With the tryout that happened on Monday, March 4, the 2024, boys tennis season is fast approaching, and Head Coach Drew Emerick has a lot to share about the team’s progression and plans for the season.
Recent additions like new benches by the courts, new windscreens, and scorecards have helped mark three straight years of 20+ players: ten from last year’s team and 10 new kids.
Despite last year’s overall losing record of 8-9 and the loss of multiple key seniors, last season’s performance is progress from previous years, and the team only has plans of improving.
Coach Emerick did some heavy advocating to receive a paid assistant coach, and this season, former tennis coach, Coach Golic, will begin assisting the boys tennis team.
Coach Emerick states having him will help overall because in the past, he struggled with teaching the Varsity players and the new players, so now there can be two practices occurring simultaneously.
Ultimately, it’s the team atmosphere that brings the players together and makes the sport enjoyable for everyone.
From things like team dinners and themed practices, the team has the opportunity to build strong connections.
Even people who have never played tennis are welcome to enjoy something structured yet still fun. In fact, Coach Emerick encourages anyone to try the sport.
“[By joining the squad,] there is a 100% chance that you will get to play matches against other teams,” Coach Emerick notes.
While anyone is welcome on the team, “[Coach Emerick is] a huge advocate for kids who want to become better athletes, to play multiple sports.”
In addition to coaching tennis, Emerick also coaches basketball, where he observes that many of his players play basketball all year round, which he explains studies have shown that specializing in one sport leads to burnout.
Coach Emerick believes tennis is a great sport to pick up because it’s not as serious, practices are shorter, the season is shorter. In fact, most of the practices are based on fun.
Boys tennis will kick off their competitive season on Thursday, March 21 at Lincoln High School.
