At an age when most people slow down, one local tennis player is still picking up his racket.<\/p>\n
Bill Newman is no stranger to the court. The longtime Morro Bay resident has been playing tennis since the age of 39.<\/p>\n
“I just enjoy it,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n
The former Morro Elementary principal and San Luis Coastal Unified superintendent spent 35 years in education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a wonderful place to be in the school business. Lots of wonderful people and teachers,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n
Now retired, Newman frequents the tennis courts in Morro Bay. This week, he’s marking a major milestone there: his 100th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel much different than it did a year ago, but it\u2019s a lot different than it was a few years ago,\u201d Newman said. \u201cI can put one past these people once in a while. Usually it\u2019s the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all just one big happy family. The man is an absolute influence to everybody out here,\u201d said Gregory Doyle, Morro Bay resident and tennis player. <\/p>\n
Newman says his family serves as his inspiration.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat family, appreciate that. That\u2019s one of the things that has kept me alive so long,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n
His daughter, Leigh Newman Sentenac, says it works both ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really inspired everybody to have a different viewpoint on what life can be like through your career and now after,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
His family, including both his children, six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, all came to visit for his birthday, celebrating alongside his fellow tennis players.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad says, ‘You know what I\u2019m really grateful for? Long life and extra years,’ but this birthday celebration might kill me,\u201d Newman Sentenac said.<\/p>\n
For the new centenarian, he says tennis has taught him a life lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to stay in some kind of shape so I can keep playing,\u201d Newman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to see what the second 100 years are going to have in store for you,\u201d Doyle said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At an age when most people slow down, one local tennis player is still picking up his racket.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[17672,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-19753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-100th-birthday","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114756782984041106","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}