By: Vincent Aldridge
What You May Have Missed:
On Wednesday, the 16 of October 2019, the Redwood Girls Tennis team exceeded a record that was set by Bakersfield’s Garces Rams of 1980-1998. The previous record was 191 consecutive WYL wins. Now it’s 192. And its new record holder is none other than your Redwood Rangers.
Sophie Degn, ’21 feels that this season was “really stressful…it motivated our team” and it was “really exciting”
“(Coach Matt) has a full time job, yet gave 100% into coaching, working very long days with both jobs.”- Nicole Adams, Parent of Maddie Adams
Elizabeth Gormley, ’21 adds to the earlier thought that, it was “stressful… I think we did a good job… we achieved our goal.” She added later on that, “I think it was pretty cool to be a part of the team that broke the record.”
Maddie Adams, ’21 says that “there was a lot of pressure this year to keep the streak.” She later went on to say that this year, Redwood kept up their historic WYL title streak, and they improved it to 16 consecutive WYL titles, and “we didn’t want to be the team that broke that.”, with a small chuckle as she recites their team’s success.
“As successfull…they’re at the top. They’ve been able to maintain that for almost a decade and a half.”-Athletics Director Matt Sozinho
Coach Matt Gong feels that “it was a relief to secure the title. I knew that I was following up after a legendary coach so I had to give a complete effort to even be close.”
The Perspective of the Coach
Gong had a successful season with his girls, and when asked what he feels could’ve been done better, he responded with, “I believe that the mental side of tennis is often neglected.” He stated that he could’ve “guided the team better in that regard.” He says the team at the second half of the season became “a lot stronger mentally.”
“I set winning the league 10-0 as our goal from the practice so all of the girls knew that that was what they had to focus on.”-Coach Matt Gong
The Team’s Success From an Athletics Director’s Perspective.
When asked about this team’s success, Matt Sozinho, our Athletics Director, responded with, “The…team has done a great job this year… they put a lot of time and effort into their craft.”
Sozinho says that he has gotten the chance to watch a few matches, especially the ones here on campus, and that the team has a “fantastic” way of prepping for their upcoming matches.
Tags: adversity overcame, expectations, new coach, winning