The Boys Tennis season has come to an end with a record of six wins and ten losses. This season was a difficult season for the team, because they had to deal with numerous challenges that they had to overcome. One of the issues was senior Viktor Teague breaking his ankle. Teague was one of the stronger players on the team, and losing him meant that they had to step up and replace him.
Another of those players was Junior Daniel Augustin. When asked about what it was like moving from JV to Varsity, Augustin stated that “there was a big difference for [him] because in JV, the people were very low level” and “playing them was not of any benefit to [him] because [their] levels were different from [his] opponents.”
Coach Gagnon also mentioned that for their first time on Varsity, they did very well despite this season was very challenging for the team. When asked about how the team has done this season, Coach Gagnon replied saying “for the past few games [they have] played very well against marblehead, who was the top team in the league. The score of that game was four to one. [They] weren't very lucky when it came to injuries though, with Viktor getting injured.”
Augustin added to this by stating that “[He] personally feel[s] like this season could have gone better, but things didn't go as planned. There were a lot of things [they] could have done better such as [their] line ups for certain games.”
Through all of the challenges that the team had to overcome, they also had things that they did well on this season. Coach Gagnon said that “there was a good vibe about the team. Everyone gets along and supports each other. To [him], the relationship on the team is just as important as winning.”
Another aspect the team performed really well in this season was their confidence. Augustin described that “because [they] had Naveen, every time [they] went into a game [they] knew that Naveen would win his matches, so they only had to win two others to win.”
With the end of a season, the team had some goals that they reached in the end and also have goals that they wanted to set for next season. Coach Gagnon said that “goals going in were not reached with wins and losses because of Viktor’s injury,” but because of that, “[he] wants to build the team with more depth.”
Augustin, who said he would like to continue playing next year, said that “[his] goal was to play third singles before the end of the season,” but he won most of his games there, so because of that “[he] never got to play third singles, but would like to try next season.”
The team had a new player to join the team this year. Seshasai Nemalapuri, or Naveen as he likes to be called. Naveen is a seventh grader at the Linden Steam Academy, and is playing on the varsity team, as well as being one of the strongest players on the team.
When asked about the addition of Naveen, Augustin said that “it was good, because [they] knew that [they] had a secured win most of their games.” Coach Gagnon added to this by saying that “Naveen is a very supportive player even though he is winning.” He continues to explain that throughout the season, “Naveen was constantly helping his teammates.”
This season was a very challenging season, but the team managed to overcome those challenges and still produce on the court. Even though the loss of Viktor Teague left a huge impact on the team, they still managed to come back and make it challenging for their opposing teams, or as Coach Gagnon said, “[they] may not have dominated [their] opponents, but they “went down swinging.”
