By Steve Bigham

It’s a lot easier to have fun when you’re not worried about wins and losses and the Newtown High School girls’ tennis team is having plenty of fun these days.

Sure, this relatively young team hasn’t had as many wins as it might in a couple of years, but that was expected. They Nighthawks knew they were in for a long haul before the season even began, especially with just one or two experienced players back from a year ago.

“I’ve never seen a team bond like this one. Maybe it’s because we’ve had a rough season, but they’ve really connected with one another,” said first-year coach Kathy Davey.

Last Friday, the girls had a practice then all got together for a sleepover. This week, the girls invited the boys’ team to their practice for some mixed doubles fun because, as coach Davey said, “We’re trying to end the season on a good note.”

Newtown has just two wins this year and will not likely qualify anyone for next week’s South-West Conference tournament at Eisenhower Park in Stratford. No even junior Caitlyn Martin, who excelled at second singles toward the second half of the season, will make it. Martin started the season at first doubles, but did finally move up into singles and played just one match short of the minimum.

The Nighthawks were defeated, 7-0, at Joel Barlow in Redding on Monday and dropped a 5-2 decision at Brookfield May 9.

Newtown was slated to wrap up the season against powerhouse Foran at home on Wednesday.

The future for NHS girls’ tennis still remains bright thanks to a positive attitude, good humor and a desire to improve, not to mention the return of players like Martin, Kunkel, Schnell, Meier, Allen, Andrews, Santarpia, Kim, Stern and others.