Holiday Season: Merry Christmas!

I love you guys! Have fun with your families gathering around the tree, receiving and giving, eating and laughing. God bless you all!

Holiday Season: Bless

That's my favorite Christmas carol, Joy to the World. I've always liked it because it's kind of upbeat compared to some of the others (like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, etc.) and because a 90's ska band named the O.C. Supertones did a sweet rendition of it. But recently I've been thinking that the song might have a deeper message to it.

Christmas can be a pretty selfish holiday. I mean, one of the first things that you do is make up a list of stuff that you want. Then you spend a lot of time wondering whether your parents or grandparents will make your wishes come true. Then you spend time pouting about what you didn't get (okay, hopefully you don't do that). In my family, we even have a tradition of taking our Christmas money and going shopping for all the things that we still want after Christmas morning. Yea, it can get pretty self-centered if you let it. By the way, I want a Prince 03 White MP. Oh, wait...

When things start to get self-centered, it's always good to have a little reminder that life, especially life following Christ, is about others. That is what I think Joy to the World can do. When we remember Christmas, we should think of the story of Jesus, and know that the joy of Christ was for the whole world. Well, okay, that includes us but is way beyond ourselves.

Christ brought joy and hope to all people, and as Christ followers, we should follow Jesus' example by bringing joy and hope to our worlds. That can mean a lot of things throughout the Christmas season. For me it will mean helping my mom clean dishes and talking with her instead of just vegging on the couch after Christmas dinner. It will mean having just as much happiness about what I give as I do about what I get. It will mean making sure that my wife is happy about the amount of time we are spending with her family. It will mean keeping my eyes out for the concerns of others. Hope that it means the same to you as well. Well, except without the wife part.

So here's to holiday cheer, and bringing joy to the world.

And if you are still sad, looks like Daniel's ready for a hug...

Holiday Season: Recognize

What is God doing for you right now, today, the first day of Christmas break? How is God involved in the world around you, right now, today? How can I be involved in how God is acting right now, today? These are the questions of recognition.

In Advent season, the Christian tradition celebrates a God who is with us. We celebrate a God who remains active in the world, healing, restoring, rebuilding, renewing pieces of creation that are broken and hurting. So many times, God is doing these grand events in our midst and we fail to recognize and worship. So many times our eyes are drawn to the goals of our pursuits, or the downsides of the requirements, or the busy-work of the everyday that we don't look at the overall picture.

God is with us.

God is working all around us.

And God is good.

I don't know where all of you are involved with God's work or recognizing God's presence. I can only tell you stories of where that is happening for me. So I'll tell you some stories of where that is happening for me...

God cares for the widow and the orphan. We have a young lady (well, okay she is as old as I am, but that's still young, right?) who attends our church. We met her through the ministry of The Window in downtown Goshen. She has three young boys, all elementary school age that are a handful for her, as she is a single mom to them. Over the past year, we've been able to help her find a car, move into a new home, host a church party at her new apartment, find a job, pay bills, and many other things. As she has grown closer to us, we see God continually helping her see the blessings that she has and the changes that she has to make. We love her, we love her sons, God has given us a new friend and a new friendly face. It has also made me realize that God is interested in changing lives right here in my community and I am able to be a part of it. It is a humblingly big responsiblity, but it lets me know that God is at work.

Jesus loves the little children. Nothing reminds me of God's presence and God's blessing as much as my son. The way he has grown, begun to toddle around the living room, now walks all around the house holding his little basketball and singing to himself in a nonsensical language. In becoming a father, I have begun to see what it means that God is a father much better. I realize how I try to help guide my son, but ultimately Gideon makes decisions as to whether he will follow my guidance or not. I know that all my instructions and commands for Gideon are based on love for him, for example I don't let him play with the cord to the laptop computer because he might pull the computer down from the table and have it land on his head. But he continues to want to do it anyways because it is fun. And when he does, I have to continue to provide guidance. And God is doing this type of fathering, or parenting, with everyone. It makes me all the sadder to watch people making bad decisions because I now empathize with the loving Father who is trying to bless them.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Finally, God is at work in all my students and in all of my tennis players. I see it in you as you mature, as you learn to work hard, as you bless others. I see God teaching Austin commitment as he comes to workouts everyday, I see God teaching Seth leadership skills as he takes over some of the morning tennis sessions, I see God leading the seniors into the future, and them being serious about being Christ followers. It is a privilege to watch God work in all of you, and I can't wait to continue being involved. You are a blessing that I recognize is from God.

I pray that you will all take some holiday time to recognize God's work in and around you. Enjoy your first day of Christmas break!

Holiday Season: Remember

Remember
If you are able to be honest with yourself, and you are feeling especially introspective this Christmas season, remember back to last Christmas time. If you had thought forward to the 2008 calendar year, what would you have asked for from God?

Maturity and growth as a person? I can say that my experiences this year have taught me, maybe more than any other year. Being a parent teaches, being a pastor teaches, being a coach teaches, and being a player does too. In a year of success, I realize that it was the sporadic failures that helped me mature. The long nights sitting up with a crying baby, feeling helpless. The long nights sitting up with my worried thoughts, praying my tennis players would heal fast, feeling hopeless. It is interesting that at the end of a year, I would have never asked for failure and difficulty, but they perhaps were one of the most important gifts I received.

What else would you have asked for? Friendships? Hopefully the tennis season provided us all with a chance to deepen relationships, and hopefully those memories will continue to keep us close to each other. Or perhaps those experiences will lay the grounds for new relationships when we are outside of Bethany Christian.

Maybe you would have asked for success? A Sectional championship? A good season? Anybody (Seth, Matthew, Russell) ask for an undefeated season? I don't think that we can ignore the fact that God blessed us with good gifts throughout 2008. We worked hard, and were rewarded. That's one way to see that God is good.

Christmas seems like a good time to remember that!

Catching Up on Friday

Catching Up With...Senior Memories from Daniel Buschert
2007 Sectional Semi-Final against Goshen

My Junior year when we faced Goshen in the sectional, we had just beaten Fairfield in the incredible underdog comeback win and Mikey and I realized that we could beat opponents close to our talent level, and that we were needed for the team to win. However Fairfield we knew we could beat, because obvious poor play had thrown away that match, and we knew that we were better when we played aggressively. However we had not faced Goshen before, but we knew that their team on the whole was close to ours, and that the positions it would come down to were 1 singles and 1 & 2 doubles.

The Saturday morning started off cold, and Mikey and I began poorly. We didn't get pumped up, we lost a bunch of key points, some that we couldn't put away. One of the Goshen 2 doubles pair was very fast, running down a lot of our hard putaways, and both could lob well. We quickly were down 5-0 in the first set, and didn't have much confidence or energy, with the cold and the frustration of not having anything to yell about. So Matt called us over to the fence and instead of urging us to get together and get back in the set, he told us we should try our hardest to win the next game on our serve, so that they would serve the game after that, and if we lost, we would start off the second set serving. I remember thinking it would be unfortunate to win 2 and then lose the set, but focused to get the next game anyway, hoping to gain momentum. We got it, and then lost the next a went into the next set. I remember not feeling much pressure, because we were following Matt's plan, and knew we could pick it up. It was advice that was realistically achievable, and made perfect sense.

