Locker Room talk with Kourtnee Vestal

Editor’s note: Locker Room talk is a piece where every week the Nevada Daily Mail will interview a high school athlete and ask them a series of questions. This week's guest is Nevada High School senior Kourtnee Vestal.

Who is your hero?

Definitely my mom. She loves all of us kids and she puts us before herself all the time. I get my stubbornness from her, so I have to thank her for that.

Above: Kourtnee Vestal (middle) alongside her mom and dad during the Senior Night girls tennis match last September.

Photo by Kaleb Vestal | Daily Mail

Who is your favorite teammate, regardless of what sport they play?

Halley Elkinton. She’s been my doubles partner in tennis as well as one of my best friends on and off the court. We always have so much fun when we are around each other. We recently just went on a cruise together for our senior trip, and it was a lot of fun.

__What is your favorite sport to compete in, and what is

your favorite sport to watch either at home or on your phone?__

Tennis to compete in. I’ve never dreaded going to practice or going into a match. Everytime I stepped foot on the court, I knew we were one big happy family. But I’d have to say College Gymnastics is my favorite sport to watch on TV. I’m a huge gymnastics fan, and I love this time of year when the NCAA Championships are going on.

Why not Olympic Gymnastics? What’s the difference?

Well the Olympic Gymnastics only happens every four years, so College is just on more, and I enjoy watching it.

Let's say Nevada High School is looking to add a sport to their athletic calendar that they do not currently have. Nevada High School Athletic Director David Hawks and Nevada R-5 Superintendent Tyson Beshore come up to you and ask what sport they should add. What sport are you choosing?

I’d love for Nevada to have a soccer team. If we had one, you’d see me on the field for sure. A lot of schools around us have it and we play it in P.E. all the time. I feel like I would be good at it, so I’d love for them to have a soccer team. I feel like a lot of girls in our school would play it too.

__What advice would you give someone who is going through a

rough time?__

I’d remind them that tomorrow is never promised, so live your best life to the fullest. In 20 years, people aren’t going to remember every wrong thing you did in high school, so live your life and have fun.

What are some of your hobbies that don't include sports?

I’m not very musically inclined or artistically inclined, so I’d have to say making Tik Toks. Tik Tok gives everybody a chance to express themselves in a different way, and you get to see a more true side to people as well. I love making videos on Tik Tok. I do go hang out with my friends at Sonic every weekend, but I’m always on Tik Tok.

What motivates you to work hard on the field?

Something that really hit me this year as a senior was knowing that this was my final year to play girls tennis for Nevada. I had so much fun all four years of playing and I wanted to end this year being proud of myself. So knowing it was my final year, I went to summer camps, private lessons, and spent extra time after practices to get more reps in, so I could be satisfied with myself. My teammates were also my motivation to work hard, because we all see each other improve as the year goes on. There wasn’t ever a time we were mad or disappointed because we all knew we were getting better.

What coach in your athletic career do you feel like has helped you out the most?

Outside of school, I’d say Jody Long. She was my gymnastics coach when I competed when I was younger, and she basically raised us at the gym when we were over there all the time. For high school, I'd say Katie Alexander and Lex Blue. The Lady Tiger tennis team had three different head coaches in four years, so Coach Alexander and Coach Blue really provided consistency and showed that they really cared how we played.

What is your biggest fear?

I had trouble with this one and even had to ask mom about this. It’s not really a big fear, but I do not like butterflies. They are basically just spiders with wings. I also used to be afraid of worms too, so butterflies and worms.

So I wanted to throw in another question just because you are my younger sister who is also an athlete. I went here, our sister Kylee went here, and you’re going to be the last Vestal kid to go to Nevada High School, and we were all involved in something here in one way or another. So being the youngest sibling to go to high school here and being a senior, what is that like? There are numerous kids here that had older siblings go to school here as well, so what has your own personal experience been with that?

A lot of coaches call me Vestal, since you were known as that too with coaches. A lot of teachers do call me Kylee, especially at the beginning of the year, since we are so close in age and she just graduated last year. I feel like teachers assume that you are going to have the same type of personality as your older sibling, and they find out that you are different from them.

Last time on Locker Room Talk, Kim Colbert from Sheldon High School Track and Field wanted me to ask what was the biggest thing you had to overcome to compete in tennis?

One of the toughest things I had to learn was switching between playing doubles matches and singles matches, just because you're relying on someone in one match, and then you're flying solo in the other match. You had to learn from your mistakes, because no one else can fix that. I’m pretty stubborn as it is, so when someone tells me to fix something, I immediately want to just brush it off, but you have to learn to be coachable.

Next week on Locker Room talk, it will be Nevada High School senior baseball player Kennedy D'Elia. Do you have a question for him?

Ask him what his pre game pump up song is?