Tennis players have a saying: \u201cYou only live once, but you get to serve twice.\u201d That\u2019s good news for Bemidji\u2019s Dan Moen, who spent half a lifetime before finally stepping onto a tennis court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was probably about 42 at the time because my oldest daughter wanted to play in eighth grade,\u201d Moen recalled. \u201cSo we ended up getting a couple of rackets, and that\u2019s when I picked it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now at the age of 85, Dan plays competitively. This past fall, he took home a silver medal in the singles 85-90 age group at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted that gold one,\u201d he said with a grin. \u201cBut I\u2019m planning on that next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jokes aside, Dan\u2019s aware of how stiff the competition can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun, and it\u2019s surprising how good some older people are,\u201d he continued. \u201cAs long as you can move, that\u2019s a big part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The apple didn\u2019t fall far from the tree in the Moen family. Dan\u2019s 61-year-old son Rich won a gold medal at same tournament in the 60-64 age group. But even he\u2019s not sure if he\u2019ll pick up a racket when he reaches his father\u2019s age.<\/p>\n
\u201cGosh, I don\u2019t know, he\u2019s set the bar pretty high,\u201d admitted Rich. \u201cIt was a couple of years ago, [he] went water skiing out at my sister\u2019s. \u2018God,\u2019 I thought, \u2018he\u2019s setting the bar pretty high for the rest of us.’\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Rich is just enjoying the time he\u2019s spending with his dad.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the best things is I\u2019ve been playing with my dad and all his friends that he\u2019s played with,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s competitive, everybody\u2019s competitive. But yet, you can sit and chuckle and snerk a little bit when somebody makes a goofy shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
And although Dan\u2019s fellow players respect him as their elder, he\u2019s not immune to being teased, either.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to live with him,\u201d joked friend Chuck Nordquist. \u201cHis head gets so big, he can\u2019t even get his medals over \u2014 on his neck. And he said he was going to let me wear them, but I haven\u2019t seen them yet, so I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
More sincerely, Nordquist added, \u201cHe\u2019s a good player and a good man and a good guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for all the medals Dan\u2019s won or likely to win, it\u2019s playing recreationally with his friends that he appreciates most.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great game and I enjoy the people, and that\u2019s really a big part of it,\u201d he said. \u201cCan\u2019t ask for anything else. It\u2019s been fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennis players have a saying: \u201cYou only live once, but you get to serve twice.\u201d That\u2019s good news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-265087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}