The other piece of advice he gave us was to get moving, run around the court after lobs, encourage each other. He was slightly blunt with us, telling us we looked asleep on the court, but this helped fire us up to change his perception. We started winning games, finding the energy and confidence we needed. We quickly got to a 5-1 lead, but tightened up as we had all year when we got a lead, and dropped two games. Around this point we also began to see the match unfold as it was expected to, with Jonny and Jared struggling, but the others close. We managed to take the 2nd set, and moved into the third with the same strategy, keeping the ball in but staying aggressive, and running down lobs. We found that we were better than our opponents, when we attacked the net and yelled and got into it. One doubles was the last other match on the court while we moved to a 5-1 lead, and we saw they were also winning.

Once again, we became tentative, and a couple shots just missed. I remember one shot Mikey hit at a match point, his signature overhead from the baseline, that just bounced wide. However, we finally closed off the match at 6-3, with lots of cheering from all the fans, but as we walked back around the fence to watch 1 doubles, there was a quiet, hushed atmosphere. Watching 1 doubles was very tough, but I was boosted by our first 3rd set win, that we could keep our heads and simply follow instructions. This match is one of the best examples of how Matt's advice from the fence can work perfectly. It was also important that we had managed to keep the team's postseason alive, and not falter under the pressure of needing to win.

Special Holiday Series

I'm especially excited about the graphics of the holiday series that is coming up...

Stay tuned during Christmas break for a special holiday series of posts!

Thursday Rant: Sour Grapes

TR #2: Sour Grapes
When we fail we all have a similar response: We look for something to blame.

In basketball we blame the referees, in school we blame the teachers, in relationships we blame the other person, all the time completely glossing over the real subject of the blame. It was like the ref was watching a whole different game, that teacher just doesn't like me, she was always nagging at me, etc, etc, etc. We're really good at taking things that were slightly annoying at the time (a bad call, a misunderstood grade, a bad habit) and blowing them up to be the reason we failed. Frankly, those are excuses and they grow old quick.

Tennis is a sport begging for players to make excuses. It is played outdoors, in all the grandeur of God's creation, and all the havoc that it wreaks on a simple game of knocking a small yellow ball back and forth. The wind, the precipitation, the sun's evil glare when we are serving. Layers of nature that are all useless at deflecting our blame.

Then there are the courts, with all their glorious cracks and crevices. Bad bounces can absolutely provide a glorious scapegoat, especially if they happen at the right time. Oh, and my favorite tennis excuse, the tape. It either loves you or hates you, but it can definitely feel the player's wrath. I've known some players to talk to the tape, yell it at, or in a simple goodwill gesture, give it a little kiss. But how many times it is at fault for our losing of a point.

Of course, when the elements and the court conditions fail, there is always a more villainous cast to paint the blame on. The other team and anything associated with them. Their fans (forgetting that every team has fans who get a little too excited at excitable times in the matches), the way they play ("they just dinked the ball, it wasn't even real tennis!"), or the way they call the lines.

The thing is, I believe that tennis is about dealing with all of these things. I've had players go crazy with anger because of the other teams fans (in one match my second year coaching, I had to pull someone off the court for turning around and yelling at the other fans). I've had players beside themselves because their long practiced strokes and power based game was just undone by someone who ran everything down and lobbed every other shot. I've dealt with players who were crying because of how badly they thought they'd been cheated. And these are all things that these players have had to learn to deal with and grow from.

Because the only thing you can control in the game of tennis is yourself.

If you are mad about something, you can choose to handle it in a respectable way. But it is important that you deal with it at the time. Don't cry to me about line calls after the match, especially when you didn't bring it up with me during the match or were not willing to call for a line judge. That's what those rules and procedures are for. You control your actions during the match, and at the time. Then you accept responsibility for those choices afterwords.

Again, there will be some things we can never control. Sometimes we will get cheated, sometimes the fans will be inappropriate, and sometimes the wind will blow our "perfect" shot out, but isn't life like that too. We can only control ourselves. We won't cheat, we'll try to teach our parents to not cheer double faults, we'll pray that the weather is kind. But that's all we can do.

So instead of worrying about all that stuff, let it roll. Control what you can control, play your game of smaggressive tennis, and shake hands at the end of the match. And leave it there. Don't bring any excuses off the court.

Wednesday Opponent Overview: Goshen

Last Season Review
Goshen ended their team season last year in the first round of Sectional. A 3-2 loss to Jimtown saw them finish at 6-10 on the season. In the Northern Lakes Conference tourney, they were able to finish 6th, but had one position that finished as champions. That position was #1 doubles, where seniors Ryan Wengerd and Mac Hussey powered their way to a conference and Sectional title. Hussey and Wengerd had started the season at #1S and #2S respectively, but after an unsuccessful team start joined to become an All-District doubles team. Besides their 1st place finish, the rest of the varsity finished 6th, 7th, 5th and 5th in the NLC Championships. In the Sectional, Goshen was able to capture #2S and #1D, but lost the other three spots in their elimination. Beyond the two seniors, the team had been extremely young, with only one junior and many freshman and sophomores. It was a tough season record wise, but valuable experience was gained.

Returning Varsity Players
Andy Van Klaveren - Van Klaveren started the season playing #3 singles, as the Redskins tried to work out their lineup to figure out the best way to compete. When we played them, Van Klaveren took on Jonny Shenk. The match consisted of a close first set which Van Klaveren won 7-5. Then Jonny began to play the smaggressive style of tennis that won him 17 matches on the season, and won the last two sets 6-0, 6-0. Van Klaveren later shifted to #1 singles when Hussey and Wengerd were joined at #1 doubles. While he faced very stiff competition in the Northern Lakes Conference and didn't get too many wins, the experience of playing stars like Deon Shafer and Preston Swain will certainly have Andy better prepared for this season. I expect that Van Klaveren will be one of the better players in the Sectional this season.

Stefan Baumgartner - Another player affected by the lineup shuffling, Stefan played #1 doubles against us in early August and then finished the season with a run playing #2 singles. He also faced up against Seth Krabill during the summer season. Seth won in a long, close match. During the season, Stefan and Jonny Tan pushed Mikey Kelly and Jeremy Thomas in the first set, as Mikey played his first match returning from hand surgery. Stefan was definitely the most consistent player of the two, and had been two years ago when he pushed us to three sets in the Sectional semi-final. Another player that I lose specifics of when watching play doubles, I expect that, similarly to Andy Van Klaveren, this end of the season experience will make him a solid #2 singles player this year. He is also a good example of the type of player that we will have to be better than if we want to win big matches, or compete for the Sectional.

Seth Koble - A freshman last year, Koble was thrust into the varsity spotlight from the beginning of the season. The season saw him improve, and also shift from #2 doubles to #3 singles. Like many of the singles players at Goshen, Koble struggled with the stiff competition of the NLC. But by the NLC tournament, he was able to take home 5th place.

Jonny Tan - A sophomore playing his first year of varsity, Tan started at #1 doubles and ended the season at #2 doubles. Against us, Mikey and Jeremy had a difficult time finding Tan and Baumgartner's weaknesses. In that match, I felt like Tan lacked a real weapon with which to attack, but did everything else well. I didn't get to see many of the matches throughout the rest of the year, so I'm not sure how his game progressed. With new partner Collin Erickson, he was able to capture fifth at the NLC Championships.

