In the three previous seasons he has coached at High School South, Jim Giovacchini’s teams have gotten better every year.##M:[more]## Starting at 19-3 in 2002, the Pirates boys tennis team worked its way to a 21-1 record last season and a number seven ranking in the state. The Pirates came within six points of beating the second best team in the state — East Brunswick — in the NJSIAA playoffs in the final match of the season.
Last year nearly everything went the Pirates’ way. The singles lineup of Benny Gordon Goldstein, Russell Nitzberg, and Shintaro Mori at first, second, and third singles led the Pirates past the Mercer County Tournament and into the third round of the state playoffs. Doubles sensations Greg Kelley and Brian Lee went to the edge of winning the state doubles championship.
So it goes without saying that this year Giovacchini is hoping for perfection. “We have the talent to be better than last year,” says Giovacchini. “But it will be hard to do because we have some guys in our lineup who are untested. But if we are fortunate and everything pans out and no one gets hurt, we can have a phenomenal year.”
This year Gordon-Goldstein is gone — he attends Boston University — but Nitzberg, now a senior, and Mori, a junior, are back. They will be joined in the singles roster by freshman Leland Richardson, the first freshman to crack the singles lineup at South since 2001.
Nitzberg, now captain of the team, is ready for an improved senior season. Throughout the winter, Nitzberg has worked one-on-one with Brad Warner at Pennsbury Racquet Club. “I am anxious to start the season,” he says. “My backhand has gotten better and so has my serve. I am definitely stronger and faster than I was last year.” He will likely attend Allegheny College in Pennsylvania where he will major in business. (His sister, Joelle, was the number two singles player last season on the girls’ team in the fall.)
Mori, who finished with an 18-2 overall record at third singles, is looking to be even better. He has improved his game by playing indoor tennis three times a week throughout the winter. “I am going to play a more aggressive game this year,” says Mori. “My serve is getting faster and more accurate.”
Mori thinks that the Pirates can be as good or better than last year’s team. “Some of the other schools have lost more graduating seniors than we have,” he says. “We’ve only lost two from our varsity, and the newcomers on the team are really good.”
But while singles players get much of the glory, doubles pairings are just as important to a teams’s success. A week before the season starts, Giovacchini is still tinkering with his lineup. Of the two doubles pairings, five players are battling for the four slots. Senior Greg Kelley — who won the state title last year with partner Brian Lee — is back. But Lee is off to college and Kelley will be breaking in a new partner.
Freshman Stewert Fernandez may end up being Kelley’s partner, although Giovacchini admits that he is taking a gamble. “They say that a senior-freshman doubles combination never works but I think it will,” says Giovacchini. But Kelley will need to make some transitions. “Having a freshman in such a key role is uncertain,” says Giovacchini. “There is a huge difference between a freshman and a senior in high school that isn’t there in college. It is closer to the difference between a fourth grader and an eighth grader.”
How that will be worked out depends in a large part on Kelley, says Giovacchini. “Last year Brian was a very confident guy and he had a kind of calming influence on Greg. But this year Greg will have to step into that role with whomever is his partner. I think we will get it to work.”
In the early going leading up to the challenge matches to determine his place in the lineup, Fernandez was impressive. “The challenge matches are another level of pressure though,” says Giovacchini. “But to be given the chance to play with someone of Greg’s caliber is a real opportunity for a freshman. Greg has seen the top of the mountain. No one in the area has seen the state final. Stewart could be as good as Brian.”
“They didn’t blow the competition away, but knew how to win the close match. Chemistry is huge in that situation. You can’t blame your partner for missing a shot. It is hard, but you just can’t.”
Also in the mix is Stewert’s twin brother, Steven, who is a sophomore at South. According to Giovacchini, Steven Fernandez is also a very good singles player. Last year’s second doubles pairings, Dennis Tuan and Brett Butler, are also likely doubles players.
But with so many good players challenging for position, Giovacchini says that this year’s second doubles team will likely be nearly as good as most team’s first doubles.
According to Giovacchini, one of South’s primary needs is an adequate tennis court that is relatively equal in quality to North’s. “They were supposed to resurface them but somehow that got cut out of the budget,” he says. “So this year we are practicing and playing nearly all our home matches at Mercer County Park.”
This necessitates a school bus bringing the team to and from the park each day. “The courts at South need help,” says Giovacchini. “Really what they should do is move them. Where they are now they are in the shade almost the whole day so snow and rain get on the courts and create a mold that is just awful.”
But despite the difficulties of the home courts, he is confident the Pirates will turn in another stellar year. “This could be our year,” says Giovacchini. “This is the year I have been looking forward to. By the fourth year, a coach should be well off. My seniors were all freshmen when I started. But to improve on our 21-1 record is asking a lot. ut I think we can do it.”
