On Friday, August 22, tennis officially played its first Pre-Season match against Liberty High School. The team, led by head coach Dela Rose, has now been practicing for over a month, excluding summer practices, and is beginning to get into the groove of the new season. As of now, the top three doubles, as well as the top three singles, have been decided and will now compete every match. This includes Chanel Anthony, Jace Eichner, Layla Burnell, Elise Eichner, Aurora Bowers, Everette Southwick, and many more. Although the match was lost, with the final score coming in at 13-5, some standout players demonstrated exceptional determination.
Alison Amador, who’s now playing her first year as a singles player after playing doubles last year, has shocked coaches as well as herself with her insane improvement. Amador won one of her matches 6-4 after only playing singles in one other match. Although Amador is doing exceedingly well as of late, she has worked incredibly hard to get where she is today. “I started last year before freshman year, and I just kept coming to practices. I would even try to show up every day during winter because I wanted to get better.” Amador explained. Her extreme improvement has not gone unnoticed, though, and even the coach has given her the well-deserved props she has earned. “She has improved drastically! She’s a quick learner; she didn’t know how to hit more than one ball in a row on Tuesday, but yesterday she hit 9 in a row against our best singles player.” Said the head coach, Dela Rosa.
Although the team could’ve been discouraged about the loss against Liberty, they weren’t. This could be partially credited to Dela Rosa’s unwavering encouragement, no matter the circumstances the players are put through. Dela Rosa focuses on his players’ health as well as how they perform. During practice and before meets, he thoroughly encourages his players to try their best but also take their health into consideration. “I don’t want my players overworking themselves and wearing themselves out. I want them to have fun and get better, and they won’t do either of those things if I’m yelling at them and working them like dogs.” Dela Rosa said.
Although his coaching methods are a little unorthodox compared to other coaches at PVHS, he has led his team to three state championships and has a large background in the sport. Players have frequently expressed how kind, knowledgeable, and passionate he is when it comes to tennis, and it is obvious that Dela Rosa only needs his passion to lead teams to victory, not yelling at players, getting angry, or exhausting students in the heat for multiple hours every day.
Despite loss against Liberty, it is blatant that players will continue to keep their heads up and show up to practices every day and strive to be the best with a prideful sense of dedication and determination. Some see this as a discouragement, but it is indefinitely a source of motivation for the players and the coach to work as hard as they can for the future.
