This weekend was the annual Ojai Tennis Tournament. College teams across California play one another and Thacher sophomores “ballbirl” or help out in other ways for the tournament. Fetching balls and watching some edge-of-your-seat tennis are traditions as old as time and a rite of passage for sophomores.  Other than being a longstanding ritual, it’s another opportunity for class bonding. While, we’ve had nearly two years to know one another, it’s always great when we all of us can get together for one purpose. Even for those of us who don’t know about or play tennis, which is most, we learn a bit and the larger purpose is to give back to the community and enjoy ourselves. After an hour of training, all of us had worked up to the title of ‘professional ballbirl’ earlier in the week and I was eager to see what the main event would be like. I had as much fun ballbirling as I did hanging around with the others in between matches. Quite the experience and a weekend every freshman can look forward to.