| Spartan Booster Club Varsity Tennis 09/10 |
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| December 17th update: For those of you who have not heard, the tennis team is very excited that Stratford’s coach, Rory Frazee, was named Coach of the Year by the Texas Tennis Coaches Association for the Class 5A schools throughout Texas. He was nominated by a colleague, Manuel Moreno, Jr, the head tennis coach at Dobie High School. Rory was among an elite group of 15 nominees from the 5A schools in Texas who represent the best of the best in tennis coaches. This vote was considered to be one of the most competitive in years. When asked to submit his philosophy on coaching tennis to the selection committee, this is a portion of what he provided: “Winning is a lot more fun than losing. However, winning is not all about the score and there are many ways to win. The ultimate way to win is making all of your decisions based on what is best for your players… even if you don’t get the score you want, if there is a measurable improvement in the athlete, and you have done everything possible to make that happen, then you can honestly still walk away a winner. Players will remember how much you cared about them, not about how much you cared about winning. They will remember how much integrity you had, especially during times of adversity.” In addition to having a winning attitude, he has had a very successful tennis career here at Stratford: * Advanced to Playoffs in team tennis 23 of 25 years in coaching (all in 5A) * Undefeated in a ten year period with overall 88-0 record in district play * Advanced players to the State Championship in Austin 17 of 18 years: four times his team went to the Championship match, three times the teams went to the Finalist match, and four times the team were in the Semifinalist match. * Won the Texas 5A state doubles championship in 1993 We are all thrilled, that on this, his 25th anniversary of coaching in SBISD (22 of those at Stratford!!!), he has been recognized with such an honor. Coach Courson, Dollie Goren, and Julie Yancy accompanied him to Jon Newcomb Tennis Ranch to receive his award on December 4th. The award was presented by Tom Gullikson, former US Open doubles champion, former Wimbledon Doubles Finalist, former US Davis Cup Captain and former US Olympic Team Coach. It was quite an honor to be with Coach Frazee when he accepted his award. November 4th update: We are thrilled to announce that our tennis coach, Coach Frazee, who is celebrating his 25th anniversary with SBISD (23 of these at Stratford), has just been named 2008-2009 Class 5A Coach of the Year by the Texas Tennis Coaches Association. We have always known that Coach Frazee is the best of the best, and are so excited that the TTCA has recognized his dedication to the sport, our athletes, and our school. Coach Frazee has always been the cornerstone of the tennis program’s “Tradition of Excellence.” To paraphrase Coach Frazee, “winning is fun, but there is a lot more to a successful team than what is indicated in the score.” CONGRATULATIONS COACH FRAZEE!!! October 28th update: Congratulations to the varsity tennis team who is advancing to the Regional Championships this Friday and Saturday at Deer Park. The Spartans finished their regular season with a winning 13-3 record. In order to advance to the 16 team Regional Championships, a team has to finish in the top two teams of their district. We are proud to announce that Stratford will be competing for the 21st time in the last 23 years, which tops all athletic teams in Spring Branch over that period. Please look for an article in the This Week section of the Chronicle for Thursday, October 29th with additional news on this event. Meanwhile, check out the Stratford website homepage for the announcement and some nice pictures of our varsity players. The team takes on Clements in the first round Friday morning at Strawberry park beginning at 8:00AM. Best of Luck team! The varsity played their last dual match prior to the district tournament and regional championships and scored a significant victory over a team in the hunt for their trip to the playoffs. The Spartans tamed the Cy Woods Wildcats 11-8 to finish their regular season on a high note. Our girls, who have been consistently outstanding all season, scored another sweep of their singles and doubles matches. Haley Goren stormed back from a 4-1 deficit in the second set to close out her match with a 6-2, 7-5 straight sets victory. Johannes Van Leggelo teamed with Sung Yoo to chip in a key victory for the boys in winning their doubles match in straight sets. Jared Whitaker teamed with Audrey Sirgo to take a nice win in the mixed doubles match. What a good way to finish the regular season! October 14th update: Our varsity headed over to Alief last week to face Elsik, who was tied with us for second place in the district standings. Just like us, their only loss had been to Memorial. We decisively broke the tie with a 17-2 dismantling of the Rams. Our work in approaching split set super-tie breakers has been paying good dividends as the Spartans swept all three super tie breakers that came our way. Monica Pieratt and Jared Whitaker turned in outstanding performances as they anchored their team in the number one singles positions. September 23rd update: 9/21/09 The varsity tennis team wrapped up an outstanding weekend of tennis going undefeated with a 3-0 record in the Pasadena Tri-Invitational this past Friday and Saturday. On Friday, they traveled to Pearland where they delivered a 19-1 beat down of the Oilers. 