Sequim Gazette staff

The muffled racket you may have heard last week?

Tennis rackets. Dozens of them.

Bill and Don Thomas, in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, hosted another of their annual weeklong youth tennis camps.

About 115 tennis camp students, from under age 5 to teens, learned all about the sport, with help from several Sequim High School players.

“We try to group them as to their abilities,” Don Thomas says.

The tennis veteran grins as his brother Bill volleys ball after ball at a kind of scrimmage Friday, just before the mass of youths broke away for a camp-ending barbecue.

From standard drills to specially concocted games, the pros aimed to give the area youths an idea that tennis is not only fun but also can be played at any age.

“It’s a sport for life,” says Don Thomas, a U.S. Tennis Association professional.

He brought the camp to Sequim in 2008. That first year, with his brother Bill, also a USTA pro, Thomas saw 47 campers. Last year saw 90 campers show and the number grew by about 25 more campers this summer.