Tennis Lessons
If you’ve ever taken tennis lessons or music lessons or cooking lessons, you might have entered the process believing it’s about learning how to hit various strokes, play different notes, or nail your favorite recipe. But instead, you discovered that these “lessons” taught you more about life than anything else.
The game of tennis has taught me many enduring traits, and it all started on the Caverna tennis courts in the mid 70’s when I was 7 years old. That’s right, I’m talking about the 1970’s. Yes, if you’re passably good at math, that was half a century, specifically 50 years ago! The Caverna tennis courts, located on the Caverna Independent Schools secondary campus, are nestled between the BH Weaver Football Stadium and the Ralph Dorsey Baseball Stadium with 31-W bordering in close proximity on the backside. Speaking of which, Timmy Woodward once taught me the unique tennis lesson of how to hit a tennis ball from the courts all the way to 31-W and land it directly in front of a passing car with perfect timing! . RIP Timmy:)
Tennis was booming throughout the United States, no more so than at the Caverna Tennis Courts. Shared by the Cave City and Horse Cave communities, they were THE place to be. In the summer evenings, between 5:00 p.m. and dusk, you often had to wait an hour to “get a court.” That was due in large part to the fabled Caverna Tennis League that began under the direction of Carl Davis, Jr., and saw over 70 people a year participating. According to historical records the first singles champions in 1975 were Micki Weaver (Froggett) and Alan Flener, my beloved brother.
The league was filled with dynamic players like baseball crossover Bruce Gentry, and three ladies who seemed like Charlie’s Angels (1970 TV show reference) to me -Temisha Bybee, Prissy Thompson, and Trena Logsdon. The roster was full of superstars that seven year old me couldn’t help but idolize.
For most of that decade, other than some on-court time with my big brother and a nice gal with a powerful forehand named Gaye Manship (who later became my sister-in-law), my time on the courts was during the weekdays of the Caverna Summer tennis program, under the direction of Coach Forrest Wise. Coach Wise patiently taught a large group of eager tennis students during the heat of the day, and I began to fall in love with the sport. In the long summer evenings, I’d go back and watch the adults in the fabled Caverna Tennis League play; it felt like professional tennis to me.
I’d wait by the courts, just outside the fence, asking the same question over and over - “Do you want to hit some with me?” Despite having just finished a full match, and aside from the fact that hitting with a little kid probably wasn’t that fun, many of them said yes - and I’ll never forget how it felt to step onto the court that was graced by all the stars I was in awe of. I’m not talking about John McEnroe or Chris Evert, I’m talking about super server Spike Harmon, Wilson T-2000 racket toting Tommy Logsdon, and big hitters like Sherry Bryant and great athletes like my future brother-in-law, Kerry “Frog” Short.
As the long, hot summers drew to a close, we reached the most exciting part of the Caverna Tennis League - tournament time! I’ve loved brackets and tournaments for my whole life, but the brackets posters that hung on the fences outside those faded green courts in the 70’s are some of the greatest historical documents in my lifetime memory bank. Anticipation grew by the hour as teams and key players advanced through singles, doubles, and mixed doubles tournaments.
I watched in eagerness as the winners advanced through the brackets to the championship promised land. Often it was my brother Alan writing on the posters and advancing in the tournaments. To this day, he’s still planning and competing in successful tennis tournaments. He remains a force on the court, and between you and me, he still hates losing just as much as he did back in the 70s. Without a doubt, he’s also still a hero of mine who has helped rekindle my love for the game of tennis after a lengthy absence.
My tennis journey had many mentors along the way, but one of the greatest was Terry Bunnell. Terry and his running mate Bart Weaver were the stars of the Caverna High School tennis team in 1980, my sixth-grade year at Caverna Elementary. But I saw even more of Terry at the Cave City Church of Christ throughout the week. He also took time to patiently hit tennis with me on many afternoons and I still remember our conditioning session jogging through Cave City during his “running” days. Terry exemplified character and competitiveness to me early on in my tennis and sports journey and he was always appreciative of what tennis had done for him, which is a lesson I’m still learning. Terry eventually took over the directorship of the Caverna tennis league in the early 1980’s and gave me my first spot in the league. More on Terry later, but I wanted to take a moment to thank him for what he did for me early in my tennis and faith journey.
