliorino Tennis Complex in Cape Girardeau, August 21, 2017.
Southeast Missourian file

Good Sports is a column featured weekly in the Southeast Missourian and on semoball.com. It is primarily designed to showcase people who have impacted the sporting life of Southeast Missouri, so that readers may get to know them more fully. Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Today: Donna Ryan, 77, co-coach, Notre Dame Regional High School boys and girls tennis. She is a native of Leawood, Kansas, has lived in Georgia and has called Cape Girardeau home for 31 years. Ryan skippers the squad with fellow coach Linda Ruddy. Ryan and Ruddy accompanied the Bulldogs girls squad to the Class 1 State Tournament Final Four last fall, defeating Rosati-Kain and St. Louis’ Notre Dame team before losing back-to-back 5-0 matches to John Burroughs and Springfield Catholic on October 24, 2019.

This column is running during would have been the culminating weekend of the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, Wimbledon, which was canceled this year for the first time since 1945 due to the pandemic.

Yes, it should have been. That was the right call. The players weren’t prepared to play.

What is your outlook for a Fall 2020 girls season given COVID?

I don’t know I believe everything I’m hearing. (The virus) is unpredictable. I’m overdoing it with sanitizer and I must say I’m disappointed by carelessness (about the pandemic). The Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese is the last word on when/if we play.

Your boys team lost its spring season to the coronavirus.

Yes, and I felt our boys, who were mainly seniors, would have gone on to state.

You coach both genders. Say a word about their differences as players.

Boys just want to get on the court and are not so much interested in learning techniques first. We have to correct boys as they play. Girls are more detail-oriented. They want to know how to do something first before they actually try it against an opponent. It’s a real difference.

Arjun Sahai, one of your recent tennis graduates, said you told him the game is more mental than physical.

(Tennis great) Jimmy Connors said the game is 90% mental. Connors is definitely right. Once you learn the basic strokes, then you focus on outthinking an opponent. Arjun was a real planner and grew into mental tennis during the three years he was with us.

When does Donna Ryan feel joy as a coach?

It’s not necessarily wins and losses. Parents want to see victories but I like to see boys and girls develop. When a player reaches the next level, that’s what is neat for me.

What does tennis teach?

It’s a game of good manners and our kids buy into that readily at Notre Dame. It teaches you to discipline your body and to treat the opponent with respect.

If you do it right, tennis should be fun too. It’s called a game, after all.

What’s your story as an athlete?

I had lessons at age 12 but had nobody to play with, unfortunately. There were literally no teams for girls (in the mid-1950s). When my husband and I were in Atlanta, I joined a neighborhood tennis team. I really started playing at 35. I got asked to play in tournaments and got certified and was asked to coach and teach. I’ve been at it now for 40 years.

Do you have a favorite professional player you lift up as a role model to your student-athletes?

No, I don’t suggest. I let my players tell me whom they like.

You are running camps this summer.

Yes, we started last week and have three to go. We’ve had a smaller turnout this summer but that’s OK. If you think about it, tennis is the ultimate social-distancing sport. You are separated from your opponent by distance and a net. We’re taking appropriate precautions and following USTA (United States Tennis Association) guidelines. Every player has two cans of balls and you don’t ever touch an opponent’s ball.

What’s your outlook for your 2020 teams?

Most of the girls team are coming back and I expect them to go to state again this fall. As for the boys in the spring? We lost five seniors so the boys will be young. It’s a strong team of young men but they might not be quite good enough for state in spring 2021.

You’ve been a coach for a long time. How much longer will you continue?

If I fall down dead on the court, that’ll be fine (laughs). Honestly, it’ll be time to stop when I can’t do the job anymore. The Notre Dame parents are great help to Linda and me. But I can tell you there is no succession plan. I’m eager for the sixth graders to come on through to high school.

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