B 
oth the parents standing behind the Prairie Dunes junior tennis players featured here and our 
tennis professionals agree on this: tennis needs to be served up to kids with a lot of fun and 
made a natural part of their athletic and social development. If they like it enough to stick with it 
to learn all the fundamentals, we’re giving them a lifetime sport. If they love it, the conversation changes. 
One junior tennis player dad who cares a lot, personally and professionally, about how tennis sets up 
for families and players here is Dale Snell, Prairie Dunes board member and outgoing board president. 
“Casual playing, playing for fun, is really important. We want to see anyone who has an interest out 
there having fun, hitting with other members who are adults, maybe even playing laid-back sets or 
matches. 
“If you get adults playing, kids will follow. A lot of people see it the other 
way around, but I believe it needs to be part of the household. At the youth 
level, kids need casual play for its entertainment and lifestyle value. Kids’ 
tennis clinics are a great way to introduce them. A few kids will come 
out and find they want to play for real, to try to play competitively.”
Turns out, Dale and Abbey Snell’s son Aiden is one of the kids who, at 13, wants to 
play for real. Dale, who started playing at age 8 and competed through high school, 
winning a 5A Doubles State Championship and 5A Team Tennis State Championship 
for McPherson, knows what he sees in Aiden: a player who likes to have something 
physically demanding and challenging and loves that about tennis. Will his 
younger brother, Camden, 11, find the same answer in tennis? Time 
will tell.
“As a family, we’ve introduced the boys to basketball, golf, tennis, 
cross country and baseball, and helped them narrow their focus, 
for a few years, to one sport per season. Aiden’s running cross 
country now, three to six miles every afternoon, four times a 
week; he’ll play basketball this winter and tennis next spring.” 
Aiden has had four Prairie Dunes coaches since he turned 5. 
Dale says Colin’s work to solidify the PD tennis program was a 
major factor in Aiden deciding to play tennis in the spring over golf and baseball. “Aiden and Colin have set goals for Aiden’s 
youth tennis career together, and he is taking one or two lessons this fall around his cross country practice schedule. Colin 
and Addi provide Aiden with a great combination of hitting styles and skill development coaching, so hitting with each of them 
once a week in the tennis offseason is a great situation for him.”
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