Paul Johnson - Johnson played #2 doubles at the beginning of the season, and lost with Seth Koble to Daniel Buschert and Seth Krabill. By the NLC Championships, he was no longer representing the varsity. In that match, Koble and Johnson had put up little resistance. But then again, Daniel did win 20 matches at his position, so it may have had a little to do with that.

Collin Erickson - I never got to see Collin Erickson play this season, and so I don't know really anything about him other than that he partnered Jonny Tan in the NLC Championships. They did well enough to finish higher than NorthWood, Wawasee, and Memorial.

Other Possible 2009 Varsity Contributors

Nick Dandino - lost 0-6, 0-6 to Ben Mast
Alex Johnson - lost 0-8 to Matthew Amstutz, defeated Matt Ebersole 8-3

Outlook
The key question for Goshen will be what did last year's experience mean for the underclassmen. It could have provided them with a valuable look at what it means to be an excellent player, and therefore motivated them to work to reach that level. Also, it could have been demoralizing and undermined their will to work and desire to achieve. I know that Andy Van Klaveren has been hitting at Maple City Racquet Club, so for at least one of these contributors, last season is pushing his desire to succeed. However, it will take the whole team working hard for them to be successful. Coach Scott Miller is a great coach, and so one would think that this team will rally around and improve this year.

Blessing
I don't want to sound pompous or whatever, offering a blessing for every team and trying to guess what they will need prayer for. But I do want to keep in mind that we will for the good of all people. So, I'm going to start leaving this section blank, and allowing us as players or coaches to fill in our own prayers of goodwill and blessing for each team.

Tuesday Tennis Tip: Smaggressive Strategy

TTT #2: Smaggressive Strategy
It's the third set against Fairfield, and you have the 5-4 lead. It's your serve and you lead the game 40-30. You have one point to seal the match, and in so doing an epic victory for the Bruins! (I love upping the corniness.) You serve and the rally begins. How do you play this point?

a. Keep the ball back to the middle of the court, hope they make a mistake.
b. Fire for the lines, win with a powerful forehand winner with the hardest swing you've taken all match long.
c. Bloop the ball back over because you're too nervous to swing through.
d. Swing aggressively and be prepared to attack, while minimizing risks by playing high percentage shots.

If your answer was "d," then you've picked the smaggressive play. And the correct play according to this coach.

Smaggressive was a word that the team made up two years ago to describe one of the four core values of Bethany Christian tennis play. It is a smashed together form of smart and aggressive. Through the past two years, this value has defined what we strive for on the court. In our best moments and matches we achieved it, in our worst moments we often found that we were either lacking the smart or the aggressive.

In all the talking though, we've really only given a general sense to this strategy. We say that we want to play this way and then I never really go into detail on what types of shots and skills are needed to play this way. Over the course of the winter, I want to "unpack" some of the shots and strategies that make a smaggressive game.

The first strategy that is crucial to smaggression is the crosscourt shot. Either the crosscourt forehand or the crosscourt backhand. When you talk about a high percentage shot, the crosscourt shot is always the highest percentage shot available. First of all, to hit a crosscourt shot the path of the ball will travel over the center of the net. The center of the net is the lowest part of the net, therefore you are less likely to hit the ball in the net. Also, the ball can travel a greater distance in the air when hit crosscourt. See the diagram below:

Cool graphics aside, it's easy to see that crosscourt is a safer shot in several ways.

But it is not inherently aggressive. In fact, it is often considered the safe play. But the type of shot that you hit can make it more aggressive. All season long, here at Bethany we practiced a crosscourt drill where I would say, "Go for more!" What this meant is that we attempted to increase the velocity of our shots by 10% and hit a more biting, more pacey, in short, a bigger shot. We tried to hit the ball hard.

This harder shot gives your opponent less time to react, less time to think, more room to make an error. It also puts you in an attacking mindset, hopefully ready to move forward on any weak return provided.

Getting control of this pounded crosscourt shot can provide us with a go-to shot for pressure situations. It takes a high percentage shot and goes after it with no fear, ready to follow it up with more smaggressive shots if needed. This is one of the biggest priorities for Bethany tennis this offseason, to continue to work on our smaggressive tennis. Here's a shot to start with.

Monday Morning Match Memories

MMMM #2: Bethany Christian vs. NorthWood, 2006

Wes Klassen, everybody's favorite older brother, didn't play tennis his freshman year at Bethany Christian. His sophomore season he played JV, rather successfully. He had a solid junior season, stepping into the number three singles position and posting a 13-6 record. The only thing that he really lacked was a signature win.

Coming into the 2006 season, we knew that we would have a hard time with NorthWood. They returned 5 of their varsity performers while we only returned two, Wes being one of them. Preston was a sophomore in 2006, and was playing Wes for the first time. Playing Wes for the first time is always a crazy thing, because of his odd looking strokes. Wes always hit with two hands, on forehand and on the backhand. And he was also short and blond and cute (sorry Wes), and it always seemed unlikely that he could hit the ball with any pace.

As Wes and Preston warmed up, it was obvious that even as a younger player, Preston had better strokes. But I was able to identify one weakness for Wes before the start of play. Preston looked like his backhand was the weakest of his strokes. Wes and I convened at the fence for a moment before he began the first set, and made the plan to attack the backhand mercilessly and hope for it to break down. What was convenient was that Preston is left-handed, meaning that his backhand is crosscourt of Wes's forehand. And as I think about it, attacking crosscourt is a much underused strategy.

So that's where we started. Hit the ball with your filthy weird forehand, hit it hard, and do it again and again and again. So little, blond Wes attacked. Crosscourt, crosscourt, crosscourt again. Preston retreated and hit backhand after backhand after backhand.

If you've never seen Wes or Russell's forehand, it is hard to describe. As the match continued, the ball kept kicking up into a sweet spot for Wes and he was crushing the ball. I don't know what gave him the confidence or what gave him the sudden ability. With two hands, he was taking the ball high, up by his shoulders almost driving it into the backhand corner. The image I remember in my mind is like a lumberjack swinging away with his ax at the base of the tree.

Wes didn't win every point. In fact, the first set stayed really, really close. Preston was and is a great player, so he wasn't going to fold just because we found his weakest shot. And he wasn't going to fold just because Wes was hitting well. And besides, his weakest shot was better than 3/4 of the other players that Wes played throughout the year. But little by little, it became evident that he was wearing down.

I've only seen Preston really frustrated one more time in his career, and that was when Luke was able to take the second set tiebreak from him at Sectional. But one of the marks of his incredible maturity in tennis is that he was able to recover from that disappointment against Luke and win the match. His sophomore year I was pretty sure that if Wes could get him to a breaking point, he wouldn't be able to recover.

The match went back and forth until it reached a first set tiebreaker. By the time we went into the tiebreaker, there seemed to be the team match at stake as well. It was obvious that we were going to have a chance to win both of the doubles matches (which we eventually lost in three sets) and this tiebreak gained added pressure as an indicator as to whether we could win the team match or not.

