As many, but maybe not all, of us know, last year the Varsity Tennis team won Hewitt’s first A.A.I.S. tournament title in almost thirty years, and I am proud to say I was a part of that team. Now, a year later, what do the captains and the coach have to say about the team and their goals? Here is the inside story from co-captain, senior Carly Konsker, and Coach Jon Gruenberg.
Carly believes that, once again, the team is a very strong and will go very far in the tournament. “I know we have the talent and motivation to excel this year,” she stated confidently.
A common goal for both Carly and Mr. Gruenberg is to win the league and the tournament. “Certainly, this team has the most talent of a Hewitt Varsity Tennis Team in my nine years of coaching. That is not to put undue pressure on them, but I would expect we’ll be one of the top teams in the league on talent alone,” commented Coach Gruenberg. “Beating the other top teams, which are likely to be equally talented, often comes down to intangibles like desire and character. Success in tight matches like that demands focused preparation during practice, execution during the matches, and a little good fortune never hurts either,” he added.
Something I can speak to, as a former member of the team, is the brutal travel schedule. The girls must travel one hour to the courts, which are in Alley Pond, Queens, and one hour back. With traffic, that can commute can result in players getting home at eight o’clock. “That sort of shared adversity is often what brings teams together. Overcoming adversity and being part of something larger than oneself to accomplish as a team what individually you could not are so much a part of what team sports are all about,” stated Coach Gruenberg. He has also started “to see players on the team push each other to be better,” and noted that if the players, “Demand the most of one another and, when given the choice between doing enough and doing more, [they] choose the latter, then [they] will thrive as a team and represent Hewitt in the way [they] are capable.”
If you can devote one day to go see the team play in a match, I would highly recommend it. The team sets the courts on fire.