As times, rosters, and leaves change this fall, the boys tennis unit looks to uphold their podium status during the upcoming season. In wake of a stellar third place outing at state just last year, the core of the team has virtually remained the same besides the loss of star senior AJ Shefsky. The senior had spearheaded the team for the past three years, winning the state title for No. 2 singles as a freshman, and leading his teammates at the No. 1 singles position for the years that followed. He capped off his legendary high school career with an exceptional senior year alongside his younger brother, then freshman Troy Shefsky, and now that AJ has graduated, Troy looks to follow in his brother’s footsteps. Although he’s got big shoes to fill, the spark plug sophomore is already matching expectations, winning No.2 singles at Metros as well as finishing runner up at state in the same category last year whilst only being a freshman. Despite losing AJ, this year’s tennis troop is littered with experience, as seniors account for eight out of the 11 varsity spots. Senior Ashton Rames, a top player on the team, elaborates on his thoughts regarding the team’s maturity.
“We’re a veteran team and, being a great player, I do feel like I have a role to set the tone for the work ethic and how we’ll run things this season,” Rames said.
Rames is moving up in competition level as a senior this year in AJ’s absence. The senior has seen a steady increase in performance throughout his career thus far, yet still expects a massive leap in play on the horizon. He claims to have leveled up his training regimine in preparation for his final season.
“Compared to previous years, I definitely worked a lot harder to give myself a shot this season at taking home metros and hopefully state,” Rames explains.
However, Rames isn’t the only returning varsity player who has been grinding harder this off-season, as everyone claims to have been dedicating extra effort in the off-months, including Troy Shefsky. Placing runner up at state, winning metros, and breaking the school record for the most wins all within the No. 2 singles category in just his freshman year merely eclipses a fraction of the budding prodigies achievements thus far. Shefsky looks to reclaim similar dominance over the state in his sophomore showings and is eager to get back to the baseline.
“I took my brothers record for most wins at No.2 singles, Won metros, beat Lincoln East for the first time in a long time, I lost at state, came in second, and this year I’m running it all back besides that last one,” Shefsky exclaims.
A freshman season is rarely ever so supreme, and Shefksy understands that as he claims a majority of his winnings are due to the example set by his teammates. As a new freshman will be suiting up for varsity this year, Shefky details how he has inherited identical values of leadership set by the upperclassmen.
“Last year, I had my brother as a role model alongside a lot of my current teammates, and that really helped me, and showed me how to be a leader,” Shefsky reminisced. “They taught me lots of things, so I’ll try and teach that to the freshman and pass it down.”
Troy’s enthusiasm pertaining to his upperclassmen counterparts resides in much of the same optimism that his head coach, Bart Jezeritz possesses.
“Troy is a very fun, big personality, and the fact that a lot of the team is older than him has had zero impact on his relationship with everybody,” Jeseritz echoes.
Coach Jesertiz has worked tirelessly to prepare this team for the upcoming season, but attributes most of the seamless transition from last year’s team to the common theme of experience. He claims a similar sentiment to his players in regards to his attitude entering this season in relation to last.
“Last year we had a lot of younger guys stepping up to bigger roles in the metro and state tournaments and I think our development as an older team and that experience is what takes us from good to great.” Jeseritz elaborates.
“Great” seems to be the theme of the team, and the expectation for success is one interwoven between players and coaches alike:
“We’re gonna be pretty good this season,” Rames estimated.
“We’ll be a tough team to beat this year,” Jeseritz proclaimed.
“We’re always going for first, this year’s no different,” Shefsky raved.
The boys are in top condition following a productive off-season and are eager to embark on an unfamiliar path in hopes of capturing the coveted state championship. Whilst definitive roster spots have yet to be decided, the overabundance of team talent is more than enough to rely on. Their first test as a collective takes place Thursday, Aug. 29th at 4:00 against Millard West on the road. It won’t be an easy opening bout, but this team’s unrivaled confidence in themselves is sure to be their advantage.
“We’re ready to win, it’s just a matter of keeping hungry,” Jeseritz remarked.