The progression of the first set had been really interesting too. At the beginning, Preston really had no worry that Wes was going to his backhand. He made no effort to run around it or avoid it. As Wes chopped and chopped and chopped, Preston began to make more of an effort to take care of his forehands, attack the net, move around backhands. His game began to show the wear of extra effort. I knew he would gain or lose energy based on the outcome of the tiebreaker, enabling his extra effort or making it even more difficult.

Wes jumped out to an early lead in the breaker. But Preston came back to take a 5-4 lead. Wes played it aggressively-safe (smaggressive?) on the next couple of points, taking big swings but going crosscourt. He forced three errors in a row, and won the tiebreak 7-5.

And then the tree tumbled. With first set in hand, Wes cruised 6-1 in the second. It was a big upset, a big win for Wes over a Sectional rival, and gave us hope as we moved toward that Sectional. We lost both doubles matches in three sets, but it seemed as if we had an opportunity. Wes could beat Preston again, and we could turn the doubles matches around. Of course, it didn't happen that way. But we didn't know that at the time of Wes' victory.

That is one of my favorite memories of Wes, and when he won there was no overt celebration. He just smiled some and shook hands with Preston. Preston was upset (sneak peek, at the Sectional he got his revenge and beat Wes fairly easily), but it had been a match of watching one person get worked down while the other played their best. And everybody needs to play their best once in a while!

FINAL SCORE: Wes Klassen defeats Preston Swain; 7-6 (5), 6-1

Catching Up on Friday

Another new feature for the Bethany website, "Catching Up on Friday." This segment will take a look at former members of the team and what they are doing, report and celebrate the best memories of our graduating seniors, or talk about what happened in the past week of current Bethany tennis players. This might be the most difficult for me to keep up, because it will require help and response from others. We'll see, but let's get it started!

Catching Up With...Bethany Players Who Played College Tennis
This year we have several players from the varsity team contemplating competitive tennis beyond high school. As I have been filling out recommendation forms for some of these guys, it got me thinking about the history of Bethany graduates who have played college tennis. So I thought I'd run us through a little history.


Daniel Lanctot, Bethany Graduate '98 - continued tennis career at Goshen College
- Daniel is the older brother of current Bethany assistant coach Andrew Lanctot. Lanctot family has a huge connection to Bethany tennis, as father Don Lanctot was the coach of the '99 and '00 squads that came the closest to Sectional victories and sister Rachel led the girl's team to their first Sectional win several years back. Daniel was actually my doubles partner in my junior year at Goshen, and we ran up quite a good record together. We were 8-2 after being teamed together midway into Daniel's senior season. This sweet picture is from that senior season. My favorite memory about playing with Daniel is his serve. He would foot fault by about two feet every time he served, and nobody ever called him on it. Weird?


Aaron Wieand, Bethany Graduate '00 - continued tennis career at Eastern Mennonite, then Goshen College
- Aaron Wieand was a four year number one singles player at Bethany, and went on to lead the tennis team at Eastern Mennonite...for one year. Then he decided to transfer back to the good old hometown of Goshen and help lead the Goshen team to several successful years. Aaron was a fun, laid back person with beautiful, technically efficient strokes. I spent two years on the Goshen team with him, and my senior season we actually finished second in the conference. That year he traded back and forth between one and two singles for the Maple Leafs.

Andrew Lanctot, Bethany Graduate '00 - continued tennis career at Goshen College
- Maybe the biggest success story of all the Bethany grads to play college tennis, Andrew left the highly successful Bruin high school teams to join on at Goshen College and be a part of the Maple Leafs most successful teams. Andrew began playing #3 singles at Goshen, but by his senior season he had captured the #1 singles spot. He was also named twice to the All-Conference team while at Goshen. But his biggest achievement was being the assistant coach of this year's Sectional winning Bethany Christian team! Andrew's time at Goshen overlapped with mine, and I remember that he was the player that I had the most confidence in on the court. If there was ever going to be a match that went down to the wire, I always wanted it to be Andrew's match. I think his consistent improvement was a main reason we finished at second in the conference during my senior season.


Aaron Lehman, Bethany Graduate '00 - continued tennis career at Goshen College
- Aaron was a member of the very talented 2000 class at Bethany as well. He didn't immediately begin playing college tennis, but in his junior and senior years at Goshen he was on the squad. Aaron didn't get into the "varsity" action very much at the College, but he brought a lot of energy to practice. He had a really big first serve that was fun to try to return and played with an aggressiveness that is hard to emulate.

Andrew Kauffman, Bethany Graduate '00 - continued tennis career at Goshen College
- I could not find a college picture of Andrew Kauffman, which is too bad. I think (and I may be wrong) that he only played one year at Goshen College. Much like Aaron, he had trouble breaking into the "varsity" lineup and played mostly exhibition matches. But his experience and knowledge were valuable as he became an assistant with the Bethany High School team for the 2006 season. He then also was the Bethany golf coach for two years, so many of the current team has seen him around. He was the first full time assistant coach that I had here at Bethany, and I appreciated that so much.

Tim Yoder, Bethany Graduate '03 - continued tennis career at Goshen College
- Tim is the one player on this list that I never really crossed paths with. I was not at Goshen College when he was on the team, and I became the tennis coach at Bethany the year after he graduated. I know that he led the Bruin team as the number one player for two years, and then played number four singles for Goshen College for two years before playing at a lower spot for his senior season there. By all accounts Tim was a likable, fun-loving guy with a lot of natural talent. He is also a lefty, one of the few that has been involved in tennis for Bethany over the years. He is also the cousin of the next player on the list...



Colin Yoder, Bethany Graduate '04 - continued tennis career at Bluffton University
- Colin was the first player to play #1 singles for me as a coach. He had beautiful strokes, well practiced, and had a successful season with a winning record during my first year as a coach. I encouraged him to pursue tennis in college, but his freshman year of college he decided to play soccer instead. Then during his sophomore year, he went out for the Bluffton tennis team. He played the #6 singles position, as well as #3 doubles. The team had a difficult time that season, only finishing 2-9. After a frustrating season, Colin decided that one year was enough and concentrated more on studies. Colin's sister Sarah is the girl's coach at Bethany now.

Evan Stahley, Bethany Graduate '05 - continued tennis career at Hesston College
- I didn't know that Evan had continued an interest in tennis in college until I jumped on the Hesston College website to see that he had been a manager for the team in his freshman year. Always good to see surprises that mean people are continuing their involvement with tennis.

Joel King, Bethany Graduate '06 - continued tennis career at Goshen College
- One of the best players to ever compete on a Bruin tennis team has followed up his successful high school career with a successful first 3 years of a college career. Jumping into college tennis at #4 singles his freshman year, Joel has continually worked his way up the lineup to a spot at #2 singles this past season, and also won himself a spot on the All-Conference team for the 2008 year. Such a competitor, Joel was known for grinding down his opponents in high school and has done the same at college, pulling a number of upsets over seemingly more talented opponents. Joel has always been a master of the mental game, of overcoming the long-ness or tediousness of a match and staying mentally alert. I'm glad to have been able to get over to the college and match some of his matches, and it still reminds me of the days when he led our team. Read more about Joel on the Goshen website.

