Regardless of the temperature, the arrival of spring (at least on the calendar) means that the Hart Park tennis courts are unlocked and the boys tennis team begins practices. This year, the team hopes that with a new pool of underclassmen they can make great strides in the Greater-Metro Conference.
There is a lot of new talent on the boys team this year. There are six returning varsity players, but five members of the squad are underclassmen. Not only does this affect the current season, but it also, as Senior Vincent Teofilo says, makes them “excited for the future.” However, with a young team comes an even greater importance of stressing essential parts of the game of tennis to players.
As they begin practices the coaches are focusing on vital aspects of tennis. Teofilo says that right now they are doing “a lot of work on developing game play and how to win points.” He expands on this by stating, “Half the battle in tennis is mental, so getting that aspect going right away is important.” Then, as match play begins, the team will look “more into shot placement and fundamentals.” While there are a lot of aspects to the game that the team is just getting into now, many players, specifically returning upperclassmen, have been preparing for the season for months.
Team members have worked to maintain their physical fitness and tennis-specific skills in the off-season. Senior Mitchell Weinberg-Kinsey says that he has done “[l]ots of weight training” to keep his “agility and physical fitness at a good level.” Teofilo has focused on trying to hit often, as he says the team has been “getting onto courts whenever we can… It is always good to get into a rhythm and carry that into the season.” All of this preparation is in order for the team to be able to compete with the talent in the GMC.
The Greater-Metro Conference is very competitive as teams like Marquette, Brookfield East and Brookfield Central are strong in tennis. Weinberg-Kinsey states that “[c]ompetition is tough in our conference.” However, the GMC has been split in half this year, according to Teofilo, so the team will not face Marquette or Brookfield East. He says that “it'll be interesting to see how the competition shapes up for this season.” This change in schedule may be a great asset to the team’s standing in the conference.
The great goal of the team as a whole is to improve their standings in the conference. Weinberg-Kinsey reports that they finished 6th in the conference last year, but he believes that they “can go up at least two spots if not more.” Apart from the conference standings, Teofilo hopes that the team can “go undefeated in non-conference as well.” This season will test the level of the team’s preparation in the off-season as well as the ability of upperclassmen to lead new members of the team. It will certainly be interesting to see what this it holds for the young boys tennis team.