Just a Matter
Of Doing It

MOTIVATION AT ITS BEST

By Jason Steinberg

The 4.0 Men’s team from Jonesboro, Ark. is at Sectionals for the second straight year and has won their state championship four out of the last five years. The team brings this experience and a little motivation from their captain into Mobile with the purpose of advancing to Nationals in Tucson, Ariz.

This is Mark Gibson’s first year on the team, but the experience the rest of the team has gained the past few years helps him as well. Gibson says that getting through States and bringing the team back to Sectionals has brought them closer together as a team. Team members are able to motivate one another and their experience in winning has allowed the veterans to give guidance to the new guys on how to play well at Sectionals.

Gibson also discussed the role USTA tennis can play in peoples’ everyday lives. “It helps people build character, confidence and have fun.” Gibson enjoys the fact that playing on a team has been a good opportunity to create friends and have some fun.

Captain Daniel Milnes decided at the beginning of the season that he was going to offer his team some motivation toward getting back to Sectionals this year. Milnes created a new team name of “JAMODI” but would only tell his team what it stood for after they were successful at winning their state championship again. Gibson said that the ploy was successful at motivating everyone. “We were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to win the championship. It gave us one more goal to work towards.”

Now that they have won the state championship and are here at Sectionals, the team now knows exactly what “JAMODI” stands for “Just A Matter Of Doing It.” When asked if he thought the captain would have told them even if they had lost, Gibson said, “I’m sure we would have gotten it out of him somehow.” But they took care of business and now know what it means. As far as getting qualifying for Nationals, it is just a matter of doing it!