ERMA — New Lower Cape May Regional boys tennis coach Alec Levin had a unique situation last year. He took over coaching a team that came with no tennis experience — not a lack of varsity experience, but students who had to learn how to play tennis.
This season, most of those first-time players returned to the squad and more new players have turned out for the team.
“Last year we had zero kids who had played before,” Levin said Friday before a scrimmage with Millville High School. “We had eight kids, two seniors graduated, so six kids returned.”
“It was quite the mission, quite the journey. Last year was tough, but they all stuck it out. One year in, it’s going to take a year or two to really understand how to play and after two years we’re going to be a lot better,” Levin said. “That’s kind of where we’re heading toward this year, which is good.”
“We have five freshmen, three or four sophomores, one junior and two seniors. We do have a young team, but this year I expect to win matches. I expect us to compete in every match,” he said, adding that he believes as the team gains more experience on the courts they will begin to excel and build a solid program. “That’s kind of our goal. Day by day, though, we don’t try to get too far ahead,” he said.
“Last year the goal was to get 1 percent better every day,” Levin said. “That was the thing that I said to the kids a lot. You just can’t come out every day and think you’re going to get 100 percent better. It’s just as in life as in sports, you just can’t do that.
“So we always told them to get 1 percent better every day. That was our goal. This year, it’s kind of the same thing, but now I’m saying to the kids, we need to learn to want to win and we need to learn how to win and we need to learn why we want to win,” he said.
“Last year it was just about getting experience, learning tennis, learning how to score, all that. It’s very hard to learn a new sport in three weeks and then expect to be able to play at a high school level. It’s very challenging. We made the best of it,” the coach said.
This year’s team still has moving pieces. The positions will likely be set sometime this week as the varsity season begins.
“Our lineup’s not really set in stone,” Levin acknowledged.
“Our first singles, Ismael Lopez, played first singles last year but had never played before that,” the coach said. “He’s pretty good for playing only one year. I’m definitely looking forward to him excelling because he understands tennis and he really wants to get better.”
Acknowledging he’s dealing with some injuries, against Millville he had senior Nicholas Fitch at second singles. Fitch played doubles last year.
“He’s helping us out a lot playing singles,” Levin said.
Keaton Black was at third singles, Bryan Ortiz Ruiz and Max Vaught were playing first doubles and Giacomino Ruff and Chris Hawes were at second doubles.
This is the first team he has ever coached, but he came to it with tennis experience.
“I played for a very long time and then took some time off. Now I’m coaching. It’s been challenging yet rewarding because for me, I like taking on a challenge. Last year I saw it as an opportunity and a challenge where I could teach kids not only tennis, but hopefully help them along the journey of life.”
“Everything I do in my life, I like to be challenged, I like to be pushed,” Levin said.
“I see all this potential in these kids. They really play with heart, they listen, they’re coachable — and those are things that sometimes are hard to find in kids. For me, it’s awesome.”
Former Panther player Max Gilbert, son of Middle Township High School tennis coach Matt Gilbert, is Levin’s assistant.
“For these kids to have the ability to see they have two coaches who understand the game and know the game at a high level, you don’t see that a whole lot,” Levin said. “For me, having Max out here is a whole other step in the right direction. Max and I can split apart and work on specifics with the players. I love working on doubles, he loves working on singles. I will say it, and I’ve said it to so many people, he is the best assistant coach I could have asked for.
“It’s really nice to have somebody with the same level of knowledge and same level of drive to want to win, the drive to want to teach these kids to excel.”
The Caper Tiger tennis team is at Wildwood Catholic at 4 p.m. March 26 and hosts Bridgeton at 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 28.
By DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