Michael Steury, Bethany Graduate '06 - continued tennis career at Hesston College, then at Hesston Collge
- Michael didn't even start playing high school tennis until his sophomore season, but enjoyed two very successful seasons on the varsity his junior and senior years. After being a leader for the tennis team here at Bethany, he went on to Hesston and realized that he had plenty of tennis talent, enough to play for the Larks in his two years in Kansas. He then transferred for his last two years at Goshen College, where this year he split his time between exhibition positions and the bottom of the varsity lineup. You can check out all that the Goshen website has to say about him here.

Jordan Kauffman, Bethany Graduate '07 - continued tennis career at Goshen College
- Jordan was a four year varsity contributor at Bethany. Blessed with excellent hands and a very good service game, Jordan excelled in the doubles positions, racking up 38 varsity wins in his career at Bethany. He played mostly exhibition at Goshen his freshman year, but this past season broke into the "varsity" lineup, partnering Sheldon Good at #3 doubles. Never lacking desire to practice, Jordan will certainly look to move higher next season. You can read more about Jordan here.

So that rounds out the list for now. I expect to be adding more people to this list next year. I'm really proud of the fact that graduates have enjoyed their experience with Bethany tennis so much that they've continued on to the next level. It's always been said that tennis is a lifetime sport, here's hoping that we'll have lots of players that even continue "tennis beyond college."

Thursday Rant: No Ad Scoring

Yes, that's right, the Thursday segment will be a place for me to do what all bloggers do: rant. Then you get to write your comments about whether you agree, or disagree, or don't care. But every Thursday you can hear my deep passion for the game of tennis resounding in some fashion at this location.



TR #1: No Ad Scoring
Speed, efficiency, practicality, "getting things done." I hate those phrases. In a society that worships at the altar of speed and immediacy, I have always held onto the things that fight against that tide. My favorite sports show that, both soccer and tennis have an endurance, a patience, a buildup to them. Tennis has always been a sport that celebrates the patient and ongoing, the "battle" as assistant coach Andrew Lanctot would say.

If you search the records of our website, you'll see one of the stats that I celebrate is the longest recorded match. It's actually a match that we didn't win but I'm proud of the participants none the less. If you read match reports you'll often find that my favorite matches are the ones that stretch on and on and in which we persevere and win.

The beauty of tennis is that the nature of the game is to provide epic memories. And I believe that is what tennis, and sport in general, is supposed to provide. Memories, and the grander the better. Just think about some of the best matches ever. Federer and Nadel's Wimbledon final this year in which the final set extended beyond the normal point of the tiebreak. Or think about what we talk about after matches, "We had one game that went to like 12 deuces before I finally won the last two points in a row." We remember these epic battles that go back and forth within every game.

But practicality and modern society is pressing in on that beautiful game now. Many are wanting the matches to get over faster to manage the travel and time that matches take. And the answer to this at many tournaments and leagues is no-ad scoring.

Now, no-ad scoring has it's place as a practice drill. It allows for superficial pressure to be placed on one point. But it should never be used in a real match. It fundamentally changes the talents needed to succeed in tennis. Instead of a player who can persevere and fight back, force the match to continue and rescue themselves from the point of defeat, no-ad scoring places an emphasis on the luck of one point and the player who is able to step up repeatedly in a situation that concentrates all the pressure.

What I feel like is that society loves something that is containable. It wants something that it can control. This match is going to take two hours, period. Or one hour, or whatever. It also wants the same type of athlete. They want it to all come down to one moment, and then worship the person who succeeds in that moment.

I love tennis because it stands against that. If it is deuce and you take a chance and don't succeed, well, you can fight your way back to deuce by winning the next point. The variability of watching a game take 20 minutes because of the multiple deuces or watching a game take 2 minutes because someone wins each point, I think that is part of the beauty of tennis. Replacing it because we want to speed matches up seems like a cop out to me.

Here's hoping we never see no-ad scoring in Indiana high school tennis, because high school tennis has another dimension to it. We're also teaching lessons about life through sport. And one of the valuable lessons that tennis teaches is that of endurance and perseverance, picking yourself up from defeat and pursuing victory. That happens within each game, within the set, and obviously within the match. And all of that is crucial. It makes the player focus on each part as a small and important piece of the whole, a lesson that is important to life.

Anyways, I guess I just get annoyed when I watch a professional doubles match and see them speeding things up with the no-ad scoring system. I also know I'm probably in the minority in disliking it. But that makes me need to speak all the louder.

Wednesday Opponent Overview: Northridge

Last Season Review
Northridge will enter the 2009 season as our area's defending Regional champion. They ended the season on an impressive run, defeating Concord in the Sectional championship match, a match in which Concord had 7 match points to win the whole thing. It is something that the Northridge team will certainly not forget. Continuing to perform well under pressure, they defeated Warsaw 3-1 in a rain-shortened first round Regional match. Then they defeated East Noble 3-2 in the Regional championship before falling to Munster 5-0 in the first round of Semi-State.
They ended the season with a record of 15-3.

Returning Varsity Players

Nick Myers - One of the outstanding number two singles players in the area last year, Myers will look to take over the number one singles position that he challenged for the last couple of years. Against Bethany last year, Myers defeated Jonny Shenk as we shifted our lineup around to accommodate injuries. That match was over quickly and efficiently, with Myers winning 6-1, 6-0. Quick and efficient is a good way to describe Myers game, as he is very technically sound in every aspect of the game. He looks as if he has spent many hours honing his form on every stroke, which is a credit to him. I believe that Myers will be one of the top players in Northern Indiana next year and an All-District performer by the end of the season.

Dylan Pieri - Dylan Pieri was one of the many players who must have benefited greatly from Coach Doug Gossman's time with Northridge. At the beginning of the season, Ben Mast pulled off a great come from behind victory to defeat Pieri 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. And at that point in the season I would have said that Ben, our #1 JV player, deserved to win the match based on skill and talent. But by the end of the season, Pieri was playing a much more consistent brand of tennis. He pulled off an enormous comeback of his own, from down 1-5 in the third set against East Noble, to bring his team a Regional championship. I would think that this experience would buoy his confidence for next season. I really look forward to our matchup with him next season, as it should be a great match.

James Brandenburger - A member of number one doubles in 2008, Brandenburger is a steady performer. For the past two years he has partnered Blake Lukin, who will have departed due to graduation for the 2009 season. As often is the case with doubles teams, I have a hard time separating and evaluating individual players from other teams. I have long been an admirer of Brandenburger's doubles teams however, they always seem to stay steady under the course of pressure. Two years ago, Daniel and Mikey had them down 4-1 in the first set, but Brandenburger and Lukin didn't panic and came back to win the first set and steal our momentum. This year I watched them seal the team match against Warsaw in an intense second set tiebreak, that went to 13-11 I believe. In that match they fought off several set points. I believe that it was also Brandenburger's match in Sectional where the multiple match points were fought off. Either way, Brandenburger is a proven pressure player, something I admire.

Jeremy Runge - Jeremy Runge has provided some interesting matches for us over the past two years. In 2007, he played Jonny Shenk at three singles and we went into a long three set match. Jonny took the first set, but then Runge became more patient and won the second. In the third set, Jonny returned to his very patient ways, and won 6-0. Last year again, Runge played two doubles against Daniel Buschert and Seth Krabill, and it seemed that he and his partner (graduating senior Colin Chocola) were a bit anxious and over aggressive. They made many unforced mistakes, and provided little opposition, as Bethany won 6-1, 6-0. By the end of the season, these mistakes had been severely limited. In the first round of the Regional, they were able to defeat Warsaw's number two doubles to provide one of the precious winning points. So it seems progress was made here as well.

