A look back at a strong season from the boys JV tennis team
More stories from Tommy Spaletto
A dominating 8-2 win over the Lowell Red Arrows in the season finale is just what a young boys JV tennis team needed to end on a high note. For a team with a lot of freshmen and first-year tennis players, the team put together some great wins while playing a very tough schedule.
“Our team did better than expected and I was pleasantly surprised,” sophomore Aidan O’Meara said. “We had a lot of freshmen and not many returning players, but those who did come back became our leaders and our new freshmen rose to the challenge.”
Aidan and some of the older players such as juniors Shane Hubble and Jannis Jacobs along with sophomores Eli Romijn and Sam Cooper helped transition the freshmen into playing tennis at a high level. Freshmen that stepped up and helped the team out included Tommy Laidlaw, Devin Holcomb, and Hezekiah Lane.
“We gained many talented freshmen this year who have great potential to add depth to our program,” Sam said. “We did well in our tournaments and had some doubles teams win their flights.“
One key win for FHC was one of their first, which was on the road against a great Northview team. This win was a turning point where, from this point on, the young freshmen looked to be calm and controlled.
Although the team hit some rough spots, such as some hard losses to very good opponents like EGR and Rockford, FHC started to play better and better each game, which is great to see from such a young team. FHC finished with a final record of 5-9.
“We had a great season,” Head coach Jeremy Moog said. “The boys really worked hard day in and day out. From the beginning of the season to the end, everyone on the team showed improvement. They were a great group of kids and it was a pleasure to coach them.“
Moog looks forward to working with more experienced players next year along with new freshmen.
“It’s always fun to work with incoming freshmen,” Moog said. “It’s also great to see the boys that played JV work hard and move up to the varsity team. Of course, it’s also helpful to have the returning players that know how we do things.“
Tommy Spaletto is a senior at FHC and enters his third year on the staff and his first year of being Co-Editor in Chief of the FHC Sports Report. He looks...