It seems perfectly appropriate that the Scotch Plains Fanwood Boys Tennis Team will be playing its home matches on the newly refurbished La Grande Park courts since almost everything about the team is new including the coach, Sandra Miller.
After replacing long time girls Girl’s Tennis mentor Sue Allen last fall and leading the girls to a 10-7 record, Miller takes over for Mark Cunnington and feels that she has circumvented the usual learning curve new coaches face.
“I am finding that dealing with the administrative end of coaching is much easier since I coached the girls in the fall,” said Miller.
“My comfort level is very high. I even know most of the bus drivers and now know most of the directions to the various schools. I can navigate our school web page and find the tennis schedule within seconds.” added Miller.
The one major similarity between the 2005 and 2006 Raider teams will be the surname of the first singles, Krueger, but even that has changed as sophomore Ryan Krueger replaces his older brother Jason, a four-year starter now at Cornell.
Ryan had a strong freshman season at second singles, finishing runner-up in the Union county tournament, the highest finish by a Raider player but he knows the competition at first singles will be much tougher.
“I expect to get high quality of play from most teams. These players
should be much better than players I competed with last year,” said Krueger.
“I suspect I will have to dig down even deeper in order to achieve my goal.”
After practicing most days last year with his older brother, Krueger has been hitting this spring with the only other experienced member from last year, fellow sophomore Scott Leyden. Krueger is hoping that he can help Leyden make a big move this year from second doubles to second singles.
Miller, the boys junior varsity coach last year at Watchung Hills scheduled her old school for a scrimmage and even though the Raiders were blanked 5-0, she saw many positives that came out of the contest.
“Watchung has two national ranked USTA juniors, the Wolski brothers.
Ryan played well but lost and. Scott went to 5-7 in the first set before losing,” said Miller.
“Ryan Krueger showed some very nice tennis in his match against Watchung Hills. He was able to stay in every point. In our second match against Livingston, he won easily 6-1, 6-0, and was able to show fortitude in closing out the match,” said Miller.
“I was impressed with his focus and his ability to close out the match. His game will only improve over the next few years”
Although just a sophomore, Krueger has willingly accepted the mantle as team leader and is optimistic that the team will improve as they become more experienced.
“Our team will struggle more and leadership is required in order to keep
everyone in line,” said Kruger.
“As for players on other teams, better players keep coming up and create new challenges the team.”
With such a young team, Miller has spent much of the pre season teaching.
“I am teaching the boys doubles and how to return with an aggressive forehand when possible, however, they are all very young,” said Miller.
Another sophomore Michael Dejovich figures to play third singles with two more sophomores, Michael De Vizio and Ted Rosenblatt making up the first doubles pairing and seniors Ron Stein and David Ginsberg follow them.
Miller’s major goal is to have every team member play with a consistent serve and to be able to return serves. With such modest objectives, Miller realizes this season might be difficult.
“I'll be happy with a few wins over some of our conference schools,” said Miller, who is still getting used to the differences between coaching boys and girls.
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“The biggest challenge in coaching the boys tennis is that they did not
know me. The girls knew me as a mom of one of their starting varsity
girls and the JV tennis coach,” said Miller.
“The girls knew to listen when I gave them a few tips to improve their game.
The boys can see that I can play when I join them on the courts and
they are learning that I know a thing or two about tennis. In general
the boys think they know everything about tennis and try to use power
to kill the ball, their opponent and the point.”
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