Other Possible 2009 Varsity Contributors

Cole Wogoman - lost 6-8 to Matthew Amstutz
Jeff Eash - defeated Mikey Kelly 8-5 (Mikey was playing left-handed)
Tim Wagner/Collin Roberts - defeated Kyle Miller/Austin Loucks 8-5

Outlook
This team has some serious holes to fill, but more than capable talent to do so. Losing All-District senior Jeff George will hurt, maybe not necessarily in the number one singles spot (as Nick Myers will probably be able to pick up the slack), but more likely at the bottom of the singles lineup. Also, it will be interesting to see how Jeremy Runge and James Brandenburger will be worked into the lineup, as they both lose doubles partners that they shared successful seasons with. Will they be paired together to make a new number one doubles team or will Brandenburger or Runge slide into the vacant three singles spot? These will be key questions for the Raiders, but they still have enough returning talent to have a successful season in the wins column. On top of this, they have a fantastic coach who seems to have really helped develop the talent they had at the beginning of the season. Coach Gossman is a big reason there will was a Regional title brought back to Middlebury. They will again be one of the top teams we play on our regular season schedule, a high marker for us to measure ourselves against.

Blessing
Lord, may You be in the work that these Raiders do to prepare for next tennis season. May You protect them as they put in time of concentration and learning. May each of them continue to develop talents and skills that You have given them athletically, just as we pray for ourselves. Thank You for the talent You gave them, and for the success they were able to have this past season. May You continue the work in their lives that You have started.

Tuesday Tennis Tip: The Second Serve

With Mondays through the winter being taken up with match memories, time for something special for the Tuesday schedule. Each Tuesday throughout the winter, I'll post a tennis tip. It won't be so much mechanics as much as strategy, mentality or a focus. Unless I decide it will be about mechanics, because this is my post and I'll post want I want to. Okay, that was a poor reference to an old song...now onto the post.

TTT #1: The Second Serve
This is probably the most underpracticed stroke in all of tennis. We all love our first serves so much, the glory of pounding an ace past someone, the pulling out of the radar gun and seeing if we can hit it 100 mph yet, which of course we can't. The first serve is seen as attacking and aggressive. We all figure that the second serve we'll just spin in and then start the point from there.

The truth is that the second serve is one of the most underrated strokes in all of tennis as well. The second serve is what keeps us from being broken on a consistent basis. We all have games where we get all of our "super serves" in, but more often we have games where we can't seem to find the first serve. We must have an aggressive second serve then.

That's the key then, is establishing a second serve with some bite. That means working on a serve that has a bit more spin, but is still struck with full pace. That means developing a serve that you swing through instead of push. That means consistently practicing the serve so that you have confidence when you hit it. That means a lot of work and concentration, noticing mistakes and making small adjustments. But it can be a big payoff.

In college I began to realize the power of a second serve. Throughout my sophomore and junior years, I began to change my service game so that my second serve has hit just as hard as my first serve. What I found that I had to pay attention to, in order to hit a consistent, attacking second serve was my service form.

This attention to form transformed my second serve. It became a weapon in and of itself. In fact, over the last two years of my college career I had more aces on my second serve than my first, because opponents expected me to simply get the second serve in to begin the point. When I didn't do that, it became a problem for them.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we all go for aces on the second serve. But here are some tips on form to make the second serve a more consistent yet still attacking stroke.

1. GRIP: You should use a continental grip, which is similar to the backhand grip. The butt of your hand should be on the bottom edge of the handle.

2. TOSS: To hit a kick serve, the toss should be directly above your head. To hit a slice serve, the toss should be slightly in front of you and out to the hitting side of your body. The toss must be consistent from serve to serve! In order to maintain a consistent toss, do not flip the wrist at all in extended the ball upwards. Simply lift and release. This causes the ball to not spin and stay in the same general area.

3. TOSS-HIT RHYTHM: As you practice, pay attention to your most comfortable rhythm of toss and then hit. When this rhythm is on, we usually do our best serving. It is different for everyone, so notice how long it takes for you between toss and hit on a good serve, then strive to continue that rhythm.

4. SET POSITION: Backswing should occur in your hitting motion that brings the weight and momentum to a set position, which weight centered in your legs and hips and hitting arm coiled in a raised position. If there is no build up of potential energy, it is difficult to create spin and pace.

5. EXTENSION: The main energy of the service swing should be directed upwards, not forward. The natural spin put on the ball will bring it back down. Focus during the swing phase of the serve should be on swinging up to the ball. Nick Bollettieri (a famous tennis coach) describes the service motion as "pitching upwards," using the same basic arm ideas as throwing a pitch in baseball but going upwards instead of out. I think that is a good mental image.

6. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE: Take time to make concentrated practice of the serve. Everybody hits a little differently, but knowing the keys of your service motion will help you under pressure.

That's it for now. Back for more tips next Tuesday!

Monday Morning Match Memories: Triton, 2003

I decided it was time to start a new feature here on the Bethany Christian tennis website, because I've run out of stories to tell about last season. Every Monday morning for the rest of the winter, I will highlight a match from my six years of coaching. Some will be ones that current players were involved in, some will be from the 2003 season when I started and our seniors were in 7th grade. It should be fun to look back at some of the history. Well, maybe I'll even get Andrew Lanctot to take us back to the glory days of the 1998 and 1999 seasons. This could get real fun!

MMMM #1 - 2003 at Triton

2003 in general is a year of regret for me. I was a very young coach that year, just out of college, 22 turning 23 during the season, and very inexperienced as a leader. When I look back at the year, I don't think I ever realized how much talent the team actually had. I remember thinking that we were talented enough to be a winning team, but when I think about it now, we were probably talented enough to win a match in the Sectional too. I wish I had the experience and coaching knowledge then that I do now, and that team would have provided several more victories.

But the match that I am most proud of from that season came on a Saturday morning down at Triton. It's the weirdest match on our schedule, a dual match on a Saturday morning at 10:00. It's led to some of the weirdest matches that we've played as well. They usually have a fairly talented team, that we are rarely ready to play.

In 2003, I knew nothing about any of our opponents. So when we showed up at 9:15 to find that only there coach was at the courts I was surprised. And I think I figured that we would win the match easily. You see, even by then I had learned that the more prepared team is usually the better team. I was a little too over confident however.

Their coach was a lady, unfortunately I don't remember her name. She greeted us warmly, shook my hand and looked confused about why we got to the courts so early. I said we just wanted to make sure we were comfortably warmed up when the match began, and she gave us a couple of courts to warm up on. So we hit and waited for our opponents.

We had a light banter going on, but when Triton's players began to arrive I tried to watch and see what our prospects might be. I wasn't convinced that it was going to be easy, all of a sudden. They had a talented senior number one, and good athletes at all the other positions. There is this short fence on one side of the Triton courts, and I remember sitting with my back against it watching and trying to figure how we would finish above .500 if we lost this match. My normal optimism was getting worn down by this point, as you can see.

