On Tuesday, Sept. 24, the varsity boys tennis team will face off against Papillion La Vista South. This will be their fourth home game of the season, and they are coming off a short break after having over four games in a row. Having all of these games in a row is something that requires a lot of physical and mental toughness. Ashton Rames, a senior on the team, shares how it wasn’t that much of a strain for him.
“Well luckily for me, I had a bunch of guys who always wanted to play with me during the summer, so each day I was playing tennis for at least two, sometimes eight hours,” Rames said. “So while we have had a lot of tennis, it’s nothing that is unusual for me.”
BingYi Wang is a junior on the tennis team this year. For him, this hasn’t been too much of a mental or physical strain, but more of an academic strain.
“The long series of matches in the past few weeks have left me a little behind in school, but nothing that I can’t catch up on,” said Wang. “There has been plenty of time to recover, both physically and mentally, between matches, but it takes up a lot of time out of my day.”
With a short break before the team is back to playing, coach Bart Jeseritz shares what the team has been doing to prepare for the upcoming matches this week.
“We took a light day and a day off to get much needed rest. Recovery is such a huge part of any sport, and that had to be considered,” Jeseritz said. “The players have responded well and have put in a great week so far.”
When these players look at how they want to perform for this match, Rames is going to try just focusing on his game, and not get too flustered with what is happening.
“Going into the next match I’m going to keep a cool head. I sometimes play great when I’m angry but I always play good when I am calm and focused so that will be the only thing I think about,” Rames said.
As for Wang, he has the same focus, but more about just playing the game how it is to be played.
“Before matches, I make sure not to expect anything from the match; just to go out there and play my best.” Wang said.
When Jeseritz looks at his players from an outside view, he shares that their match on Tuesday would be challenging due to one factor.
“It was coming off a big invite on Monday. That is a quick turn around for a dual and making sure the team was engaged and mentally prepared was the most important thing.” Jeseritz said.
As Wang reflects on their season so far, he thinks that they have been very successful. Wang shares how he wants the rest of the season to go.
“We are working to play at our best, and I hope that we can finish the season out strong,” Wang said.
Rames shares the same thought in that their season is going well thus far. And personally for him, he has exceeded his own expectations for himself as he wanted to be playing at number one singles, and he has. Rames explains that he has proven himself to be on this team and that he can go toe to toe with almost everyone in the state. For the rest of the season, he has set some goal with the idea of state coming up.
“For the rest of the season I hope to have fun and just play confident. I’d say a top 3 finish at state is a reasonable goal for me and my doubles partner.” Rames said.
This upcoming match, the team has been working on getting the best results by putting in all their effort at practice and by growing closer as a team. For Rames personally, he has some things he has been improving for their match on Tuesday.
“I want to have fun at practice and just give it my all,” Rames said.
With metros coming up in the next two weeks, Jeseritz says that him and his team do not feel any pressure coming up to it.
“I’m not. I know we are a quality team, and this team is very focused on achieving the goals they set out for themselves.” Jeseritz said. “It allows me to focus on the tennis side of things when the players themselves are handling the mental focus.”
