{"id":96440,"date":"2024-05-30T14:11:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T14:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=96440"},"modified":"2024-05-30T14:11:34","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T14:11:34","slug":"boys-tennis-aims-to-keep-game-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2024\/05\/30\/boys-tennis-aims-to-keep-game-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Boys' tennis aims to keep game fun"},"content":{"rendered":"
By John Orrell<\/em>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/em><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 When you open the season with seven consecutive defeats, it can be an uphill effort for a coach to put a good spin on things going forward. But that’s not the case for Wachusett Regional High School boys\u2019 tennis head coach Tony Brissette and his band of intrepid Mountaineers.<\/p>\n

Brissette, in his 25th year as head coach for the green and white, saw his squad fall to 0-7 earlier in the season, but never lost faith in his team\u2019s ability to rebound and make a run at playoff competition. His confidence proved well-founded when the team rattled off seven victories in nine matches and played outstanding tennis down the stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say that they really got down,\u201d said Brissette of his team\u2019s early season struggles. \u201cMy goal this year was to make it more fun, rather than make our game be about wins and losses. Our emphasis has been to make them better tennis players, and it\u2019s worked. We\u2019ve been successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids are really good listeners. Relieving the pressure of being expected to win all the time makes a difference. I tell them when we\u2019re playing a team like Westborough, who is very strong, to go out there and try to win a few games, and they do that. They realize that their game has been improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a pretty tough schedule earlier in the season, but we didn\u2019t get discouraged when we kept on losing,\u201d said senior Nick Smith. \u201cWe started playing with intensity, and eventually we started winning more and more, and we rode that momentum and started winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were motivated. We wanted to get at least one win, and we just kept pushing through,\u201d added fellow senior Tommy Brochu. \u201cWhen we got our first win, we wanted more. Our coach started giving us strategies. We became tighter, and we all got along. Everything became more enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s friends here,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe like to have fun but also be very serious about the game of tennis. Even when we were losing a bunch of games, we were able to keep up our spirits because we were happy to get out and play with our friends every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if there were any palpable events that propelled the team into a winning mode, Brissette was quick to answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlgonquin (Regional) had beaten us 3-2 earlier in the year, and then we came back home and beat them here. I think that was the turning point for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team is probably the best I\u2019ve had in 25 years coaching in terms of bonding together. I\u2019ve had teams that have come close to this one. To be 0-7 and play as a team without arguments or disruption was really rewarding,\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting lineup for Wachusett has been Dylan Chiem at first singles, Brandon Le at second singles and Nathan Tran at third singles. First doubles have been Lam Quach and Nick Smith. Second doubles were Tommy Brochu and Wade Yang.<\/p>\n

Members of the Wachusett Regional High School 2024 boys\u2019 tennis team are Anderson Beshaw, Thomas Brochu, Ivan Chernov, Dylan Chiem, Landon DeStratis, Luke Iannucci, Brandon Le, Nolan O\u2019Brien, Son Quach, Lam Quach, Zachary Santolucito, Nick Smith, Nathan Tran, Curtis White, Wade Yang and Ray Zheng.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 When you open the season with seven consecutive defeats, it can be an uphill effort for a coach to put a good spin on things going forward. But that’s not the case for Wachusett Regional High School boys\u2019 tennis head coach Tony Brissette and his band of intrepid Mountaineers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}