City tennis tournament gives Arns one last hoorah before being Lone Star bound

QUINCY — Ethan Arns’ next chapter is quickly approaching, but he has one last page to turn before he gets there.

Arns, a Quincy native of 30 years, will move to McKinney, Texas, on June 10, but his next order of business is the Quincy Tennis Association city singles championships, which he has participated in since his freshman year at Quincy Notre Dame.

“Now that I’m done competing in high school and college, (the city tournament) allows me to bring the game out and compete,” Arns said. “Not only that, I’m competing against tennis community members, friends, family members. Win or lose, it’s always fun.”

Arns said playing in the tournament is the only way he could envision spending his final free weekend in Quincy.

“This is the last hoorah,” Arns said. “I’m glad we have the city tournament because it just seems fitting to end it with this. It’s the perfect end to an era, I guess you could say.”

Arns resigned as Quincy University tennis coach in May to take a job as an instructor at the Courts of McKinney Tennis Center, where he will work primarily with high school players.

“It’s a great opportunity to further my career,” Arns said. “Nothing negative here, nothing negative against Quincy University tennis. I’ve really enjoyed my time here coaching all the kids. It was hard to make the decision to leave, but it just gives me an opportunity to go and coach even more players. I just couldn’t pass it up.”

A recent spring break trip with the QU tennis team may have swayed Arns, too.

“I took my team there in spring 2023, played a couple colleges and spent the week there,” Arns said. “We had a good time. I didn’t have expectations at that time, but I really enjoyed it. I went back and visited again, visited some of the clubs and towns and just seemed like a great fit.”

When Arns passed the news along to his peers, he said the reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

“It wasn’t ‘Oh man, that sucks.’ It was ‘Good for you, we’re happy, we’re proud of you,’” Arns said.

While Arns will live some 10 hours from Quincy very shortly, the players he coached will stay near and dear to him and will be just a WhatsApp message away.

“We have a group chat with the boys and a group chat with the girls,” Arns said. “I told them, ‘Hey, let’s not delete this. Let’s message at least once a week if not multiple times.’ We’re going to stay in touch. I don’t have any kids myself, but they’re just like kids to me.”

Arns already made a promise he has to keep or else he will never live it down.

“I already promised the seniors that I recruited that I’ll come back for graduation,” Arns said. “If I don’t come back, they will let me hear it.”

He will also do everything in his power to keep playing in the Quincy city tournament.

“I definitely have to come back and visit from time to time,” Arns said. “And hopefully I can come back and play this tournament every year.”