As the warm weather approaches, the WTHS’s boy’s tennis team is preparing for a promising season this spring. Led by coaches Surplus and Rearick, the boys are hopeful for to be successful this year.
As explained by Arash Vahidi ’17, a typical tennis practice consists of stretching and jogging in the beginning, and intense conditioning and agility workouts afterward. After conditioning the boys work on their skills for the rest of the afternoon. Each practice is equally important to help the team achieve their goals for the season. Matt Venuti ’17 also stressed the importance of the boys learning new tactics to win their matches.
“Considering the team’s ability overall, I believe that the team will try to improve on consistency with our shots and really nail down the fundamental techniques,” Vahidi said.
AJ Pingol ’17 added, “I think our team is going to try to work on being aggressive and staying calm. Emotions run high on our team, which can get in the way sometimes, but we’re learning how to control them and take the game with a calm mind.”
One unique aspect of the game of tennis is the ability to play it in singles or doubles. Each can have its ups and downs. “For singles, you don’t have to worry about anyone else besides yourself. With doubles it’s not too bad because you can develop a deeper trust with one person rather than a whole team,” says Pingol.
While some boys on the team consider tennis to be just a fun extracurricular activity, some of them are more serious about it and can see themselves playing more in the future.
Julian Salugao ’16 says that while he does not plan to play tennis seriously in college, he does hope to continue playing on his own leisure time.
“I would love to play tennis in college because I have had such a good experience with it so far in high school,” says Venuti, who is on the JV squad. “We just have a lot of fun.”