On Homecoming & Family Weekend, old friends, familiar courts

The hugs came first. Then the tennis balls started moving across the nets, and former Guilford College players had something familiar to do with their hands while they caught up on everything that had happened since they last stood on a court together. Young and old gathered Saturday morning, remembering a sport they once excelled at and the people who had made them better at it.

At the tennis reunion during Homecoming & Family Weekend, there was plenty to discuss between shots. Years of work. Families. Moves. The lives that began when the college matches ended.

Ray Alley, the Quakers’ men’s tennis coach from 1975 to 1988, stood near the bleachers and took it all in. “This is a special day,” he said. “A lot of these players out here I haven't seen in years. It's great catching up with them and hearing what they've done with their lives.”

That is the useful thing about a reunion: It interrupts the assumption that there will always be another chance to call somebody.

Adam Neilly ’86 had let some of those calls go unmade. He had not kept up with his former teammates as much as he wished. Helping bring them back together gave him a reason to reach out, including to a player who had been a senior when Adam was a first year. They had not seen each other since that teammate graduated.

“So it's really neat,” Adam said. “So much fun.”

But Adam also had a point to make about tennis itself. Guilford’s men had been good. Exceptionally good, in his recollection, and he wanted the College to give those teams their due.

His senior team went 23-5 overall and 11-2 against Division I opponents. North Carolina State, Wake Forest, William and Mary, Penn State: He can still tick off the victories – and does with pride. He remembers a demanding schedule and a small college willing to measure itself against bigger schools.

Those matches were part of why he came.

Adam wanted a small school, wanted to head south and wanted serious tennis. “Coach Alley brought me to visit,” he recalls. “The campus was beautiful, the people friendly, and the schedule promised that I would find out how well I could play.”

Four years supplied an answer, along with trips and teammates he still remembers.

His push for recognition helped start the conversation that led to Saturday’s gathering. Now the accomplishments had faces again.

Julie Tupper Cummings ’86 knew something about accomplishment. An All-American in 1985, she remembered teams that went to nationals every year. She remembered the work, too.

“We really wanted success and we all were very into it, not only individually, but as a team.”

Tennis requires a player to stand alone across from an opponent. College tennis also requires that player to care what happens on the next court. Julie recalled a team committed to both responsibilities.

She lives in Norfolk, Va., now. When she heard about the reunion, she encouraged other former players to come.

Was it awkward after so much time?

“You just pick up from where you left off,” Julie said.

For Sarah “Gracie” Woodard ’96, the connection follows her to work.

Gracie is an architectural historian who lives in Raleigh and runs North Carolina’s National Register program. Buildings are her professional concern. Tennis helped teach her how to handle the scrutiny that comes with producing work other people must evaluate.

“Not a day goes by that I don't use something that I learned from my collegiate tennis experience,” she said.

Consider what a coach asks: Make an attempt in public. Accept an assessment. Try the correction. Risk another mistake.

Gracie recognized that process in writing and editing.

“You have to be able to go out and be willing to make errors in front of people and then clean it up.”

That is a substantial return on hours spent hitting a ball.

She remembers Guilford’s friendships and the Quaker spirit that shaped its classes and decisions. Walking toward the courts Saturday, she encountered players from her college years.

Adam hopes they can arrange another reunion. Maybe not annually, but again.

“When are we going to get a chance to do this again?” he asked.