The scene at the Erwin-East tennis courts involves two people from two generations. Both doing something they love to do as much as anything in this world. And connecting in ways that most of us will never fully appreciate.

On one side of the net is East Rowan tennis coach Worth Roberts. On the other is his best player, Mary Clark Roberts. Mary Clark also happens to be his daughter, and today she is one of 16 girls who will compete for the 3A state tennis championships in Burlington.

There isn’t much conversation between dad and daughter. Just a flurry of yellow balls striking a green surface and occasionally a white line. Once in a while a speeding sphere settles in the net.

“My fault,” grunts Worth, whenever one of his serves goes awry.

But there aren’t many of those. The elder Roberts is no kid, but he has a serve that 20-year-olds would envy. His daughter says he can serve with his eyes closed, and you believe her.

Mary Clark handles each serve, though, and most of her returns go whistling back past Dad’s ears. Half of them right down the line for likely winners, even against the people who are waiting for her in Burlington.

“Good job,” Worth says, as Mary nails one. “OK, other side, now.”

They go at it for the last 10 minutes of their two-hour session, before Worth finally yells, “All right now, good one on the last one.”

Mary Clark makes that last one a good one. Then she smiles and together they scoop up balls and rackets.

It is a ritual that they have performed hundreds — maybe a thousand times — over the years.

But yesterday’s outing might be their last one.

Mary Clark knows there’s a pretty good chance that she won’t play competitive tennis again after today.

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Coaching your kids is one of the greatest challenges anyone can undertake. There are times of joy, but there are moments of pain, as well.

Worth Roberts says it’s been mostly joy with Mary Clark.

“It’s been a good four years,” he says. “I tried hard to keep that line between coach and father. Mary, can tell you that when she acted up, I got on her first and hardest. Making the state pretty just crowns everything she’s done here.”

Mary Clark’s success came because her coach took the best approach. Much as he loved tennis, he never made her play.

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Coach Roberts didn’t compete on the tennis team in high school because of a heart condition. But he learned the game in junior high. He played it, studied it, absorbed it like a sponge.

He’s been coaching the boys at East now for 20 years. The girls, for 17.

His tensest time in two decades came when Mary Clark began her freshman year at East.

“I sat down with her and told her that I would either get out, or I would have to stay with her all four years,” said coach Roberts.

She wanted him to stay, and he did. She responded with four fine years, the last two at No. 1.

She made it to the regionals three straight years in doubles (with Natalie Barringer), then made the state tournament in singles on her first try.

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The memories have been flowing lately for coach Roberts. Especially at the regionals last weekend in Huntersville, when it suddenly hit him that each time his daughter took the court, might be her last.

He remembered how she tagged along to Pfeiffer tennis camp as a third-grader when she was “no bigger than a racket.” He remembered how she wanted to practice tennis when other camp kids wanted to play video games.

He remembered he knew she was an athlete when he saw her run track and play basketball, but he didn’t dare hope that she would channel her talent toward the sport he loved.

And he remembered all those times he settled down to watch TV on Sunday afternoon, but Mary Clark wouldn’t let him. She wanted to go hit, just like yesterday.

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As the SPC’s No. 1 player, Roberts was seeded at the regionals, but she drew as an opponent the last person on earth she wanted to see — Concord’s Emily Taylor.

Taylor beat Roberts last year. Roberts got revenge in a real scrap just before the regionals. Now, she had to play Taylor one more time to get to Burlington.

“I was wondering what was up with my luck,” says Mary Clark.

But she won.

“At the end of the match, I was so happy I was crying,” she said.

And that brought the memories for her, too.

“The oldest one I have is that Pfeiffer camp,” she said. “We were so little that if you didn’t get your first serve in, they let you throw the second one.”

She remembers how Dad always managed to calm her down no matter how upset she got. How he got to know her so well he could tell from a mile away what her score was, just by her mannerisms. And anytime she complained, he would simply say, “Stop crying and play.”

“I always tried hard to make it fun for her and all the girls,” said coach Roberts. “Tennis isn’t like some sports that are just win, win, win all the time. I tell the girls to play their very best, and then we’ll see what happens. If they come off the court upset because they lost, I ask them, ‘Did you do your best?’ That’s all that matters.”

And maybe that’s why Mary Clark isn’t worried as she sits on her car and talks calmly about this weekend.

“I’m playing the best tennis I’ve played in my life,” she says. “My confidence is much better than last year— even earlier this year. I’m not nervous, even though this will be my last time, win or lose.”

All right now, Mary Clark, good one on the last one. You’ve both earned it.

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