Rain, Injuries Hamper Boys’ Tennis

Wet weather and key injuries have plagued boys’ tennis in March.

Numerous matches have been canceled due to rain, a reality that has led restlessness among the team’s athletes. Damp courts have also impacted practices and the important exercise and instruction they provide.

“The rain really hurts the amount of practice time [that we’ve gotten this season]” said senior and team captain Seren Tochikura. While Tochikura expressed disappointment with the weather and its attendant limitations on the team’s development, he also conceded that the rain is a reality that has affected their opponents equally. “If we can’t practice, other teams can’t,” he said.

This year’s team is also suffering from a lack of depth with fewer total athletes. Coach Allen Wiessbaum has seen both his team captains, junior Cal Hunter and Zach Goldman, sidelined with injuries. Hunter sustained an overuse injury; Goldman broke a wrist.

Goldman recognized the rest the rain has serendipitously given the players to recover from injuries. “We’ve been dealing with some illnesses and some injuries so it has been nice having time off to recover,” he explained.

Wiessbaum was similarly understanding of the weather, explaining that the variability of temperature and play conditions is an inherent “part of the gig” of coaching and running a team. “Of course it’s an administrative pain,” said Wiessbaum, “but that’s why we get paid the amount we do.”

Assistant coach Jimmy Scott cited the poor weather as an incubator, so to speak, for the players’ love of the sport.

“With all the rain-outs so far, the guys are very eager to play the matches,” said Scott, explaining that with expectations of winning the league championship, the players are more than “prepared” to “play three matches a week from now until the end of the season.”