New Berlin West boy’s tennis season is now underway. They held their first practice on Monday, March 31st.

The head coach of the varsity team is Heidi Stigler; she has been coaching for the past four years. The junior varsity coach is English teacher Andrew Johnson, who has been coaching for three years. This year the captains are seniors Jesse Pakula and Nate Gale. They earned their title when the teams voted at the end of last season on who the captains should be.

Tennis seems to be neglected within the school and I feel it is because students either do not understand the rules of tennis or overlook its potentially fun aspects. Students need to support tennis as they do other spring sports like softball, soccer, and track. As senior Ross Wick says, “Not a lot of students show up to the meets, but most parents do.”

The first thing to know about tennis is that a team consists of 10 players, four singles players and three doubles teams. Players get to pick if they want to compete as a singles player or on a team. Senior captain, Jesse Pakula, is the currently the best singles player on the team.

The scoring of tennis may seem a bit complicated, but it actually is quite simple. Varsity players will always play a full match, which consists of two out of three sets with regular scoring. The rules are judged by the players themselves. They make their own line calls. If the ball is considered in or out and if a ball touches any part of the line it is still considered in.

They also have to keep track of their own scoring. A player needs to get 4 points to win the game. They start at 0, which is considered “Love”, 1 is 15 game points , 2 is 30 game points, 3 is 40 game points and 4 is game over in which a two point advantage is required in order to win. This is only a brief summary of the scoring, but if you would like to learn the full detailed rules and regulations, the internet is a great place to start.

If you want to see the game in action go watch our 2014 Boy’s Tennis team at their first varsity invite on
April 5th, 2014 at Slinger/Hartford at 9:00 a.m. and cheer them on! But not too loud while they are playing (just another rule)!