Keeping the "Fiyah" Burning - Chris Radke

Welcome!

So another year of Eagles tennis is underway, and our squad is eagerly awaiting our first match scheduled against Ferrum College on February 23rd. But that is a long month away and there is much work needed to be done before this match. We are coming off of our best team finish last spring, which was third in the conference. The problem is we have lost our three seniors Brian Ryan and Andrew, who were a major contribution to this success. Now it is time for our younger guys to step in and cook up some good tennis for the year.
Along with a couple of new faces in our team’s top 6, Chaulky had basically received a new heart in his chest. After one too many 6 ball drills, he found himself in the back of an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Thankfully, in what has become a great story of success, Chaulky has returned to the courts and been playing as much tennis as ever. It just goes to show with our line-up that even if a couple of things get replaced, everything can still work!
Fall season was a terrific way to start and see where we are at individually in comparison to the rest of the field. However the best part has yet to begin. Starting in spring, we get to compete in the dual matches. The atmosphere and team aspect of tennis really shines here and I hope that Bridgewater will be able to show up the other teams in terms of intensity and team Chemistry. Sometimes this can be the difference maker in a 5-4 win or a 4-5 loss.
The goals for this season were made pretty clear in tonight’s meeting. Nothing less than a bronze medal, 3rd place finish again, and the sportsmanship award. The sportsmanship award is something usually reserved for the teams that never win and need a trophy for something. We hope to change this around and win with receiving this achievement. I don’t think our sportsmanship has ever been bad in the past; it is just influenced by whatever team we are playing. The same goes with our team’s energy. Sometimes if we play a team with low energy or bad sportsman ship we come out with low energy or bad sportsmanship. One thing I would like to see is for us to set the tempo of a match with great competitive energy without sacrificing sportsmanship.
Anyways, in this next month we will train very hard on the courts and in school. Welcome to the BC Tennis Blog and keep checking back weekly updates.

Keep the fiyah burning,
Chris The Cactus

Welcome to the BC Eagles Tennis Blog!

Nothing can substitute for just plain hard work. I had to put in the time to get back. And it was a grind. It meant training and sweating every day. But I was completely committed to working out to prove to myself that I still could do it.
Andre Agassi

I would like to welcome the players, parents, alumni and fans of the Bridgewater tennis program to our new blog! I would first like to say thank you for the amount of support there has been for our program. Since I have played for BC, the parents have been fantastic about coming to home and away matches, supporting and cheering for the players, and bringing great food to keep us all going out there. Everything that you do has been greatly appreciated by each of the players and coaches.

As the members of the women’s team are finishing up our interterm classes, we look forward to the upcoming weeks of practice and our quickly approaching spring season. It has been very encouraging to me over the last couple of weeks to see our players in the gym working out, at the indoor courts working on their game, and even outside on the courts playing tennis on their own time. Our first practice is next Wednesday and I hope that everyone’s hard work over the break will give us a jumpstart into conditioning and getting back into the swing of things in the first few weeks of practice.

As our team learned during our tournaments in the fall, many other teams in the ODAC have really been working hard in the offseason and have improved greatly. I walked away from the tournament slightly disappointed in our performance and feeling that we did not finish as well as we should have, but I think we all gained a sense of urgency and a desire to rise to the challenge. We have been working to improve our own tennis game in order to perform to our full potential during our matches in the spring season. Coach Smith encouraged us to consider the ODAC tournament an experience to learn from and as a personal challenge to each of us to improve.

The BC women’s tennis teams of 2008 and 2009 have raised the bar of expectation as we had two of the best seasons in the history of the program. In the 2008 season we finished 2^nd in the ODAC losing only to nationally ranked Washington and Lee. In 2009, we finished with an 8-2 record in the ODAC and a 3^rd place finish in the conference. I have very high expectations as well for the 2010 spring season!

Last year we graduated one senior, Jessica Hill, who contributed greatly to the success of our team and will be greatly missed. Fortunately, we have gained four freshman and have six returning players. This year we have more girls on the team and I think that we have more depth in our lineup than in years past. This will be helpful during those inevitable matches when someone is injured or sick and the lineup needs to be adjusted. I have confidence that any of our players could step into a new lineup position and perform very well.

We will have four weeks of practice before we get to gauge our progress at our first match at Ferrum on Feburary 23. Our first ODAC match will be held at Bridgewater College on February 28 against Virginia Wesleyan who edged us in the ODAC semifinals last year. I look forward to keeping you updated on the progress of our season and seeing you at some of our matches!

See you on the Courts….GO EAGLES!!!