I have to be honest, I don't remember that much about the actual match and the points that were played. I have general impressions, but... For example, I remember that there were several close sets in matches that were far away from one another. Triton's setup has the three singles court down a short hill from the other varsity courts. I can recall jogging back and forth between number one singles, number three singles, and number two doubles, all of whom had close moments in their matches.

The one position I didn't visit all that much was number two singles. Joel King was a sophomore playing that position for Bethany, and he was having the most successful season out of all of the players. If there was one position I never needed to worry about, it was two singles. Joel had already pulled out upsets of Jimtown, NorthWood and won the LaVille Invitational in his position. So I was completely shocked when he lost the first set here at Triton. At that point, I was sure I would be marking this match down as a loss. If your most consistent position fails, you are usually in trouble.

But I scurried back and forth between Colin Yoder at one singles and Ben Shenk at three singles, trying to inspire them both to victories that would seal the match for us. Senior Jordan Mumaw and junior Evan Stahley had secured the first point for the Bruins, and sophomore Joe Friesen and freshman Jordan Kauffman were in the process of wrapping up the second. That put us one match from victory. With Colin making a charge in the second set and Ben in a first set tiebreak, I figured one of their matches held the key to the comeback.

It was always interesting to coach Ben Shenk, because he pretty much had one type of game and had a difficult time changing. He had beautiful topspin groundstrokes, but they weren't particularly hard. He couldn't come to the net well, or didn't like to, and didn't have a big dominating serve. It didn't leave very many options for changing things when the match was going badly. And for a while he was leading so things didn't need to change. But his sophomore opponent Tyler Berger began to rally, and took the first set into a tiebreaker. Berger continued to be aggressive, buoyed by his success, and took the first set. When Ben dropped the set, things looked grim. We had lost first sets in three matches, and that often is an indicator of how the rest of the matches will go.

But Colin Yoder took the lead in the second set of his match against fellow senior Braxton Barton. Hope spring alive as he continued to work his consistent and well-formed strokes against Barton's unorthodox style. Barton's serve was almost like a forehand, twisted and out to the side with wicked topspin. His strokes were hit hard with biting topspin as well, and they caused Colin problems when they were hit in. But Colin was forcing errors at the beginning of the second set, and Barton looked frustrated.

As always happens, Colin was a bit shocked to be in the lead, and so in response to that he became tentative. Why does tennis always work like that? Suddenly Barton's shots were finding the court and Colin was losing his grasp on the set. Ahead 4-3, Colin and I talked on the grass at the side of the court. It was a motivational talk, filled with "you can do it's" and "keep working hard." It also didn't work. Barton took the next three games and won the match.

Ben's match looked bad too. Berger had taken a 4-1 lead in the second set. It was all over and we had lost.

Except, I had forgotten about Joel. I'm being serious, I had almost lost track of where his match was at. Call it inexperience. Call it pessimism. Whatever. But when I looked over to see how close he was to losing, it turned out that he was winning. He was up 5-4 in the second set, and within minutes had sent the match to a deciding third set. Hope was new.

I never know if what I say between sets and games helps, hurts or makes no difference at all. Joel sat with me and began to get that crazy competitive look in his eye as I talked to him about staying focused and staying pumped up. Then he stormed out and won the first game. Then he lost the next five games in a row to trail 1-5.

Okay, well, I had already come to grips with losing the match when I had watched Colin and Ben go down to defeat. So I braced myself for the upcoming disappointment... well, okay no I didn't. Joel managed to win the next game to make the score 2-5 and earn himself one more changeover. At the changeover, I reminded him of what I'd been telling the team all season, from the first practice. Play with competitive emotion. When you make a good shot, celebrate it. Yell, get pumped. Use your adrenaline. "Let's go!"

Well, Joel went with it. And you could see that it was going to work. With every point that he won, Joel let out a yell. It seemed to be annoying to his opponent, but he was also becoming discouraged as his third set lead evaporated away. This was another one of those experiences where our team gathered and cheered Joel on as well, continuing to feed his emotion and confidence. It's funny though, because at that point Joel wasn't a big hitter. He was more of a consistent player. So he was winning points by hustle, getting back and forth and keeping his shots in the court. And then getting pumped when it forced mistakes from his opponent. I don't mind that, but it probably does break "proper" tennis etiquette. I think about if this happened now, I probably would have told Joel to only cheer his winners, or the important points, but it's hard. You are excited when you win a point, no matter how you win it, and when you are mounting a comeback, you want to let it out.

Joel mounted the complete comeback, winning 6 games in a row to take the third set 7-5 and seal the match for the Bruins. It was an celebratory ride home, as we had won 3-2.

What I'll always remember about the match is the emotion that Joel put into coming back. The ability to just say "No, I'm not going to lose this match" and then make it come true. It was the inkling of the special player that he would continue to be for this program. There was a stubbornness in his eyes, that when fueled with belief, turned into a powerful force on the courts.

And I'll remember Bod calling me into his office on Monday morning after the match and telling me of the complaint filed by the opposing coach for Joel's lack of sportsmanship. It will never cease to frustrate how the coaches of our sport try to remove emotion and psychology from the game. Tennis is supposed to give us experiences that teach us how to live life, and if you teach players to pretend that they have no emotion, to keep it bottled up, to be stoic through a loss, when will they ever learn how to deal with emotion in a way that is useful. Raw passion is a powerful thing, and it should be approached, cultivated, and celebrated. Perhaps someday we'll see a match where the fans are allowed to make noise and yell throughout the match, where the players can pump their fists after every big point, and the coaches can scream their lungs out in encouragement and motivation. That is what this match always reminds me of.

MATCH BOXSCORE
Bethany - Score - Opponent

#1S - Colin Yoder - 3-6, 4-6 - Braxton Barton
#2S - Joel King - 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 - Kyle Whiteman
#3S - Ben Shenk - 6-7, 3-6 - Tyler Berger
#1D - Jordan Mumaw/Seth Troyer - 6-0, 6-1 - Jared Nifong/Julian Ravenscroft
#2D - Joe Friesen/Jordan Kauffman - 6-2, 7-5 - Chris Miller/Michael Reece

Breaking Down the Stats: Sectional

As Sectional champions from a school of small enrollment, I thought that I'd break down and make some comparisons across the state.

There were three "1A" schools to win Tennis Sectionals this year at of 64 sectionals. That means that 4.7% of the Sectionals were won by schools our size. They were:
- Bethany Christian
- North Daviess
- Vincennes Rivet

(Just as a note, North Daviess lost 5-0 in the Regional, while Vincennes Rivet defeated North Posey 3-2, before falling to Terre Haute North, 5-0)

In North Daviess' Sectional, there were these teams, with enrollment in parathesis:
White River Valley (414), Paoli (745), Loogootee (479), and Bloomfied (497)

In Vincennes Rivet's Sectional, there were these teams:
Vincennes Lincoln (845), Washington Catholic (177), Barr-Reeve (315), and Washington (765)

In Bethany Christian's Sectional, there were these teams:
Goshen (1567), NorthWood (901), Fairfield (568), Jimtown (631)

Now, this doesn't mean anything about the quality of tennis being played, but it is interesting to note that the combined enrollment of the schools in North Daviess Sectional is 2135, in Vincennes Rivet's it is 2102, and in ours it is 3667. So, relative to school size, we pulled off the biggest underdog story in the state!

