It started in West Virginia with a simple question: “Why not try?”

Before coming to the United States I had only played badminton. High school left little time for sports, and tennis was completely foreign to me.

When I arrived in that small West Virginia town, I wasn’t sure of myself. My host family changed that. They smiled and said, “Zi, why not try the tennis team?” I had no experience at all, but something about the way they asked moved me. So I joined the North Marion tennis team.

I couldn’t wait for practice. The scheduled time never felt like enough. Students were supposed to finish at 4:00 PM, but I stayed late every day. Coach Mason still remembers that first week, when we often practiced until it was too dark to see the ball, my host mom waiting by the court so we could go home for dinner. Soon the seniors started staying late too. The coach said my passion “infected everyone.” Fighting and improving alongside everyone made me feel like I belonged. The team went from 0-15 to 10-7.

Riding the yellow school bus to away games was fun. As the bus wound through the hills, Country Roads would often play in my ears - “Take me home, country roads…” I’ve forgotten the scores by now. What I remember: the high-fives with my doubles partner Sam (we went 6-1), the cheers from my teammates, my host family rooting for me from the sidelines.

The local newspaper wrote about me as someone who “actively integrated into and influenced the team.”

My host mom told the reporter I “studied harder than the local students,” and joked that she worried tennis might make me slack off. Then she said something I still think about: “We might not host another exchange student, because we would inevitably compare them to Zi, and that wouldn’t be fair.” That’s when I understood what tennis had given me: friendship, and the acceptance of a whole town.

I left in June. But even now, the moment I hear the intro to Country Roads, it all comes back - the hills of West Virginia, the yellow school bus, my younger self running on the court, my host family smiling. It wasn’t my hometown, but it gave me a memory that felt just like home. And it all started with “Why not try?”

This is the very first behind-the-scenes story of Matcha Tennis.