(A Picture of the RHS Boys Tennis Team after a Districts Match)
Meet the RHS Boys Tennis Team along, with their Managers and Coach.
(From back row left to right.)
Coach Bao, Kevin Dang, Junemarc Antiojo, Tom Vo, Logan Dang, Ben Lam, Kareem Daniel, Richie Dang
(Bottom row)
Jackson Le, Alyssa Yun, Lucianna Mallette.
This is the RHS Boys Tennis team, playing all the way to leagues. Each one of them having their own unique skills and gameplay mindset. Working together or alone, they’re amazing. I asked Coach Bao about his opinion and thoughts about our RHS boy’s tennis team. He says “I’m excited about where our team is moving. There is a lot of potential and the team is young so I see us being very competitive in the coming years.” Here below, I asked a few players some questions related to tennis to see their opinions for more people to join!
Q+A
Q #1: What do you want to tell students who would like to play/join tennis?
● A(Lucianna): “You should definitely do it, it’s the best sport.”
● A(Junemarc): “Tennis is really a fun sport, at first it may be challenging but y’know there’s always those baby steps you need to go through and in the end, all you just need to do is have fun, socialize with your friends and at the end, it’s gonna be a fun time and fun experience.”
● A(Ben): “You should join tennis, it’s a fun sport.”
Q #2: How hard was the process to get to the point you are now in tennis?”
● A(Lucianna): “Really hard, you gotta put in work and the hours and grind if you like really wanna do good.”
● A(Junemarc): “It was really hard playing tennis for 2-3 years, every day it was really challenging but you think that every day you’re the better person that you were yesterday, which is true but you become better every single day and you don’t even know it because as time goes on and you practice more and more you get the experience you’ll get more and more comfortable playing higher level players.”
● A(Ben): “it took a month but I wouldn’t say it was overly difficult it’s more of transferring the skills you had from other sports or other activities into the sport, for example, badminton at first it wasn’t able to translate it well but overtime I was able to translate the skills into tennis along with tons of new skills and it’s not super difficult.”
Q #3: What was your experience when you first played/joined tennis? Was it hard? Was it easy?
● A(Lucianna): “definitely hard.”
● A(Junemarc): “It was hard at first because I was really intimidated by the whole team because freshman year there were about 10 seniors and I felt like I couldn’t really be included in the team until someone came up to me and was like “what’s your name?” and then they introduced me to the whole team and I felt like I had a personal connection with them even outside of tennis.”
● A(Ben): “It wasn’t overly difficult because I understood where my limits were, I understood that I wasn’t trying overly hard because I knew where my limits were I put effort into the places I needed to improve on, and for me that improvement result was pretty fast and I’m still improving to this day.”
Q #4: How was your first match play like? Was it easy? Hard? What were your thoughts?
● A(Lucianna): “I was so sad, I played against the best school and that was just revealing but y’know you can learn from it.”
● A(Junemarc): “My first match play was tough. I remember i held on 3-2 until the person catched up to me winning the whole match. after 3-2, I technically just gave up because my mental strength wasn’t so strong and i needed to work on it. overall it was a tough match and something to forget about since i didn’t give out a fight to myself.”
● A(Ben): “It was pretty easy, against Samammish even if it was an exhibition it wasn’t their best members forward I still lost pretty badly, it wasn’t a great experience but overall I think people learn a lot from it and it is what it is and I
definitely knew that I wasn’t ready for the game yet.”
Q #5: Over time, does it get easier or harder? What do you really have to test to get into
gameplay?
● A(Lucianna): “It definitely gets it harder, mental is your everything I mean you can like have trash skill at first but then like come out and train, you just have to have the mental for it.”
● A(Junemarc): overtime it does get easier but it’s def a long process, tennis is just not about physical and just not about hitting the ball, it’s also mental as well you gotta think about what your weaknesses what their weaknesses it’s def a complex process to go through but over time you’ll get more and more experience just like i said earlier
● A(Ben): “I’d say it’s both easier and harder, if you heard about the Denin cougar effect when you start out you think you know a lot but then you get a massive amount of improvement but then when you start playing the game more you get that affect where you start falling and you realize you don’t know a lot and you slowly get better.”
