By Reina Kempt

NATCHEZ — Henry Harris has been coaching tennis for more than 30 years, helping 380 athletes get to colleges and universities. His latest prodigies include Valencia Bonds, Rashaad Smith, Jaylan Grennell and Kirdis Clark who make up the tennis team at Natchez High School. These four athletes helped lead NHS to the state tournament on May 14.

Two of them, Grennell and Clark, are just eighth graders at Morgantown Middle School. They have been training with Harris since elementary school, and Harris deemed them ready for the next level.

“(Harris) called me and told me that I was better than most of the kids who tried out, so he put me with the older kids,” Grennell said.

And ready they were as they won the district championship against a Brandon High team they lost to two times before, and headed to the state tournament as doubles partners.

A district championship also came for the mixed doubles partners Smith and Bonds, both seniors at NHS.

Smith started training with Harris at age 12. His parents played tennis so it was only right that he’d follow in their footsteps.

Smith said he definitely didn’t see himself being paired with Bonds at the beginning of the season.

“I was training to play singles but ended up playing in the mixed doubles with Valencia,” Smith said.

Bonds has been training with Harris since she was seven years old, and she said playing mixed doubles against boys was a completely new challenge for her.

“It was different playing against somebody who is much stronger than you are,” she said. “Boys tend to be stronger than girls. Having a boy hit the ball toward me was different.”

Smith was a big part of helping her overcome the challenge.

“We were good with each other because we helped with each other’s weaknesses,” Bonds said. “I was better with the backhand and he was better with forehand. Whatever skills one didn’t have the other did.”

Before heading to state, Clark and Grennell gained a lot of confidence with their underdog victory to Brandon High.

But all confidence was lost when they went head to head with Ocean Springs High School.

Harris said the three-time defending champions were bred to play tennis; their training methods were a lot more intense.

“(These were) two little girls that play tennis year around where our kids don’t play tennis year around,” Harris said. “They came from a tennis background so their whole lives are all tennis.”

The difference showed as Ocean Springs ousted Natchez 1-6 in the first set and 0-6 in the second in the first round of the state tournament.

Bonds and Smith had the same outcome just against a different team. They went up against Gulfport High only to lose 1-6 in the first set and 3-6 in the second.

Bonds said they played well in the second set but by the time they adapted to the game, it was too late.

Bonds had an incredible comeback season after missing all of last year due to a pelvic injury caused by a car crash.

Now with the season over for Smith and Bonds, they’re both focusing on graduating from NHS on May 31.

Smith will be attending Alcorn State in the fall with a full band scholarship. He said he will major in Networking and Information Technology.

Bonds said she is still deciding on what school she wants to attend but there is a possibility she may try to walk on to a tennis team. She said she will major in Pharmacy.

As for the young Grennell and Clark, they are already training for next year. They learned their lesson from Ocean Springs that they must practice year around if they want to get better.

“We know that we need to work harder on things,” she said. “We need to practice even more and just have fun.”