The Season: Part Eight

Defining moments are so much easier to see when they are in the rear-view mirror. When you are living these moments, they are difficult to recognize because you are engrossed in the task at hand, the tiny goal that is being accomplished. Sometimes we are even quick to want to rush on to the next thing, not even realizing the importance of the time at hand.

I can't count how many of those moments pass in a school year. Every day I say things, make arguments, give assignments, present theories, pray prayers, do activities, etc. Only later do I find out which one of those made an impact. Rarely do I know when the thing that I am saying is going to change the course of a school year, season, or class for a student or player.

Except this season, I knew that the NorthWood regular season match was going to be a transitional moment for our team. I knew that the result would impact the way we looked at the rest of the season. The funny thing was, I didn't know how I wanted it to go. I actually thought going into the match that it might be a good thing for us to lose. I wondered if a loss to our Sectional rivals might light a fire under us, get us pumped for revenge in Sectional, and take the target off our backs. I am glad that I was wrong.

As far as defining moments go, usually when you think that you are headed into a big match, it fails to live up to its billing. Just Saturday, I invited some friends over to watch the big college football game between #2 Texas Tech and #5 Oklahoma. It seemed like a "defining moment" game to me, two of the best teams in the country it what would be an epic clash for the conference title. Far from epic, Oklahoma destroyed the Red Raiders, 65-21. The game wasn't even fun to watch. My friends left right after halftime. It did not live up to the billing.

Our NorthWood match did. I knew it would be a "battle" as assistant Andrew says, and it sure was. We won two positions rather easily (thanks to our dominating number two doubles team and steady winning senior Jonny Shenk), but the rest of the matches drug on into the early evening beneath the mammoth football bleachers behind the courts. Number one doubles clinched the first set, a big momentum builder for them, but we dropped first sets at both number one and two singles.

I think everyone there started to feel like it was going to come down to whichever match was on the courts last. It was destined to be that match that is tied 2-2 and the last position either wins it or loses it. I love that feeling at a tennis match. People all move their chairs behind the courts that are still playing. The players shout louder when they win points. Parents cheer louder when an overhead is smashed over the fence. Parents and teammates whisper more about close line calls. Coaches pace back and forth and try to offer encouragement and guidance while containing their own nerves so that the players don't know they are freaking out too. In this case, the coach is so nervous that he keeps taking off his hat and giving it to Kyle Miller, then coming and taking it back, then wringing it in his hand, then giving back to Kyle, etc. I knew there was a practical use for the hat wearing, an object to work out my shaky nerves on.

You can read the full match report here, but it was an epic finish. The number one thing that I learned this season as far as tennis coaching goes was illustrated beautifully in this match. When it comes to pressure time, the team that can confidently attack will win the match. The guy who plays not to lose, will lose. When it finally came down to that last player on the court, winner take all for his team, Jared Schwartzentruber stood out on the courts representing his Bruins.

It's kind of a David vs. Goliath story in a way. Not that NorthWood is this super huge school and we are the puny underdogs, because we were just as talented and deserving as any team this year. More in the sense of you send out your man and we'll send out ours, whoever wins the one on one battle, there team wins the war. And in that tension, the best advice is to step forward and confidently throw your stones. Play to your strengths and attack.

When Jared crossed over to the other side of the net with a 6-5 lead in the third set, I only had brief advice for him. "Stay aggressive. Big serves now." I don't remember if those were my exact words, but man... Jared delivered. He attacked. He played an aggressive game with two big first serves to build his lead, and then he swung his aggressive, attacking groundstrokes wide to the backhand then wide to the forehand and went for the win. The aggressive one who puts out their the best effort to win, they will win.

There were all sorts of other intangibles that came together for this match too, beyond the play. We had just talked at practice about praying for our "enemies" and realizing that these were the teams that we played, we had taken time to pray for the NorthWood players. So at the end of the match, instead of a "Ha, we win, you lose!" attitude, I felt more deeply for the players that had lost the match. There was a deep admiration for them that I felt. They had fought and worked as hard as we in the match, and not won. I knew how that felt. So for myself, there was team pride, but it was kept in perspective.

But the key thing about the win is that it started to cement our identity as tennis players. We had beaten a good team, and it felt like we deserved to win as well. It wasn't a fluke. I think this was a moment where we truly started to see our goal coming into focus. If we could beat this team again, we would probably be Sectional champions. And we had the confidence of beating them this once.