The Selma High boys’ tennis team players are hoping to develop further in their skills.
The Bears recently suffered a 6-3 loss to Hanford West High School, a close match as three players went to third-set tiebreakers.
“In the beginning of the season, I played a match against Hanford West and my opponent beat me badly,” recalls Selma senior Samuel Flores.”I started training harder and at the end of the season in our last match I beat him in doubles.”
Flores is hopeful of improving his skills on the court. He entered in the Bears Championships, the Bears’ own tournament played at Selma High’s courts on April 5-6, and where he faced tennis players with numerous years of experience. Despite the looming pressure, Samuel still is rising above his own expectations, beating opponents, and feeling like he’s improving.
“Every year, our team gets smaller and smaller. The players that stay, myself included, just have to train that much harder to make up for it,” expressed Flores.
Coach Dan Casarez admits to cutting players for various reasons over the past three seasons, so Samuel and other players continue to put in twice as much effort to come back stronger as a team.
“I try to make players understand that they are athletes,” said Coach Casarez. “High school athletes are also young adults, so coaches expect dedication.”
With Coach Casarez’s philosophy of coaching, he is able to help motivate his players by making it known that they must be responsible and have determination. Even though they’re in high school they can still put in the hard work and dedication needed to make a team stick together and beat all odds.
Coach Casarez is boasting over a new annual partnership with Fresno State’s tennis program. The Fresno State coach met with Selma’s players. After their match, Fresno State players posed for pictures with the Selma High tennis team.
“We visited the Bulldogs, an NCAA Division-1 team, which has made our players more spirited,” said Coach Casarez.
Seeing the dedication put in by athletes from our Bulldogs team, it has inspired our team players to learn from their work ethic and skills. This has fueled their determination to produce an unbreakable team even more.
“I feel like the team had some moments where we did choke (in matches), but overall we performed well,” said freshman Rayhan Jhutti.
Although the team has gone through some rough patches, they have still been striving to achieve their goals of trying not to succumb to pressure. Their struggles are recognized and worked on, keeping them motivated for future matches to come. Their next game will be against Kingsburg on April 2nd.
