Senior Ace Savors Successful Spring Break
BVU No. 1 singles player praises teammates up and down the roster after 3-0 trip.
Buena Vista University senior Danny Kramer enjoyed the trip back from spring break this year, perhaps more than any other. The reason: BVU went 3-0 in competition on beautiful Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
“Four freshmen came up huge for us,” says Kramer, who has played the No. 1 singles spot for BVU the past two seasons. “You want a balanced team and that’s what Coach (Brett) Groen has put together. The players up and down our roster push each other in practice. Having more competition each day makes all of us better.”
Kramer went 2-1 in singles on the trip, and 1-2 in doubles play.
Just having a trip would mean a victory of sorts for a four-year participant who missed out on the last two spring break treks to the Atlantic Coast. Last year’s effort was scrubbed due to COVID-19. The 2020 event was canceled on the eve of BVU’s departure. Still, with his family already having room reservations, the Kramers drove east and enjoyed their stay on the beach—and the tennis court—while observing early mitigation protocols.
“We had plans to go anyway, so I went with my family,” Kramer says. “We had room, so we also had Aaron Mumm join us because that was going to be his last spring break trip for tennis.”
Mumm, a 2021 BVU graduate, spent last spring serving as a student-teacher. He’s now an educator serving the Boyer Valley Community School District.
Kramer, a business major with concentrations in sport business and marketing, graduates this spring and has accepted a job at Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines, serving as a tennis instructor for the summer, building on a position he’s enjoyed the past three summers. He’ll enter the business world in the fall.
“Coming here as a freshman, I was shy and afraid to do any public speaking,” says Kramer, a 2018 graduate of Des Moines Roosevelt High School. “As a business student at BVU, you’re asked to make many presentations, so you get accustomed to speaking in front of people. My job as a tennis coach in working with players from age 3 to around age 70 has also forced me, in a good way, to become a much better communicator. Not only has coaching improved my knowledge about tennis, it has helped me work with and relate to people of all ages.”
Kramer would one day like to own a facility that concentrates on recreational and health activities. His experience as a college student-athlete continues to prepare him for that goal.
“I’ve learned a lot in my time at BVU, in tennis and in class,” he says. “Because of its size, BVU does a great job of creating those close relationships students can have with their professors. Having a class with Dr. Scott Anderson (Professor of Marketing, Director of Business Internships) and then being able to approach him or people like Dan Anderson (Siebens School of Business Academic Liasion) at any time has been very helpful.”
In addition to his work with teammates on the tennis team, Kramer has participated in BVU’s Accounting and Business Association and has served as social media coordinator for the BVU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
“I’ve also tried to help recruit for our team by emailing our prospective students and sharing with them thoughts about our business program and the tennis team,” he says.
The work he and Groen, and others, have done must be working. Kramer says the team, which is 6-5 on the season, took 13 Beavers to Hilton Head in March. That depth not only helped earn BVU men’s tennis an undefeated slate, it made the experience all the more enjoyable.
“It’s great having several teammates there to cheer you on,” Kramer says. “I’ll remember that.”