Douglas High girls tennis
Grand Prix Champion Joscelyn Turner (center), with the second and third place finishers.
Courtesy
Submitted by Rod Smith and Molly Turner
Saturday, October 1, 2022
Joscelyn Turner won the Sierra Junior Tennis Association Grand Prix tournament last weekend. The Douglas High player defeated other Reno area tennis players in her first official tournament.
Former Douglas High coach Rod Smith has worked with Turner the past five months.
“Although Joscelyn has only recently started taking formal lessons, she has already established herself as a quick learner,” said Smith. “When I started working with Joscelyn, I thought her primary goal was to play competitively with the better players in the league. She has achieved that and much more, certainly a force to be reckoned with.”
This past summer Turner expressed interest playing tennis beyond high school. Smith contacted Kurt Richter, former Nevada Wolf Pack head coach, who also played on the pro circuit, to assess her ceiling in the sport.
“When Rod contacted me and said he had a player with potential I came to Minden and saw that, yes, Joscelyn did have the ability to be an elite athlete. She is learning at a very accelerated pace, is a sponge with coaching and looks more comfortable on the court than girls I’ve seen who’ve competed for a long time,” said Richter. “Joscelyn’s been putting in the work and we saw the fruit of our labors with her win at her first tournament this past weekend.”