20 different players got into the action as we spread the playing wealth around. On Saturday morning, we traveled to Pasadena to take on Dobie High School. Dobie was district champions two years ago and district runner-ups last year. They feature a program with over 100 players. We emerged victorious in posting a final score of 15- 4. All wins were straight set victories. We saved our best for last, as we faced Friendswood High School at their place Saturday afternoon. Friendswood, with a population identical to Stratford, is ranked #22 in Texas for 4A schools by the Texas Tennis Coaches Association. It took our best effort of the season, but eventually the Spartans prevailed over the Mustangs 11-8. The match featured a number of heroic come backs by Stratford players that pushed final outcomes into three set tie breakers. Eight of the nineteen matches were decided in the third set with Stratford claiming six out of the eight tiebreakers. Stepping up to the plate under pressure were: Jared Whitaker/ Catherine Weitzel (mixed dubs with Catherine continuing her undefeated streak in three setters this fall in singles as well), Hannah Byatt/Sarah Yancy (girls dubs with Sarah also pulling out a dramatic three setter in singles), Hannah Yancy/Sequoia Owens (girls dubs) and Johannes Van Leggelo (won both his morning and afternoon singles matches in three setters). Congratulations team on your best win of the fall so far. 9/20/09: It was a whirlwind of activity last week with all three teams jumping into the pile with Memorial. Final score wise, the Mustangs emerged victorious in each of the contests, but our team philosophy ultimately values hard work, character and improvement over scores as our highest priorities. If we continue to follow that path, there will be plenty of wins to come our way. The varsity began the week tied for first with Memorial in district and played them at their place on Tuesday. Our girls had a good day and won the majority of their matches against the Mustangs. They led off by sweeping all three doubles matches and followed that by winning the top three lines of singles. Those three young ladies, Monica Pieratt, Hannah Byatt and Jacinta Leyden remain undefeated this year. Two other singles matches were pushed to three set super tie breaks before tipping in favor of Memorial. Our guys were not as fortunate, but were up against possibly the best boys team in the state with several of their players holding state and national rankings. We held our own and played without intimidation and will look to improve on our scores when we see them again in the district championships. September 2nd update: Our varsity got off to a good start and played in the Ft. Bend Texas Tennis Coaches Association Invitational this past weekend. 42 teams competed in four pools of play. Because of our newly expanded facility, we were able to host this prestigious event for the first time in our history. The Spartans opened play with Langham Creek, who are pre-season favorites to win their district this year and came with a talented squad. After almost four hours of play, the score was knotted at 9-9 with Catherine Weitzel playing the deciding match. Cat came up big time and secured the 10th and final match in dramatic fashion with a third set super tie-breaker victory. We were short on our starting roster in the afternoon with Jacinta Leyden, our 2009 spring district champ in doubles, missing to run a cross country meet in the Woodlands which forced all the girls to have to play a higher line to cover the absence. Despite a valiant effort, the end saw us dropping a decision to Clear Creek who were ranked among the top 20 teams in Texas last year. The Spartans made a nice recovery by finishing the tournament with another 10-9 victory over Cy Fair on Saturday. All in all, a promising start to the season. Varsity will play Spring Woods on Tuesday , September 2nd after school at their place with high expectations for a strong collective performance. JV will open district play Thursday, September 4th at our place beginning at 3:30 against Spring Woods, so come on out and support the team as they gun for their first win of the year. The freshmen are tentatively scheduled to compete on Wednesday, September 9th pending confirmation from Alief Taylor that they will be able to field a freshman team. August 24th update: We broke ground on two new courts last year to expand our facility from six to eight courts which dramatically improved the time it takes to complete contests. Along with the two additional courts, we resurfaced the existing courts in a US Open color scheme that was also adopted by the rest of the schools in our district. A hazardous broken drain was replaced in addition to upgrading aged fencing to improve the line of sight for spectators and to contain balls on windy days. To complete the upgrades, we will soon be installing perimeter lighting for four courts and sections of elevated bleachers to make our interior courts accessible to parents and fans. Our Booster Club and tennis parents have been phenomenal in providing other additional and significant improvements. Over the course of three years, our Booster Club provided the funding for awnings placed between the courts to give our players much needed relief from the sun on game changeovers. The awnings are high quality and bring an exceptional look to the facility not commonly found on a public facility. Beneath the awnings sit new player benches that were donated by parents in support of our program. As a finishing touch, we have new score keepers and re- furbished caddies, as well as strategically placed cooler stands and replacement signage. Because of our expansion, our varsity team was chosen to host teams for the prestigious Texas Tennis Coaches Association Invitational for the first time. More importantly, we never again have to suspend matches in the middle of the contest because of a lack of courts or approaching darkness. This situation was chronic and led to many conflicts among coaches, parents and players. Imagine having to suspend a district championship in the middle of the action – never again! Our Booster Club has been instrumental to our “Tradition of Tennis Excellence” and has supported all of our sports programs through the years. That has never been more evident than this year, when they stepped up to the plate to help pay for the expansion of the lighting from two to four courts, which will bring us in line with the lighting installed at the other three high schools in the district. |