Q #6: What are the qualities of a tennis player? And why do you think that?
● A(Lucianna): “I think the qualities of a tennis player are critical thinking, confidence, and mental toughness because those are all essential qualities every player needs and a good amount have.”
● A(Junemarc): “I think the qualities of being a tennis player are that it’s good for your health and it’s something that like you can play even if you are old and overall you find a different level of players in tennis and you def meet new players that will help you out.”
● A(Ben): “I think for sure, good mentality because if you’re frustrated it messes you up a bit and you are not able to focus in the game so you need to stay calm and be ready to be in-game because when you’re not calm your opponents can take advantage of that.”
(Picture of tennis players on the tennis court with the rainbow above)
Q #7: What are the struggles of being a tennis player? And what are the successes of being one?
● A(Lucianna): “Back pain, sore legs, hand-eye coordination. There’s a lot of struggles but I think the best thing is the outcome and like all the stuff you gain from it.”
● A(Junemarc): ”The struggles of being a tennis player are finding the right people with you and knowing how to take care of yourself, it is a very physical sport and you have to prepare yourself, that’s one of the struggles, the successes is that if you work really hard to something and you win it that’s like the success because all that hard work you put into it paid off.”
● A(Ben): “The struggles of a tennis player. Honestly, I don’t necessarily feel like it’s any different from any other struggle though it’s majority mental. It’s highly mentality-focused. If you don’t maintain a good demeanor then you’ll probably not improve or make great decisions. The successes of being one is personal satisfaction. You get to be happy.
You get to interact with others. It’s for personal satisfaction, you don’t look for validation from others. Just yourself.”
Q #8: Why did you decide to join/be a tennis player? Why did you join the tennis team?
● A(Lucianna): “Well I tried it just on the wim one day, at school like in middle school but I decided to join to manage the boy’s tennis team so that I can go and support the boys.”
● A(Junemarc): “I became a tennis player because my brother-in-law introduced me, to how to play tennis and that’s really all that it started, and overtime he told me I should join the tennis team because he went to state and I’m trying to be like him and now I’m trying to go to districts so that’s a one step forward.”
● A(Ben): “Because our captain Richie is really cool and I wanted to join to become like him and he was offering for me to join for a long time and tennis just looked cool and very enjoyable.”
Q #9: How does being a tennis player affect other people? How does it affect you?
● A(Lucianna): “We make it look easy as tennis players for people y’know and I think that helps inspire them to join but when they really get into it and they try it out, they realize it’s not that easy but think it gives them the motivation to become players.”
● A(Ben): “I can’t comment on how it affects other people since I do not know how i would experience that but for myself, it is a good way to relieve stress and have fun and make new friends.”
Q #10: What do you generally think about being part of this sport?
● A(Lucianna): “It’s amazing you should do it, it’s the best sport.”
● A(Junemarc): “I think it’s very cool, I think it’s very chill and you get to meet new people and it builds very high-level friendships.”
● A(Ben): “It’s really fun and it’s really progressive.”
Q For the captain; How does it feel to be the captain of the tennis team?
● A (Junemarc): “It’s been great, trying to keep everyone motivated trying to keep everyone up to their feet. Even if people lose I try to motivate them and be like ay just learn from your mistakes it’s a long process just being a team captain and seeing how everyone has improved over time over the season, I’m just really proud of them and their
hard work and I’m glad that most of them will be here next year Q For the manager; How does it feel to be the manager?
● A (Lucianna): “It feels awesome, I get to go and watch them practice and help teach people and then also go and watch amazing matches because I love watching matches so y’know and we have a good group of players.”
As you can see, almost all players can agree that it’s an excellent sport and although it’s hard at first, it’s worth it in the end. Based on their responses, it seems like joining tennis is a great choice and it helps you in many different ways, like making new friendships, building a mentality, growing stronger relationships, and keeping your mind calm.
