That was a great win and I must admit as nervous as i've ever been for a tennis match. My stomach was tied up in knots from the moment I left practice yesterday. As a tennis player, wherein i'm your coach now, i could simply go on the court and have some degree of control over the outcome. I could let off my nervousness through competition. I am your coach and I can give you advice and make observations but I feel much more comfortable being on the court and competing.
You all played great, and I saw some good JV matches too. Once again we relied on Mark "Million Dollar" Mc Shane, The Legion of Lamberto, John "The Hammer" Villari and Mitchel "The Rocket" Rogers, for our 3 wins. Frank played quite admirably against a USTA ranked opponent, and I sincerely was most impressed with Too Tall Terry Long. It was fun to see him compete with a high degree of confidence and act like he had been there before. BUT we all have do such in practice a little more so we can continue on this path, and have that good winning feeling.
Going forward we will walk with that very same confidence, we will act like we've been there before and we'll work hard in practice to continue what we started. I'm starting to see that glow and I want us to grab hold of it and never let it go now. Cause I know you all see it and know you can do it, and truly knowing means it will be easier to replicate such in the future.
The first time, competing in such matches, for most of you, there can be some uncertainty. That's what I was most nervous about, as I didn't sleep well last night. Then I woke up and grabbed the Courier Post, and saw that we were ranked #20, thus we had a target on our back that we didn't have before.
Therein our rival Bishop Eustace, and a team that beat us 4-1 last year, knew we were ranked now. I was even more stressed, but after today that weight has been lifted for good, as such a feeling was my first time as a coach feeling such. So thanks to all of you for doing so well and relieving my stress by day's end with another great win that takes us to 3-0.
Here are the two articles taken out of the Courier Post over the weekend. The first one is about our upset win over Seneca, as I called Julie Shannon when I got home that night and told her about our exploits. I asked her about a ranking at the end of our conversation and she said she wasn't sure. She wrote a great little piece on us. The second, seen above, are the rankings that came out today. We got one, you should be very proud of yourself.
I want to wish Henry a VERY happy Birthday and he'll get a loud sing along tomorrow. Here's some Beatles for you Hank, they go great with any occasion. I also want to thank Mrs Long for bringing the team gatorade and pretzels. That was very kind of her.
I also want to remind you about the Pauction donation that I sincerely hope all of you will make. Its five dollars per student and Pauction Organizer Mr Villari sent out an email to the team the other day and this is another reminder. I'll remind all of you tomorrow and John will take the donations and mark you off the list. The Villari's and many other PVI families do a great job supporting you, the student/athletes of Paul VI and I am grateful for their hard work on such.
I don't see Seneca in this ranking. You can take two things from that, one ... that they'll be ready for us next time and two ... that we still are not thought very highly of. I think very highly of each one of you, and after what I saw today, I'll sleep better tonite. But remember both as were preparing each and everyday for that rematch in a few weeks.
