Joel and Camden battled through districts with some hard-fought matches against Central Catholic and ended up taking second to their buddies, Ty and Hayden, who teamed up at first doubles for districts and state. Joel took the final loss pretty hard, but he and Camden had lots to be proud of. They had a great season.
At state they won the first match against Glencoe, and then lost the second to a team of brothers from Grant, despite playing well and playing hard. Barlow ended up taking 6th in state overall, the best finish they've ever had. It was an amazing four years of high school tennis with Coach Pate. Really, though, it was much longer than that, as our kids have been coached by him since early elementary school with camps and tennis academy.
It was after state tennis was all over, and I was sitting in the quiet of the early morning the next day that I finally got emotional. I was a mess off and on all throughout Kari's senior year. She was the first one to go, and she was terrified and emotional about going away to college. But I have not been sad about Joel graduating this year. He's had such an amazing senior year, so much fun, and is so excited to go to CBU. He's ready, and I'm happy for him. But the reality of it all being over finally set in, and I sat and had a good cry over the "lasts" for the first time all year. He's going to have a blast away at college, but I'm going to miss having him home, miss watching him play tennis, miss having his friends around. Hopefully, I got the big tears done and out of the way and can just enjoy celebrating Joel these last couple weeks of school!
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