South will start the season with a home match at Mercer County Park against Ewing on Friday, April 1, at 11 a.m. South then has matches at Princeton, Monday, April 4, at 4 p.m., a home match on Thursday, April 7, at 4 p.m. against Steinert, and is at Montgomery on Friday, April 8, at 4 p.m.
North: Is It Possible To Upset South?
Just in its fifth season, High School North boy’s tennis has been the ugly cousin to its more illustrious neighbor to the south. Despite a more-than-respectable 14-5 record, the Knights were unable to beat South boys — something they have yet to do in their history. But could this be the year that the Knights vault themselves past the Pirates as a New Jersey tennis power?
In its previous four seasons, the Knights have always turned in winning seasons. “I am happy with the tradition we have set,” says coach Albert Paulsson, the only coach the Knights have ever had. We’ve always been a contender and we are looking to build upon the past.”
With 46 players going out for the team, and only 25 who are going to make it — and then only seven who will regularly play on the varsity — tennis is as big as ever at North. “We have a lot of new faces because we lost seven seniors from last year,” says Paulsson. “There are a lot of spots to fill but they are working hard. We should be in good shape this year.”
Top returning players are last year’s singles star Wayne Jenq, a senior, who made a splash at the Mercer County Tournament, making it to the third round. He also made it into the third round in the state singles tournament as well. “I was very satisfied with those performances because when I was a sophomore I lost in the first round,” says Jenq. “Your confidence grows as I won matches. In the beginning I was pretty shaky, but as it went on I just relaxed and started playing my game.”
During the winter, Jenq takes group lessons at Pennbury Racquet Club along with some of his opponents from South such as Shintaro Mori, Dennis Tuan, Steven Fernandez, and Chris Hoeland from Princeton High School. “As you get to know your opponents it becomes a little less competitive to play them,” says Jenq. “When you don’t know them it just builds up your competitive energy.”
Jenq says that the biggest difference in his game is his serves. “They have gotten more powerful and more consistent,” he says.
A resident of West Windsor his whole life, Jenq has played competitive tennis since he was in the sixth grade. “My parents started getting private coaches for me and I took group lessons,” he says.
He has two older sisters: Christina, who works at Morgan Stanley, and Jessica, a student at NYU. His father is a environmental scientist and his mother is a tax auditor.
Jenq may attend the University of Illinois or Rutgers in the fall. He will likely major in business and is uncertain whether he will pursue tennis in college. “Academics are my first priority,” he says. “I know that it takes a lot of time to be on the team in college and I don’t want tennis to get in the way.”
Also expected to make an impact for the Knights are returning veterans Apurva Dabholkar, a singles player, and doubles player Billy Huang. “They have been working hard in every practice and I think they are going to do especially well this season,” says Paulsson.
But will this be the year North is able to defeat an admittedly powerful South team? Paulsson thinks his team has a chance. (The two teams will meet on Wednesday, April 13, at North at 4 p.m.) “I hope we can do it this year,” he says. “It is always a good match against South.”
The Knights open at Steinert on Friday, April 1, at 4 p.m. then have two home matches in a row: Monday, April 4, at 4 p.m. against Trenton, and Wednesday, April 6, against South Brunswick, at 4 p.m. North is then at Peddie, Thursday, April 6, at 4 p.m. and at Lawrence, Monday, April 11, at 4 p.m.
People in Sports
Kelly Rowland, a West Windsor resident and a fifth grader at Village School, is an alpine skier who finished in first place in the Montage Mountain Challenge on March 5 and 6. She placed second in the slalom and first in the giant slalom events. Her combined time was good enough to take the overall title. Kelly is a member of the Camelback Alpine Ski team.
Kelly started skiing at age three and has been racing competitively for a year. This year she has racked up one first place, two seconds, three thirds, and a fourth at area mountains in Eastern Pennsylvania and Southern New York State. These include Montage, Elk, Jack Frost, Blue, Belleayre and Windham respectfully. She is currently ranked first in New Jersey and 23rd in the nation for 10-year-olds. Kelly placed eighth in the Nastar National Finals on March 25 to March 27 in Park City, Utah.
J.T. Hutchinson, a 2003 graduate of High School South and son of South baseball coach Don Hutchinson, has played in nine games for the University of Pennsylvania baseball team. He ranks among the team leaders with a .313 batting average and a .438 slugging percentage.
Jess Burger, a 2004 gradauate of High School North, scored five runs for the Dickinson College softball team on March 21 in a doubleheader against Catholic University. She also had six hits.
Kevin Barry, a 1996 graduate of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, has been in the spring training camp of the Atlanta Braves. He has pitched in six games, six and a third innnings, allowed seven hits, 12 strikeouts, five walks, and has an earned-run-average of 2.84. As the team prepared to break camp for tÿhe start of the season he was still on the Braves’ 32-man roster.
