Tennis Senior Captain Serves for the Final Time

Photo by Jai Boone | Dhruv Singh plays one of his final tennis matches for the JFK Tennis Team.

The John F. Kennedy High School boy’s tennis team honored their graduating players during their senior night match on April 23 against James Logan High School. This marked the conclusion of the high school tennis careers of the senior players on the team, including captain Dhruv Singh (12). Singh has been playing competitive tennis for about six years and is currently in the varsity-one position on the team.

“I feel like I really love tennis because it's just there for me,” stated Singh. “It's something I know that I'm good at and I can do reliably.”

Despite being a relatively small team, they have been working hard to be fierce competitors at matches.

“I'd say [the season] actually went a lot better than last year,” Singh commented. “I'm really proud of the team. Everyone really worked really hard to get where they are.”

Even through hard times and rough matches, Singh and other players were still applying themselves to be the best players that they can be.

“I'd say it might seem tough at times,” mentioned Singh. “Not every match is gonna be a good match, but if you really stick through it and you're really taking the effort to learn how it is, [you] really understand what it's like to be the guy with the racket.”

Being captain for any sports team is a large responsibility and Singh had to balance that with many other extracurriculars that he was doing that cut into his free time. Despite this, he still worked to make sure that he showed up as team captain.

Singh said, “My biggest goal was to get anyone who's near this sport or anyone who's just joined the sport for the first time … to really feel proud of themselves to the point where they want to keep playing tennis, not even just for the school, but just for themselves, as well, or outside tournaments.”

As captain, he was responsible for figuring out what areas the team was doing well in and what they needed to improve upon.

“After each game, we'd have … feedback sessions,” mentioned Singh. “I'll just ask everyone individually, ‘Hey, what do you think went right this match? What do you think went right or wrong? How do you think you didn't compare to last match?’ All those things, we add them up so they're all ready for [Mission Valley Athletic League]s, and they can give their best shot and play their great game.”

“I haven't seen a more enthusiastic team ever, especially for a team so small,” Singh reflected as his senior season came to a close. “I'd say compared to other schools, we're definitely starting to make some impact.”