For the love of the game

Sheila Johnson didn’t know what to expect as she sat at a picnic table and waited for her teammates to arrive for the first day of Grand Canyon University tennis practice.

At 60 years old, Johnson seemed out of place as her teenage teammates began to trickle into Paseo Racquet Center in Glendale.

“I didn’t know if the coach had told them about me or not,” Johnson recalled. “Pretty soon one of the girls approached me and asked if I wanted to hit some balls.

“That got everything off to a smooth start.”

Johnson never intended to become the nation’s oldest active collegiate tennis player when she retired as a Glendale High School math teacher.

She just got caught in a perfect storm of events when she decided to take tennis lessons from Greg Prudhomme at Paseo Racquet Center.

“I took five lessons from Greg last May before he took the head coaching job of the girls program at Grand Canyon,” said Johnson, a Peoria resident. “His parents run the Paseo facility and I used to tease them that I still had a year left of college eligibility.”

Johnson had been a top amateur in Iowa and played three years of college tennis at Arizona State in the mid-1960s.

However, she left the ASU squad prior to her senior season.

Johnson met her future husband at ASU, completed a master’s degree in secondary education and settled into a life as the mother of one child and a math teacher at Glendale High School.

“Five years after I left ASU, pro tennis for women became more popular,” Johnson said. “I never considered it as a career at the time and I moved on with my life.”

Johnson began playing more tennis after her retirement when her family moved from Maryvale to Peoria in 2001.

She now plays up to six times each week and is ranked third in singles and second in doubles in the United States Tennis Association’s 60s Division.

“Sheila is a more accomplished player than a lot of our players are ever going to face during their college careers,” Prudhomme said. “As a player, Sheila has a good blend between old-school styles and the way modern-day women play tennis.”

Prudhomme had plenty of challenges awaiting him when he took the job at Grand Canyon.

The coach took over a program that hadn’t won a match against a Division 2 school in two years and had no players after all the girls quit the program following the season.

“It was like a scene out of “The Replacements” or something,” Prudhomme told SI.com of his recruiting efforts to find new players. “I was putting together a team of misfits. I spent more time on the phone and e-mailing than anytime in my life put together.”

Prudhomme’s efforts paid off when he put together a squad prior to the start of the season.

Or so he thought.

That’s when a Yuma girl backed out of a scholarship offer at the last minute and Prudhomme suddenly had a vacant roster spot with no player to fill the position.

Prudhomme then remembered a 60-year-old retiree who had a year left of college eligibility.

Johnson became a full-time student as well as full-time tennis player when she accepted the scholarship offer.

She takes one class online and attends three others weekdays at the Phoenix university. Typically, she plays tennis with her fellow seniors in the morning and attends practice with her college teammates in the afternoon.

“Among my age group, I’m considered a hard hitter,” Johnson said. “But let me tell you, those young girls hit the ball hard.”

Johnson has fared well in her return to collegiate tennis.

She has compiled a team-best 4-4 record in singles play and is 3-4 in doubles.

One of her frequent doubles partners is Stephanie Haldeman, a 2007 Centennial High graduate who helped the Coyotes to the state semifinals in her junior year.

“We have four freshmen starting and I think Sheila has had a calming influence on them,” said Prudhomme, who has led his team to a 2-4 record this season. “She always plays on an even keel and she’s willing to change tactics during the course of a match.

“I think she’s inspired a lot of our girls with her willingness to get out of her comfort zone and return to college tennis.”

Johnson has frequently drawn stares at matches when the opposition looks across the net at their senior opponent.

“There’s a lot of smirks and some think it’s funny,” Johnson said of the reception from some tennis foes. “They think I can’t play and then they get surprised.”

Johnson said her years spent as a teacher have helped bridge the generation gap with her teammates.

“I spent a lot of years with students only a few years younger than my teammates,” Johnson said. “That hasn’t been a hard adjustment.”

Johnson will hit the road with her teammates this weekend when Grand Canyon heads to Silver City, N.M., for matches against Western New Mexico, Sul Ross and Eastern Arizona.

“It’s a five-hour van ride and I’m in charge of snacks,” Johnson said. “All the girls will have their headphones on listening to music.

“I’ll be up front talking to the coach.”