by JUSTIN LOCK Staff Writer
Students that want to try out for the Monroe Township High School boys tennis team are conducting fitness training Mondays through Fridays until February 13.
According to the athletic training handbook, athletes should focus on skills relating to their sport during the pre-season.
The team does a variety of workouts such as planks, running up and down stairs, four person relay races, wall sits, lunges, and bear crawls. On Fridays, they play football and practice tennis, which is optional.
The team always does two to three minutes of planks, 10 minutes of running stairs, two minutes of lunges, and five minutes of wall sits and bear crawls.
Freshman Andy Lin says, “Pre-season work outs were rigorous. Most of our time was spent on cardio and stamina, with a little strength training thrown in to help with surviving long court sessions when the season begins.”
During the in-season, athletes will have more of a demand on their body, so training in the pre-season is very important.
In addition to training, athletes should eat a nutritious breakfast, lunch, and dinner. An athlete’s nutrition plan should be modified to fit their needs in training.
Leading and supervising the students are the tennis team captains seniors Anurag Coramutla and Westly Wai.
Mr. Kushner, who won the GMC coach of the year award, will be the varsity tennis team coach.
The tennis team will consist of a few freshmen, three senior captains, and sophomores. Most of these students have had experience playing tennis before, or they are returning players to the team. Many freshmen and sophomores plan to stay on the team for the rest of their high school career.
Freshman Ian Wankmueller says, “I’ll try my best to play all four years.”
The top seven students at tryouts will be varsity players and the rest will be junior varsity players. The top three of the seven varsity players play singles while the rest play doubles.
Tennis games will require players to win six games to win one set. They will have to win two out of three sets to win one match, and players play only one match. To win a game, each player gains 15 points until they reach over 45 points.
Students that still want to join the tennis team need to have taken their sports physical last summer and hand in their paper work by Wednesday, February 13.
Tennis tryouts will take place on February 13 at the high school tennis courts.