Boys tennis swings back into the courts
With last year’s season getting cut off short due to the pandemic, the NPHS boys tennis team is finally back onto the courts. Members of the team have found this new routine a different adjustment from past years and are adapting to the small changes in training.
Raghav Rapaka, sophomore, has been playing tennis for the past three years and has recently returned to the NPHS courts to start his second offseason practice. “You can’t touch anybody and you have to bring your own balls to practices. We get our temperatures checked a few times and then you have to work,” Rapaka said. “Tennis is a sport where you play on the complete opposite side of the court so it hasn’t really affected [me personally] much.”
Richard Kick, coach of seven years for the boys tennis team, has found this season very different from last year. “Last year we had no protocols to keep the players distance. When doubles players would celebrate a point they would high five each other. There was much more interaction. When they were doing drills they were much closer together. And so we could actually put more players on a court,” Kick said.
Even with limits, this won’t stop the team from working their way through it. “We are now sharing the courts with the girls team…so that definitely limits us, but tennis is usually a sport where people do a lot of out of team training, and that again helped us to have them be able to work independently of the team…They’re usually very well prepared,” Kick said.
Aside from practices inside the school courts, many players have taken the opportunity to condition at their own pace to rebuild their skills for the new season. Parker Lee, senior, has been training since the offseason began. “[I’m] just conditioning a lot by myself, making myself faster, stronger, and playing a little bit when I could once the courts open,” Lee said.
Though the boys tennis team has been spending their time adjusting these past few weeks, the social aspects of the sport is what many team members miss the most.“If we’re not able to have a season, I miss being with the team and practicing with everyone and seeing everyone every day,” Lee said.
Even with so many obstacles, the team is still hopeful for a successful season. “Once we can ensure that [safety], the level of competition this year I think is going to be incredibly high. Back in 2018, we won the conference championship for the first time in 47 years and I think we have that level of talent and dedication and improvement to allow us to start challenging for another conference title,” Kick said.
