The Season: Part One

Late September to late October, it is a matchless time of the year. Crisp morning air, track jackets and sweet sideways hippie hats, the dawning of autumn brings out all the best. It has not been good to my tennis team over the years however. Every year, we've stood on NorthWood cracked courts beneath the mammoth football bleachers, usually frustrating, crying, mourning the careers of seniors who passed through four years of high school tennis and never even tasted a first round Sectional victory. That was bitter tasting and needed change.

Maybe it was an unintentional change that helped us, a change that we had no control over. In 2007, the venue shifted from those cursed NorthWood rectangles, to beautiful new, green and blue courts at Goshen. So with a comfortable confidence we had entered the Sectional as the certain underdog. We had lost to every team in the Sectional during the regular season, expect for Goshen, who we hadn't played but who had finished higher than us at the Warsaw Invitational.

With a group of all underclassmen, we made a charge those two days. Defeating a senior laden Fairfield squad in a dramatic comeback, then taking down Goshen after facing 3 match points to lose it. We fell short in the final against NorthWood, but felt that we had a chance. There was a hopeful sense about the team, and I certainly felt it too.

One thing about this team sets it apart from all the others I've coached: I love to hang out with the entire team. I don't say this to be mean to other past teams, I've never had a player on my team that I didn't love and care for. But you know how sometimes they say you can love somebody but not really like them... well, I've felt like that before. But I loved hanging out with this group of players, and really it was out of my love of being with them as a team that I suggested we go watch the Regional tournament and cheer on NorthWood. I wasn't ready for the season to be over yet, and going to watch together felt like a way of extending it.

But I think watching the Regional tournament together was about the best coaching move I made all season. As I watched NorthWood compete for a first round win and saw Warsaw competing against Northridge, my confidence really grew. I realized that my group of players, sitting there around me cracking jokes and cheering on Ben Baker, this group could have competed and even won the Regional in 2007. It would have taken an enormous amount of luck and being completely on top of our games, but it was conceivable.

I've always thoughts that the biggest problem Bethany athletics has in our confidence and belief. We buy into the lie that we can't compete, and against the best schools, the bigger schools, I think we often don't even bring our best effort. As we sat in a cool October wind at Concord, I watched my players grow. I watched my players battle regret and what could have been had we defeated NorthWood. Then, I saw my players begin to believe.

It's an incredible feeling as a coach, the minute that your team gets it. As a coach, you form an idea of what your team can be very early in the season. You evaluate forehands, backhands, serves. You figure out the strengths and weaknesses of certain players. You write notes about it all. Jonny needs to improve his passing shot and he could be dominant at three singles. Jared's serve is scary when it's on, why doesn't he ever serve and volley? Can Johnny and Jeremy hold their belief when they lose a close first set? Daniel and Mikey are going to be the most aggressive two doubles team in Northern Indiana. I wonder if they'll ever believe that?

And so, when all of your work and belief suddenly joins up with their belief, when Jonny sees what he can be if he works on his passing shot, when Jared believes in his net game, when Johnny and Jeremy are convinced they can come back and fight out a match, when Daniel and Mikey believe they could go undefeated...that's simply a moment of beauty.

Just going to that Regional, just watching, began to unite us behind a shared vision. And when a whole team shares the same dream of what they can be, instead of individual dreams of positions, wins and losses, or individual statistics, when they are all on board with what the team can be, well, then the work toward that dream can begin.