As the 1980’s began, many of the 70’s tennis league stars had moved on to other pursuits, and I finally got to join the league as an actual player for a few summers. I was also a member of the Caverna Colonels varsity tennis team, focused on developing my skills to carve out my role in the roster. By the time I graduated in 1986, I had played in two regional championship matches in doubles, and a singles semifinal match, but had come up one match short three years in a row in my quest to represent the Colonels in the state tennis tournament.
The life lesson for me was that chasing a tennis championship was really hard, and although I came up short of my state tournament dream and had to learn to live with the disappointment and the realization that “you can’t always get what you want”, I was better for having pursued it with abandon. I became more ready and willing to take on future worthy challenges with increased self-efficacy. Tennis taught me that I’m capable of doing hard things well.
In the fall of 1986, I headed to the University of Kentucky as a wide-eyed seventeen-year-old. Although I had wrapped up my tennis career at a competitive level, tennis had more to teach me. In the summer between my freshmen and sophomore year of college, I began conducting the Caverna Tennis Camp. I was responsible for getting sponsors, advertising the event, collecting money, and leading the lessons as the primary instructor of the camp. Over 50 students from the area came to the camp that summer and I realized that I was good at teaching others and could help them learn in ways that made sense; I also realized that teaching others brought me a lot of joy. Based in part on that, at the beginning of my sophomore year at UK, I switched my major from pre-pharmacy to education, realizing I loved both teaching and coaching, which are often one in the same when done well.
I continued to lead the Caverna Tennis Camps every summer until graduation. My future spouse, Candee Moore (Flener), even got drafted into the operation as my assistant. We realized quickly that while we loved each other, we should probably never work together again in our occupations :) Anyway, tennis had once again shown me the way.
Fast forward from 1988 to 2003, fifteen years later. By this time, my spouse Candee and I were blessed with three small children (Zach, Embrey, and Avery) and my tennis rackets went into the bag which went into the hall closet and eventually into the attic. I did take the opportunity to hit balls with my children a few times, but they pursued other activities and I focused on my roles as educator and basketball coach, and eventually, as school administrator. Tennis, while still a love, was no longer a priority for me.
In parallel to the dormancy of my tennis life, it seems that from the beginning of the 2000’s, Caverna and the tennis community in general went through a dormant time as well. Caverna Independent Schools kept producing tennis teams in the 21st century, but the popularity of the sport waned and rosters of the team diminished at the same time that the playing conditions began to suffer as the courts began to show their wear and tear. Sadly, the Caverna Tennis Summer League was a thing of the past also, something talked about fondly from the past like leisure suits or the 8-track tapes but no longer needed or useful.
Full circle time (which many of you may have wished for much sooner in this story), brings us to the third decade of the 21st century, better known as the 2020s. The Caverna Independent School tennis courts had seen much better days and the courts were badly cracked, with faded paint and torn nets. The Caverna High School tennis team itself was taking a hiatus as well, having last fielded a team in 2019 with one student-athlete and going on multiple years without one student taking the court. COVID canceled the 2020 season and momentum to find a coach and players to play on badly damaged courts just couldn’t be found. Around 2023, at the same time I was making the beginnings of a tentative comeback to the game of tennis after a twenty-year hiatus myself, my friend Terry Bunnell reentered the story in regards to the Caverna tennis courts. Still a member of the community, Terry was giving a tennis lesson and decided to do so at his beloved Caverna tennis courts. After pulling up weeds from the cracks in the courts and taping the net together with electrical tape, he began to dream about the courts of the past and what could be an even better version of the Caverna tennis courts in the future.
The court reclamation project is a journey in and of itself, but in short, Terry began to champion his idea as he shared his thoughts within the local, state, regional and national tennis community. But first, Terry had to convince the Caverna Board of Education that it was a worthwhile investment on their part as well. In early 2024, Terry met with Caverna Superintendent Amanda Abell and boldly promised her that he could produce over half of the funding necessary to bring the tennis courts reclamation project to reality. Ms. Abell talked with her board and began the process to get quotes for the project, which Tennis Technology provided at an expected cost of just under $200,000 ($196,848 to be exact). That Spring, Amanda Abell, Caverna Superintendent and grant writer extraordinaire, went to work on behalf of the project and began writing and submitting grants to the USTA.
