Second season sports have officially started! As every team prepares for IASAS through grueling fitness workouts, skill practices, and games, PantherNation checked in with the girls’ tennis team captains, Pancake Hetrakul, Alina Chan, and Ginnie Na-Eak, to see how they feel that the tennis team will do this year.

This is every girl’s first year being a team captain. Pancake (11)states, “my goal as a team captain this year is to maintain a positive attitude throughout the season. I also want everyone on the team to be bonded and become a family.” It appears that closeness on the team is important to every team captain, as Alina (11) also stated, “I want the team to be close and supportive of one another, as hopefully this will get us into finals.”

Motivation plays a key role in how well a team member plays during a game, and team captain Ginnie Na-eak (grade) seems to know this well, stating, “I want to make sure that everyone is motivated and confident in themselves because all of the girls are great players in their own way, but they just have to believe it too. I also want to make this season really fun and memorable for everyone.”

The team this year is extremely close because many of the girls are in their junior year and thus are able to relate to each other very well. Pancake states, “My favorite part about the team this year is all the fun we have during practices! We have a really good team bond so practices and traveling with this team was so much fun. KL (exchange) was also fun because it brought the girls closer together and we also gained a lot of experience from playing there. One of my favorite memories with the team are our combined team dinner after friendly matches at BPS.”

Alina goes on to state that team practices are her favorite part about the team, and Ginnie agrees, stating that the team this year is extremely close. “This makes practices and going to games a lot more fun, as every single player is extremely supportive of one another, watching and cheering everyone on, which I find important when playing a sport that focuses on mentality.”

Everyone knows that coaches also play one of the biggest roles in an athlete’s life, being their mentor, friend, and motivator every day. This year on the tennis team is Coach Noop and Coach Bob Connor. Alina states that the coaches this year are so motivating and that they make practices extremely fun. Meanwhile, Pancake affectionately says, “everyone on the team is all close to Coach Noop and we all look up to her as our sister or mother! Coach Bob is a new coach that has really hyped us up and kept the intensity of our practice and match up all the time.”

And finally, the end goal, IASAS, is something which every team captain has high hopes for. Pancake and Alina both state that they believe they will be able to make finals again this year. On the other hand, Ginnie states that she would love to see every player play to their best ability for every singles point, and to see everyone be confident in themselves and have a good mindset throughout the matches, saying, “if we all push ourselves hard enough, I believe we can go back to finals.”

Every team captain is chosen based off of their commitment and passion to the team, and these three new team captains have shown nothing but strength and kindness both on and off the courts to team members and opponents alike. The girls tennis team can rest easy knowing that they are in great hands of awesome captains!

Darin Sumetanon