Girls Tennis Team Pushed Forward With New Dynamics

The John F. Kennedy girls tennis team has had a very interesting season with new captains and new players. The season kicked off in September with practices starting at the beginning of the school year. For the past few months, the team members have been working hard to have a successful season.

One of the team captains, Divya Shanmugam (11), said, “I feel like it's an adjustment because all three of us are first time captains so it's a little bit difficult to manage practice.”

“As captain I have to make sure that the team is ready for games so I run drills, I teach everyone the rules and then sometimes I'll give people pep talks and also organize team bonding after games,” stated Surya Shanmugam (11), another one of the captains.

The captains have even more responsibilities on top of that. Divya Shanmugam mentioned that the captains’ responsibilities also include running practices, choosing the line ups for games, announcing the line up, leading the pre-game chant and organizing snacks and rides for games. Since Divya and Surya Shanmugam are the junior captains this year, they are also in charge of organizing senior night.

The other captain this year was Maizy Moiselle (12). This is her fourth and final year playing on the JFK tennis team. “I feel so sad but also so proud of my journey on this team,” she mentioned. “I have so much confidence in everyone and will be so sad to leave this family behind.”

This year, senior night was held on Tuesday October 28 to honor the players graduating this school year. Kiana Shin (12) said, “Honestly it feels pretty surreal that this is my last year in the tennis team and I think I’m going to miss it a lot.”

Shin has been on the team for three years and her best memory was when the whole team would stay until all of the games finished so that they could hang out together.

Divya and Surya Shanmugam have both been playing for over 10 years. “I've been playing for a while so I’m good enough at it that it's relaxing but at the same time games can be stressful,” Divya Shanmugam mentioned. “I’d say I also like tennis because it’s more of an individual sport so I feel like I have control over the points a little more.”

This year, a large portion of the team is made up of new players. Surya Shanmugam mentioned, “I think their skills are developing pretty good especially considering how little time we had.”

Ryan Vang (11), who is one of those new players, commented, “I thought it would be easier, but it's actually harder than I thought it would be. It's been really fun trying to learn and I think I've made a lot of progress.”

Vang had no prior tennis experience but was drawn to joining the team this year because of the Instagram account for the team and because she wanted to stay active. She said, “I get to play with my doubles partner and the team is really fun.”

Despite the many challenges that the team has faced this season, there were also many improvements this season. “We’ve gotten more funding this year which has been really helpful in terms of equipment,” Surya Shanmugam commented.

Divya Shanmugam also mentioned, “I think this year our coach is definitely stepping in more.”

Many members of the team also expressed that the bond between team members this year is incredibly strong, making the experience more enjoyable. Vang mentioned that one of the reasons why she likes being on the team is because everyone on the team is so nice. Surya said that she thinks that the connection between the players is very strong this year.

Shin said, “Something I really like is that everyone is so friendly and supportive of each other, so every practice is memorable.”

“I love how close we all are,” Moiselle continued. “We lean on each other and lift each other up. We truly are a sisterhood and that’s the best part.”

“I feel like our team is really well bonded this year despite losing a lot of seniors that were close to the team and then it's been really fun to just have new people join and teach them,” Divya Shanmugam stated.

On top of that, the team has really high ambitions for next year. Vang hopes that she will win more games next year and get better at communicating with her doubles partner. Divya Shanmugam is looking forward to seeing how all of the new players advance their skills even further next season.

Photo by Nicole Nomura | Girls Tennis played another season filled with fun, excitement, and friendships.