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Linda BerlColquitt County High SchoolMoultrie, Georgia by Robert Preston, Jr. photography by Jonathan Chick |
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One of the biggest challenges Linda Berl, the women’s tennis coach at Colquitt County High, faces is getting her girls to realize that no shortcut exists to success in tennis or in life. “It all comes through hard work,” she says. Apparently, she’s doing a better job than she admits. Her team rolled through Region 1-AAAAA, then beat the Valdosta Wildcats in the quarterfinals to earn an appearance in the state Final Four tennis tournament. It was the sixth year in a row that Colquitt’s women made the Elite Eight, and the second time the team made it to the Final Four. Linda has helped build a solid program down in Moultrie, proving that the tennis teams in the southern portion of the state are narrowing the gap that exists with the northern teams. “Our region is one of the strongest tennis regions in the state. We’re proud to represent this region in the Final Four,” says Coach Berl. The Lady Packers have proven they can play with just about anybody in the state. A few regions in the metro area have a stranglehold on women’s tennis, but outside of those programs, Colquitt’s is one of the best in Georgia. “We’ve won the championship outside of Atlanta. Now, we’ll go up there and do our best,” says Coach Berl. They had their work cut out for them. Colquitt had to play the four-time defending state champion Walton Raiders from Marietta. All seven of Walton’s players are ranked with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) compared to just two of Colquitt’s players. However, Coach Berl knew her team could compete and she looked forward to the challenge. “It takes talent to win at this level but also a lot of good fortune. Southern teams haven’t had much success in the Final Four in the past, but we’ll see what happens,” she says. Unfortunately, Walton continued its winning streak against Colquitt then rolled over Centennial to win its sixth straight state championship. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Walton’s winning streak stands at 116 matches. However, Colquitt’s success shows the strength of Region 1-AAAAA tennis – a fact that is becoming increasingly apparent across the board in both the men’s and women’s games. Coach Berl came to Moultrie from Illinois. She played tennis in high school, but few opportunities for women athletes existed back then. “We had a tennis team my senior year. I played number one singles, and I never lost a match. I also never won one, either. We couldn’t find a team to play, so we didn’t play a match at all,” she says. Coach Berl also played basketball her senior year but things weren’t much better on the hardwood. They played a 12-game schedule but had no playoffs. “I tell our girls how fortunate they are to play on the same courts under the same rules as the men do,” she says. |
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After high school, she attended the University of Illinois, where she met her husband, Seth. Seth was in medical school and ended up doing his residency in Moultrie. “We liked the weather down here, so we stayed,” says Coach Berl.
She has always been a coach at the recreation level and at the YMCA. In 2001, she became an assistant coach for the Colquitt Middle School team. One year later, she stepped in as an assistant at the varsity level under then-head coach Grant Hammack. At the time, Coach Berl was also teaching human growth and development at Colquitt Middle School. She was an assistant for three years before being named head varsity women’s coach in 2005. She also taught for 12 years but decided to take this year off in order to be at home with her son, Brian, a senior at Colquitt High, during his final year of high school. “I just wanted to put my family first. This is the last year with kids in the house,” she says. (Linda and Seth have two other children: Scott, 26, who is in medical school at the Medical College of Georgia; and Jason, 23, a Spanish teacher at Howard High in Bibb County.) High school tennis is an interesting sport. In the tennis hotbeds, the top players may not ever practice with their school teams. They often have their private coaches who teach them year ‘round. The players compete in USTA events throughout the year, and often just show up for matches with their school. That’s not the way it works in South Georgia. The high school coaches actually teach the game and must be well versed in the fundamentals of tennis. Coach Berl works with her girls throughout the year as GHSA rules allow. When practice begins in January, she spends about three weeks working on fundamentals and conditioning. For the first three weeks or so, the team may not play a match. She knows tennis is as much a mental game as it is physical. Players are on the court by themselves locked in a one-on-one struggle with their opponent. In a close match, two players can be out there playing in front of a large crowd with the outcome of their teams’ fates hanging in the balance. To play under those circumstances takes tremendous focus and concentration. Coach Berl puts her players in game situations in practice and helps her team develop that kind of mental toughness. It’s paid off handsomely. According to the Moultrie Observer, Cara McCalley found herself in just such a situation on May 4 against Valdosta. The match was tied at 2-2 and McCalley, who had lost to her opponent, Shelby Sharp, earlier in the year, won in straight sets to clinch the victory and send Colquitt to the Final Four. Colquitt’s doubles teams have also thrived under Coach Berl’s guidance. In the last few years, her doubles teams have only lost two region matches. Part of the success of both the singles and doubles teams can be contributed to Coach Berl’s belief that the game should be fun. She definitely wants her team to win. To do so, the players have to be tenacious on the court. At the same time, though, she wants the girls to have fun. “You can take the fun out of tennis. The girls who play for me all say the game is fun. It’s not a chore,” she says. Coach Berl also makes sure she takes it slow with the team, particularly in the opening weeks of the season. “They often want to play more matches than I let them, especially early in the season,” she admits. At the same time, her team knows that Coach Berl expects the best. “Success comes through hard work. You can’t just show up and get a trophy. Kids have to understand the dedication it takes to be good,” she says. The girls have bought into their coach’s philosophy, and the Colquitt County recreation program has a strong youth tennis program that churns out a surprising number of very skilled players for a rural community. Coach Berl says that Linda Baxter Moseley, the recreation program’s tennis director for over 50 years, built an excellent feeder system in Colquitt County. “We’ve now got USTA here,” she says. To Coach Berl, teaching her girls the game of tennis is but one small part of her role. “I see myself as a coach trying to teach life lessons to the girls. As a Christian, I want to help them become great tennis players and successful adults,” she says. Last year, when her team stepped on the court for the Elite Eight, Coach Berl handed every player a verse of Scripture she picked out that she felt addressed each athlete individually. That is but one example of her desire to demonstrate to her players that there is much, much more to life than simply playing tennis. When she isn’t coaching, Coach Berl enjoys windsurfing. She also teaches cycling at the YMCA and takes mission trips to Honduras whenever possible. • | |
January 2012
Robert Preston Jr. 
Micki K Photography 
