Putting his heart into it

Totherow’s cardio tennis program making a difference with local players

By Mike Pruitt
For East Alabama Sports Today

The Faith boys and Oxford girls recently won the Red Wilder Tennis Tournament that’s the unofficial county high school tennis championship. Even though they play for different schools, they do have one thing in common:

Jack Totherow.

Totherow has a passion for the game that exceeds most. Not only is he a good player, but he’s also a good tennis trainer, as demonstrated by the quality of players he’s worked with, including several from the championship teams.

On Saturday mornings, he can be found at the Golden Springs tennis courts conducting his Cardio Tennis program that has influenced the success of several local players.

Cardio Tennis is a high-energy fitness activity that combines the best features of the sport with cardiovascular exercise delivering the ultimate, full-body, calorie-burning aerobic workout for players of all skill levels.

A typical class usually consists of six to eight players per court, although Totherow and associate Sara Kathryn Searle, a former Faith Christian and Covenant College player, can accommodate as many as 12 per court.

“A couple of years ago, I saw the ladies tennis group that plays on Saturday morning at Golden Springs and noticed how consistent and accurate they hit the tennis ball,” Totherow said. “I thought this would be a good opportunity for a couple of my students to get some good match playing experience.

“A couple of the ladies began talking about Cardio Tennis and asked if I would start a class. I didn’t know anything about running a group cardio tennis session so I searched on line about training. It so happened there was a training course in Atlanta the following month … so I signed up and here we are.”

Among the students he introduced to the class are Oxford’s Abbie White and JCA’s Cassidy Giles.

Totherow, a 65-year-old Vietnam vet who once held a top 10 ranking, has been working with White since 2012, when the then-12-year-old was coming back from a leg injury that required six surgeries and a month-long hospital stay. During the recovery, Totherow worked on White’s forehand and backhand while guarding against reinjury.

The following spring, as an eighth-grader, she played No. 2 doubles at Oxford with Danielle Bolton. The last two years she and Bolton have played No. 1. Neither lost a match in the Red Wilder this year.

Oxford girls coach Kim Bolton has known Totherow for several years, but this is the first year he has formally worked with her team. He visits several times a week conducting drills and the cardio program. The Yellow Jackets are currently 8-1 and No. 2 in their Class 6A section.

“He’s a positive influence,” Bolton said. “The girls relate to him and he relates to them. It’s a lot of fun and he tries to make it fun while also working out and learning. We’ve had a good year this year and I think when he comes out it just adds to them and they want to do what he wants him to do.”

Totherow’s sphere of influence isn’t limited to Oxford. This past summer, he coached three teams of players from Oxford and Faith Christian in a four-team league in Jacksonville and one of them won it. That team included White, Blake Anderson, Ashleigh Goodwin, Thomas Roberts, Holly Hamlin and Hunter Simpson.

Totherow has been working with Giles since last February and in that time the player’s winning percentage has improved dramatically.

“I trained Abbie and Cassidy together at times and this started a great friendship between the two as well as great competition,” Totherow said. “When they play a singles match, if other people are present, they usually stop to watch the awesome display of shots these two make.”

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