After a summer of intense workouts and preparation, the Husky tennis team is ready to begin their season; returning all but one member of their varsity squad. The team began their season with a rainout, closley followed by two vicotries against BVN and BVHS. With senior captains John Burdette and Max Katcher as well as head coach Ted Fabiano leading the program, the team is said to have a lot of potential.

Last year, the boys varsity tennis team did well, stocked with a plethora of returning players and three new freshman. The team place second at EKL and third at state. Fabiano said the three players that went to state learned a lot because they got to experience how certain situations work and what it takes to win in different clutch situations.

“I think whenever you send players to state and you actually come home with a trophy, it’s a pretty successful year,” Burdette said.

The team uses the acronym NO FEAR to apply the principles the team plays by. According to Fabiano, each letter stands for the following:

N: No matter what the pace of position, an athlete will represent the team.

F: Finish strong.

E: Energize for competition.

A: Adapt and learn from one’s mistakes.

R: Ready for the breaks (capitalizing on an opponent’s mistakes).

“One of the principles is finish strong,” Burdette said. “Thats one that we really want to focus on because you can play like a two hour match and it can come down to one point and if you don’t put it all into that one point that can be the difference between walking out with a banner or losing to BVN.”

The Husky tennis team has not had a banner up in the gym for 10 years, and Burdette says the team plans to change that this year. According to Burdette, the expectations for the team this year are very high due to the fact the Huskies only lost one varsity player from last year.

“We have a pretty experienced team,” Burdette said. “Of course, in the off season everybody put in a ton of work and just from tryouts,practice and our first match against Rockhurst, there is a lot of potential there, which is exciting.”

The team hopes to achieve consistency this year as well as realizing a traditional goal of beating their biggest competitors: BVN, Pembroke, Rockhurst and SME.

Fabiano said he wants the team to play with the same level of intensity and skill level every time they take the court, whether the team is playing the highest ranked teams or unranked teams.

“Our goal is to face our opponent with a similar amount of intensity and apply everything that we have been practicing,” Fabiano said.  “And not forget what makes us good tennis players.”

When the team takes the court for games, Fabiano plans to take the skills they practice and put them into action in the matches. As always, the team wants to walk away with the EKL and regional title, as well as sending some of their members to the state tournament.

“The competition is really great on the team,” Burdette said.  “We all push each other to do better and we all want to do better.”