History-Making 1975 Glendale Girls’ Tennis Team Inducted into HOF

The 1975 Glendale High School girls’ tennis team — which went a sparkling 16-0 en route to capturing the first Missouri State High School Activities Association girls’ tennis state championship in history — recently earned induction into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Coach Linda Sisco and her 15-player roster was enshrined during an April 20 ceremony at Springfield’s Oasis Convention Center. Sisco and a remarkable 11 players made the trek to Springfield from across the country to attend the ceremony, which doubled as a reunion for the history-making squad.

“It’s well deserved for this team,” Sisco said. “They were a wonderful, responsive, hard-working and cohesive team. They really enjoyed each other. One of the things almost all of them have said — since we’re all on email now — is they just had fun. They remember the memories of being with each other. They were just excellent. As a matter of fact, they didn’t get the kind of publicity back then as they’re getting now.”

The passage of Title IX in 1972 opened the doorway for the formation of Glendale’s girls’ tennis team, which completed its first season in 1974. After a 12-1 record that year and a first-place finish in districts, the Lady Falcons took it up a notch the following year.

During Glendale’s undefeated march to a state title, the Lady Falcons claimed first in the Southwest Missouri State University relays. In addition to the state team championship, Claire Dwyer and Meg Owens won the state doubles title while Mary Palcheff and Cathleen Dwyer collected a fourth-place finish in doubles.

“We were just ecstatic,” Sisco said. “It was wonderful. It was hard to believe. They worked really hard. They did the strategies I asked for. It was a fulfillment of those young people’s lives where they committed, and they performed. It was something that carries through all these years as wonderful memories. I’m truly blessed by it.”

With the girls’ tennis season taking place at the beginning of the school year in the fall, Sisco believes Glendale’s state championship was the first one for any girls’ sports team in MSHSAA history. The Lady Falcons continued their standout run in 1976, too, producing a 12-1 record, first-place finishes in the Ozark Conference and districts as well as placing third at state.

And in 1977 — the final year of Sisco’s four-season coaching career at Glendale — the Lady Falcons steamrolled to a 13-0 record, winning the SMSU relays, the Ozark Conference and districts. Glendale concluded its season by placing fourth at state. During the dominant four-year stretch, Glendale dropped only two of its 55 inter-school matches.

“I just believe the greatest investment you will ever make — the greatest investment at least I have ever made — is in young people’s lives,” Sisco said. “I am so grateful for this. It was an honor. I felt like I was at the right time, right place, to be blessed by them.”

Sisco was a multi-sport athlete growing up who began teaching health and PE at Glendale High School in 1969 in her 20s. When the school approached her about forming the girls’ tennis team from scratch, Sisco got to work. She started by speaking with local teaching professional Gerald Perry, who showed Sisco drills to run at practice.

Alongside her younger brother, Sisco attended a tennis clinic in California the summer before her first season to get prepped. She spread the word about the new team to prospective players at Glendale, with a strong contingent jumping in for the inaugural season.

Sisco credited Glendale’s administration and parents for their support. With no buses, Sisco used her car and parents drove kids to matches all around Missouri. Even Glendale parents who didn’t have a child on the team got involved and supported the Lady Falcons. After the squad snagged its state title, the school threw a big party complete with a cake when the team arrived back in Springfield.

“The kids were real determined,” Sisco said. “I practiced every day. Even if it was cold or rainy, we went inside and worked on ball drills in the gym. It was a combined effort with these kids. It wasn’t just me. I always heard and still feel a lot of championships are made at practice. Because they would challenge each other every week on the ladder, it helped me keep placement for these girls.”

Sisco recalled buying and bringing apples to practice sessions for her players, who proceeded to jokingly fling the apple cores at each other. Sisco took a calculated risk by playing her top-ranked girls against the harder teams while playing her lower-seeded athletes against weaker opponents.

“What we won — when you see that 16-0 — was won by everyone,” Sisco said. “I just couldn’t see putting these really strong players against weak teams. But I made sure those kids supported. All the team members had to be at every game to support and encourage. It was really fun. I just remember the laughter on the court most of the time.”

Sisco — who ironically lives in Glendale, Arizona while also having a condo in Springfield — was excited to hear her former players are in good health and doing well across the board. She joked the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame should have inducted the team “when we were young and beautiful.”

The team hung out and reminisced during a reception in Springfield after the Hall of Fame ceremony and ate dinner together that evening. It had been about 45 years since Sisco had last seen her group of history-setting and now Hall-of-Fame players.

“It was a special group of girls who had a lot of determination and grit,” Sisco said. “They had good endurance and wanted to play to win for all of us. We loved it. I remember those years so vividly. Even though we’re now going into the Hall of Fame, those kids have been on my hall for many years.”

Glendale High School’s 1975 girls’ tennis roster:

Kelly Ragan Anerud

Tammy Chalendar Corbin

Claire Dwyer Nelson

Cheryl Graham

Melinda Kastner

Jennifer Lorenc

Carol Penninger Minton

Kim Morris Wood

Kathy Banks Robertson

Cathleen Dwyer Scholl

Elizabeth Chaney Strickland

Pam Thompson

Meg Owens Townsend

Jeanne Warren Stanchik

Mary Palcheff Wiemer