It was April 13 and the Hopewell Valley Central High boys tennis team had just gotten spanked, 5-0, by West Windsor-Plainsboro North and then lost, 3-2, to Marlboro in the consolation match of the Moorestown Classic.
Bradley Deeds, the only senior in the starting lineup and in his fourth year as the Bulldogs No. 1 player, felt it was time for some inspiration on the bus ride home.
“I said ‘This is your life, this is your tennis career, you choose how you want it to go,’” Deeds said. “‘Coach (Dave) Burchell is the most dedicated coach I know. I’ve seen so many different coaches in sports over the years and I know how badly he wants us to do this. if you’re gonna be on this team you gotta want it just as bad.’”
He liked the response.
“Immediately I got answers that were pure. They genuinely wanted to do this,” Deeds continued. “Once we established that, I felt like we really got on a good track and we started getting better mentally. They were really bummed out after the loss to North but I told them one loss doesn’t affect our overall situation. You gotta get back up and keep fighting.”
The Bulldogs fought all the way to the program’s first state title in school history. On June 7 at Mercer County Park, Hopewell defeated perennial champion Haddonfield, 4-1, in the NJSIAA Group II semifinals, and followed with a heart-pounding, 3-2 win over Mendham in the championship match.
“(Athletic director) Tripp Becker came to watch the final,” Burchell said. “He couldn’t believe how stressful it was. That’s my job, to try to keep kids composed. You can’t do much coaching at that moment. The kids go in knowing what to do. We tell them before. Then it’s just keeping them from losing their composure.”
And there were definitely some nerve wracking moments.
Hopewell entered the states having won 10 of 14 after Deeds’ speech. It defeated Ocean 5-0 in the Central Jersey Group II quarterfinals but had to sweat out a 3-2 win over Holmdel in the quarterfinals. The match was tied 2-2 before Deeds prevailed to clinch it.
“Bradley won against a junior he beat previously, so we saw that one coming,” Burchell said.
Next was a 3-2 grinder over Rumson-Fair Haven in the CJ II finals, in which Hopewell trailed 2-0 before getting a singles win from Deeds and a second doubles triumph from Zack Weisenfeld and Om Sharma.
That left it up to the sophomore first doubles team of Andrew Hou and Kaito Mahon, who split the first two sets 7-5 and 5-7, leading to a 10-point tiebreaker.
“These are the cardiac kids,” Burchell said. “They were playing an undefeated doubles team and got down 9-6 in the super tie-break. I thought it was over and they came back and won 11-9. We were one point from not winning the sectional. They’ve been like a rock for us.”
The Bulldogs had a “breather” against Haddonfield, but the significance of the win was not lost on Burchell as Bulldawgs leader Jeff Holman is one of the winningest tennis coaches in state history. Holman’s teams have won 1,222 matches, 35 sectional titles and 11 state championships.
“That was a sweet win for me,” Burchell said. “My first 30 years of coaching were in Burlington. I got to the South Jersey sectional final and twice I lost 5-0 to Haddonfield. Jeff and I have both coached for 50 years. He’s won it many times and it took me 50 years to win one!”
But it sure wasn’t easy. The Mendham match was tied 2-2 and this time it came down to freshman third singles Danyal Rizavi. Showing the poise of a senior, Rizavi topped Arya Gorti 6-4, 6-7 (8-6).
Surprisingly, Deeds was not nervous watching the match.
“It was just exciting,” he said. “I had trust in him to bring it home and he was able to clinch it out. The kid I played at first was amazing and I couldn’t do much on my side and their second singles dominated against our singles. Rizavi stepped up to the plate.”
Burchell marveled at his freshman’s effort.
“He was like a bulldog,” the coach said. “He was one of these kids you couldn’t get a ball by. He just kept it in and that’s how he won it in the end. He came out against a big hitter and the kid thought he had him. You know how kids come out and get loud when they’re winning? This kid got quiet as the match went on.
“The last point of the match, the kid made a nice serve and he came to the net. My kid hit a lob over his head and all he could do was watch it hit the baseline.”