Okay, so again, maybe that's a little over blown. But tell me it is not cool! And congratulations to the other small schools getting it done!

Kudus to the North Daviess Cougars, who won their first Sectional since 1992. They also enjoyed a 15-2 record on the season (they also had 6 seniors on the roster!)


And congrats to the Vincennes Rivet Patriots, a small school of only 91 high school students who advanced the furthest of any of our "1A" compatriots! Great job!

The Season: Part Ten

What do we measure success by? How, as Christians, do we look at a tennis season, or anything else for that matter, and say that God has blessed us? When I get to the end of a season, what will make me proud as I look back?

It can't be wins and losses. If it's wins and losses then there is a lot that I am not proud of throughout my history as a coach. If it's only wins and losses, then I am still fuming over the East Noble regional loss, the Concord loss, the Westview loss, even the Northridge loss. But I'm not.

The thing with wins and losses is that they are quantifiable. They are a safe and standard measure. That's why churches compare themselves to one another by looking at how many people are attending. Isn't the important thing about a church the way that they are responding to the teaching and following God? So what do numbers have to do with that. It's the same with wins and losses. They are measures of our talent, okay, I can agree with that. But is talent the same as success. I answer with a certain no.

So what measures success? I find that I look at success in two ways, and they have to do with reasons that I coach. The first measure is memories, the second is relationships.

I'm a story teller, come into any of my classes and you'll hear me telling stories of friends, family, and my life. I value new stories and new experiences. Tennis provides those for me. But the memories, the stories also provide opportunities to think about the nature of reality, the nature of life. And I find that since God is the ultimate creator of all reality, all the stories point to God. They all speak in some way of the nature of God or the world that God created.

This season answered the memories measure like none before. And some of these stories are inspiring and amazing.

The Penn match we rolled into with a record of 13-4. We had lost some heartbreakingly close matches to Westview and Concord the week before. Pulling into the school parking lot was an experience in itself. It had the feel of a small college campus, not the quaint old high school building we were used to. On the field next to the tennis courts, we walked by the Ultimate Frisbee club team practicing on one of the many practice fields available to the Penn mass of students. One of the them called to us that their team was awesome and we had no chance of winning. "They're going to destroy you," he said. I have to admit, with the massive nature of the school, the Penn team, their tradition, I thought that he was going to be right. Plus, I thought maybe God was going to smite me for my earlier pride in declaring that we would beat Penn this year.

But we warmed up and did our normal routine. The Penn players swarmed around in what seemed like disarray to me and I decided to use the atmosphere of distraction as a reason to focus all of our players. I remember exactly what I said as I gathered them together. "Penn is an excellent team. But each one of you has played against a better player at your position this year. There is nothing to be afraid of." Then the craziest thing happened: Everybody believed me. We went out playing like there was nothing to lose. I was so excited as I watched our doubles teams demolish their opponents in the first set, and so proud to watch their excitement as the pumped their fists, let out screams of encouragement and accomplishment. I watched as Luke gave perhaps the best player he played all year as much as he could handle. Watched as Jonny outstroked a similar opponent. Watched as the JV players pulled off many close wins to seal their undefeated season. When the match ended, I was glowing. I wanted to share the joy with everyone.

But what we soon learn with these memories is this: The only people who care are those who have the relational bond of the tennis team. My wife was somewhat happy, the athletic director Bryan was impressed, my friends at church smiled, but no one felt the deep joy that I had like the rest of the team. And that is why the relationships I have with all of the team is so important. I have a place to share my life, especially my tennis life, because I have a group of brothers who is experiencing the same thing.

And the experiences grew. One week and one day after the Penn victory we stood on the cold courts of Goshen High School seeking the first Sectional crown in Bethany history. It was so cold we could see our breath. The whole season had been nice weather and as we warmed up for our biggest match of the season, our sweat began to steam off our bodies. I told the guys that this was the setting that memories were made out of. Then we went out and played the worst tennis we've played all season. We were so tentative, we played like we hoped we didn't lose instead of wanting to win.

In that match, it became obvious to me that the whole season was coming down to one single position, two doubles. And when they went down 1-5 in the third set, I almost began to cry. It seemed so unfair to me that someone would work as hard as Daniel, care as much as Mikey, only to see the dream crumble in their hands. I really hope that they weren't thinking about this big picture while they competed, but I certainly was. And so I started praying. And I started waving. We'd been talking about prayer all year long, and blessings, and so I combined the two. "Lord, bless these two guys. They've worked so hard, they've put in so much time. The blessing would be to let them play that way, to eat the fruits of their labor." Again and again I paced behind Daniel and Mikey's court praying and waving my hands toward them, "Lord, bless. Lord, bless." Then with more urgency, "C'mon, Lord, bless these guys." And they started to come back, and they kept coming back, and then they entered a tiebreaker to decide the team match.

A little bit of back history, Mikey and Daniel had never won any tiebreakers. They always lost in matches, except in the previous week they had defeated Assistant Coach Andrew Lanctot and Russell Klassen in a tiebreaker at the end of the first set. Daniel had said then, "I guess we can win tiebreakers." As we stood and watched the fate of the Sectional, I thought back to that first tiebreak win and hoped that they would draw confidence from it, and win their first tiebreak ever in a real match.

Of course, if you read the banner at the top of the website, they did win the match. My favorite memory from the tiebreak is them being up 6-2 and Mikey double-faulting trying to pound in an ace for the victory. I like it because it was so aggressive. Man alive, the blessings flowed then.

But it wasn't the end of the story. I almost wish it was, because it was the climax. Oh, we played awesome in the afternoon and took it to NorthWood, lifted the Sectional trophy and went to El Camino to celebrate. But it was anti-climatic. And then the season ended on Tuesday, in another tiebreak.

I don't want to get into all the specifics because we are losing space for this post. But Daniel and Mikey were twice put into a tiebreak to win our first round Regional match for the team, and twice they failed. Jonny Shenk had a chance at a third set for the same prize, but came up short. But that memory to me is just as sweet as any other, and maybe tells of the success of this team more than any other.

After the match, there were no words. There were tears and there was a gathering of the team on the court. And they looked to me, and I said something about being proud. Because I was. We stood together and didn't say anything. We couldn't look at each other because we knew what was happening. This was the end of the season. We would never share the same experiences again. Looking into the face of each senior, it felt like we were all breaking up. That tearing in your stomach, that sense of longing for the way things used to be, that desperation to go back and do something over again.

This recap of the season has been my way of trying to relive it again. Trying to learn from the memories again. Trying to hold onto the relationships that I've formed, that are bound to go different ways as the seniors go to college and I stay here and joyously get to coach the underclassmen again. And build into those relationships more and more. But I treasure the times in the hall where any one of the team stops and talks to me. I treasure the letters I get to write to the colleges the seniors want to attend. I treasure hearing about Jared's bowling team experience, or Mikey's last second tip-in in the basketball game, or Seth's continued tennis lessons, or Austin's weight loss accomplishments, or Matthew's articles in the Reflector, or Johnny's college plans, or whatever and whatever, etc.

I care. The season was a success because I care and I can tell you why. "The Season" gave me memories I can always share with you, my brothers and friends.