Boys tennis make their return
After two full years off, boys tennis opened their season against tough competition.
“We started with a main invitational with some D1 schools, like USM and Notre Dame and Catholic memorial,” said Zach Khennafi, senior and captain. “Those were probably tougher, but not in our conference, so it was good training.”
Of the conference matches, two stand out to head varsity coach Michael Tredeau.
“The two most successful matches that we had were a 7-0 win against New Berlin West and a 6-1 win against Greendale,” Tredeau said. “JV right now is undefeated as a team.”
Despite being competitive, the team has not pulled out the results they may have wanted. They are currently ranked 3rd in the Western Conference. Regardless, Tredeau thinks it has been a successful season so far.
“I gauge success on how much they have improved from the beginning of the season to the end of the season,” Tredeau said. “I have seen a great deal of improvement from each of them… how disciplined they are during their matches and during practice.”
The boys have had two full years off from high school tennis due to COVID, so some players walked into the season out of practice. Others played outside of school during that time.
“Many of them have memberships to indoor tennis clubs so they have been playing in the off season,” Tredeau said. “Some of the higher level players that returned have put in a lot of time in the off season playing indoor tennis.”
The upperclassmen have focused on building rapport with the underclassmen, as both the sophomore and freshman classes are new to the team.
“Obviously, we missed last season, so we are trying to help some of the sophomores who didn’t have their freshman year and we’re also trying to help freshman players with their adjustment,” Khennafi said.
As with all sports this year, COVID precautions have been at the forefront of planning. However, most players are vaccinated –– with more freshmen to become fully vaccinated with new and broadened vaccine eligibility –– and this has led the team to lift some COVID precautions.
“We made a team decision to not wear masks during practice; it was a joint decision. Some kids can wear masks if they want, but most of us don’t,” said Nate Vuyk, senior and captain.
Regardless, other restrictions are still in place. For example, traditional team bonding activities have had to be modified.
“All of our pasta dinners and team bonding have kind of been shut down, but we’ve been doing a couple of Noodles outings as a team and I think we’re going to [a teammate’s] house next week,” Vuyk said.