With roughly half of the roster being made up of new players and a new coach in Jake Worseldine, it’s definitely a season of change for the Mingus tennis team.
The new players are not only new to the Mingus team but largely new to the sport altogether. But through the early practices, Worseldine has been encouraged by the team. Much of that enthusiasm comes from the attitude that the players have all shown.
“I’d say they’re enthusiastic,” Worseldine said. “They’re psyched to be outside. They’re psyched to have a season. The guys have high spirits. We had some challenge matches, they’re getting some competition. We threw them in the deep end with some skills and away they went. They did challenge matches for the first time and did really well.”
The more experienced players on the team have seen that, as well.
“Even the newbies, you can see them changing,” junior Jack Zahoudanis said. “I missed half of the first week of practice but even in the couple days that I’ve been here you can see the improvements in their strokes.”
While the order might change, Worseldine has a pretty good idea of which players will make up the top four on the team — Zahoudanis, Evan Flannery and brothers Micah and Silas Russel.
Of the remaining roster, Jackson Moore will likely be the No. 5 player. While his experience was limited to 2020’s brief season, he does bring some experience in the sport. The others — Gabe Koehl, Nicholas Knowles and Gavin Clark — will battle for the No. 6 spot as well as time in the doubles lineup.
Clark and Koehl were not initially planning on coming out. But once they did, they quickly realized that it was something they enjoyed.
“Gabe told me about it jokingly, but then we decided to do it,” Clark said. “It’s really fun — probably the most fun I’ve had in sports. People should be more open minded about it. Once you actually start playing, it’s really fun.”
And while Worseldine is a new coach, he does have some familiarity with at least part of the roster. He worked with the United States Tennis Association programs that were at Mingus in the offseason and estimated that roughly half of the players now on the team showed up for some of those.
His fun attitude toward tennis has rubbed off on the roster.
“Coach is really cool,” Clark said. “I was surprised when I first met him. He wasn’t what I thought he was going to be like. He’s really cool.”
And while the early progress might be strong, the Marauders know that they’re going to be less experienced than most of their opponents.
With that, the expectations for the upcoming season remain modest.
“I’m not really looking to make it to state or win any championships,” Silas Russel said. “But I just want us to do well and not get completely crushed by the other teams. And I think we can achieve that.”
Worseldine added that he wants to “get on the board” by winning one or two matches and feels that with the top four, there’s a good chance of that happening.
More than that, he wants to be sure a season takes place and that the positive attitude he’s seen through the early weeks of practice remains strong with the Marauders as the season goes on.
“I’m just excited that we have a season. Everyone is,” the coach said. “That’s No. 1. No. 2 is having them play matches. Every match they play is an experience. So far everyone I’ve seen has an amazing attitude. Nobody is smashing a racket. And they’re playing in this. All of our practices thus far have been with 25 mph gusts — and their spirits are still high.”
