Design by Jackson Sharman
Jonathan Molner worked his way on to the W&L tennis team.
Photo by Andrew Arnold
Jonathan Molner is a Man of Many Talents By Andrew Arnold
T
he Washington and Lee Men’s Tennis Team has had only 10 walk-ons in David Detwiler’s 22 years as head coach. It wasn’t surprising that Jonathan Molner was turned away when he asked an assistant coach about trying out for the team shortly after he was accepted to W&L. But after a few more emails and a lot of lobbying by Molner’s high school coaches, Detwiler and his staff told the team captains to practice with him. They would decide whether Molner had what it took to make the team.
Molner is a tenor in University Singers. Photo by Jackson Sharman
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work with coaches, who wanted to change his swing. Molner lacked power on his shots, and he needed to reconstruct his forehand. He kept losing to other players in practice because it took time for him to change the way he played. “Starting out tennis his freshman year, he wasn’t hitting the ball too well,” said Evan Brady, a junior starter. “Coach didn’t really expect too much of him.”
Molner kept working and wondering if he was ever going to master the new swing. In January 2021, he got his answer. He finally put To get ready, Molner practiced it all together and beat a former every day over the summer with high school teammate, Danny a Division-I tennis player. The Nelson, who plays on the tennis captains decided in early fall that team at Centre College in Danville, Molner played well enough to get Kentucky. Molner and Nelson his shot. But he joined the team often played each other, but in the last spot on the roster. The Nelson usually won. This time, other players didn’t want to practice Molner crushed Nelson with the with him because he was the improvements in his forehand that lowest-ranked member of the team. he’d been working on for months. He’d practice by himself hitting He won the match that day, two sets balls shot out of a machine. Or he’d to zero, each set 6-2.