Friday, Nov. 14, 2008

Grapevine Stopped at Regional Tourney

Tennis Journal

By John English

Contributing Writer

The Grapevine tennis team’s season came to an end at the regional tournament against long-time rival Southlake Carroll, but not before the Mustangs went undefeated in district competition and defeated Arlington Lamar at the regional meet.

Coach Angel Martinez said he is proud of his teams’ efforts this season and said he has already started to prepare for the spring.

"I thought the regional meet went very well for us," Martinez said. "We beat Lamar 10-1, and then we went out to face Southlake in the regional quarterfinals. Their strengths are what they are, and our strengths are what they are, and the way that the regional plays out, they beat us 10-3."

Martinez said he is "extremely" satisfied with the season as a whole.

"We have taken a step in the right direction," Martinez said. "We’ve played with the best teams in the state, and we played blow for blow with them. It was exciting this year."

The coach said he will begin preparing for the spring season this week, but said he tries to take it a little easy on his players.

"In this sport, you have to be careful with burnout issues," Martinez said. "There are some real serious burnout issues with kids playing their own personal tennis outside of school, and then they play school tennis in the fall and the spring, and it can become not overwhelming, but just a little too much.

"As a tennis coach, you need to take the hat off and not be a coach for a week or so...and let them know that you do care about something else besides tennis. I think that recharges them, and it recharges me, as well."

Martinez said practices are cut back in the off-season so players can get their individual training, and once January rolls around, they go at it full speed ahead.

The Grapevine coach said if there is one thing he would like to see his players take from the fall and apply to the spring season, it would be the belief that they can compete against anyone in Texas.

"The most important thing is that we are just about a half a step away from being as good as the best in the state," Martinez said. "We’re right there. We are right there."