In the summer of 2024, another important step took place when Caverna committed to a tennis coach who could restart the program and former Caverna tennis player Danielle Carver arrived at the perfect time and the perfect place. Terry helped by offering clinics over the summer and planting the seeds of what tennis could once again bring to the school and community. In the fall, Terry got serious when the project hit some unexpected delays and he started working the phones. If you don’t know Terry as well as I do, I’ll tell you that he can be quite serious and dogged when the situation calls for it with a cause he believes in deeply. For context, I’ll reveal that Terry had stayed active in the tennis world throughout his adult life and eventually came to serve as the president of USTA Kentucky during the years from 2013 to 2014. It was time to call in some favors and call he did, asking and calling and maybe even “badgering” his colleagues and comrades at USTA, USTA Southern, and USTA Kentucky, who ultimately came through with $110,000 (the aforementioned “more than half” of the Caverna tennis court reclamation project). On March 13th, 2025, at an official board meeting of the Caverna Independent Schools, the board officially approved the project and preparation work began. Less than six months later, on September 9th, 2025, on a glorious day on the campus of Caverna Middle School and High School, over 100 people showed up to witness the ribbon cutting and the surprise naming announcement of the courts themselves as the Caverna Independent Schools Terry L Bunnell tennis courts.
Tennis once again showed me what can happen when vision combined with courage comes together to create a huge win. The Caverna Board of Education, with a promise from Terry Bunnell, was courageous in their pursuit of this dream project and as a former Colonel tennis player and Caverna graduate, I couldn’t have been happier to see the unveiling at the ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, September 9th, when the Caverna Independent Schools Terry L Bunnell tennis courts were unveiled. To Terry, Amanda, and Caverna Independent Schools, I want to publicly thank you again for reminding me of that lifetime tennis lesson called perseverance! Bravo to you and may the game of tennis be as impactful for Caverna student-athletes and community members as it has been for me in my lifetime. From the famous sports movie Field of Dreams (Robinson, Universal Pictures, 1989), “If you build it, they will come.” I hope and pray that the building of the Caverna tennis courts will lead your community and the Caverna students of today to take advantage of this fabulous opportunity to grow from a personal version of your own “tennis lessons".
P.S. shoutout to two of my other two tennis lesson instructors in my life, Coach Jeff True and Danny Darnell. Coach True , during his time as the WKU tennis coach, tutored me as a teenager in the early 1980’s in Bowling Green and we reconnected in 2024 when I was able to work with him again, this time at the age of 55! This year, I’ve had the privilege of taking more tennis lessons from a great teacher, Danny Darnell. At the age of 57, I guess I’m practicing the habit that I often promote, that of being a lifelong learner. So for tennis lessons both literal and figurative, thanks to my teachers!
AFTERWORD
Donations to the Caverna Independent Schools Terry L Bunnell Tennis Courts project
As a proud alumnus of the Caverna Independent Schools, my blood runs PURPLE and one of the greatest additions to the courts that had actually never been done in Caverna history is the fact the courts themselves are painted PURPLE with green surrounding them. Amanda Abell said that PURPLE for the courts was a "non-negotiable" in her mind and Terry said it was the best “add-on cost” of $1,315 dollars he’s ever spent on a project. I couldn’t agree more. For all the lessons tennis has taught me in life with the special power of this place for me, I’m gladly writing my own check for $1,315 to match the amount and “ Paint Them Purple”! Go Big C!
**If you would like to join me to “Paint Them Purple”, you can make a tax-deductible donation of any amount to the Community Foundation of West Kentucky (for checks, simply write CAVERNA TENNIS COURTS in the memo) and mail it to:
Terry Bunnell
343 Winners Circle
Glasgow, KY, 42141
If you are coming to the Caverna 75th year celebration on October 24th or 25th, 2025, there will also be an opportunity to donate at the celebration as well.
***If this article sparked something in you for another project near and dear to your own heart, Caverna Independent Schools will gladly entertain the next “Bunnell Big Idea” as well.
Feel free to reach out to Caverna Independent Superintendent Amanda Abell at amanda.abell@caverna.kyschools.us with your thoughts and ideas.
Go Big C!
Bart Flener
Proud Caverna Graduate
Class of 1986
Sibling to Alan (1976), Denise (1974), and Lisa (1972)
Brother-in law to Gaye (Manship) Flener (1977) Kerry Short (1972) and Jackie Minor (1969)
Son-in law to David Moore (1961) and Donna Moore (1961)
Son to Lonus Flener (Caverna Board of Education member in the 70’s) and Jean (legendary Caverna Colonels fan)