Which started the celebration that neither Deeds or Burchell thought might happen at the start of the season. HoVal won CJ 2 in Deeds freshman year and Burchell presented him with a goal of bookending his career with sectional titles.
Neither thought it would go further than that.
“I thought the team my freshman year would be the team that would win it all,” Deeds said. “This was surprising. But having these new teammates, they really brought the energy. They didn’t fear being under pressure. They totally could have collapsed against Rumson and Holmdel and Mendham but they didn’t.
“Before the season I didn’t know what to expect. I expected to get to the sectionals, I really didn’t expect to win them. And never would I have thought to win it all. I was just amazed by the way the other guys pulled through. As the season progressed, they really showed me they wanted it.”
Burchell added that, “I just thought it would be nice to win another sectional in Bradley’s senior year. I looked at the lineup and said ‘This is the best team we’ve had since your freshman year.’ It turned out we had a lot of depth. Bradley pushed everyone down (in the lineup) to spots where they could win.”
Burchell pointed to the brutally tough schedule Hopewell played as preparation for the state wars. He called Mercer County “a tough tennis neighborhood,” and also scheduled some strong non-conference foes. Deeds liked the strategy.
“You have to lose to win,” he said. “That was the case for our team. They had to see that there were better teams for us. They definitely thought we’d win pretty easily against some of the weaker teams. Once they saw there were other teams that had tremendous depth in the lineup and started to beat us, that’s when they started to take it more seriously. If we didn’t play those stronger teams, we wouldn’t have had the outcome we had at the end.”
Another key was the knowledge contributed by assistant coach Gary Gall, a former NJSIAA referee who Burchell says “is invaluable. He knows every rule. Having someone you think is knowledgeable is what makes the kids feel secure.”
In assessing his historic lineup that finally brought a boys state tennis title to HVCHS, Burchell had the following analysis of each flight.
Bradley Deeds, senior first singles
“In 50 years, he’s the best player I ever coached. He’s the winningest player in Hopewell history and has been our team MVP all four years. He’s won more matches against tough competition, been a seeded player in state singles every year and is going to play at The College of New Jersey. The best part is he’s the nicest kid, he gets along with his opponent, he doesn’t have anything bad to say about anybody.
“Two years ago, his mother passed away suddenly. It was a great shock to everyone and very tragic. But he continued to win, he stayed with it. He’s one of the best defensive players. You think you got the ball by him, he comes floating back to you. He can hit groundstrokes with top spin, he could lob. He’s just smart. He became our number one when he walked in the door.”
Eshaan Doshi, sophomore second singles
“Eshaan is a big hitter, very tall. He was in a tough spot, you play number two in Mercer County and you play a lot of good players. He had a good season and just got better every match. He took a lot of tough losses and was a little discouraged. I told him ‘Everybody below you is better because you’re there above them taking on the tougher guys.’ He really helped us.”
Danyal Rizavi, freshman third singles
“He won a lot of close matches for us. He keeps the ball in play, you think you’re gonna out-hit him and then he outsmarts you. Consistency is important and he’s got it. He always got his serves in. He just lays it in there and the other kid says ‘Well he’s hitting a soft serve should I come in?’ When he comes in he hits it past him or lobs it over his head.”
Andrew Hou and Kaito Mahon, sophomore
first doubles
“They just came together as a combination and got better and better. When they’re serving well they can beat anybody. They took a lot of tough losses. They don’t get angry at each other and point fingers. They look at what it was that made them lose and they turn that into an opportunity to use that (knowledge) the next match.”
Zach Weisenfeld and Om Sharma, junior
second doubles
“They played so many tiebreakers. Sometimes they lost, but they had the teamwork and fortitude to say we’re gonna do better next time. They were both smart players. Zach was a lefty, Om was a big hitting righty. They were compatible and worked well together.”
* * *
Deeds felt the entire team became compatible as the season went on.
“The closer you are, the better,” he said. “At the beginning of the season we didn’t have a lot of cheering because we didn’t know each other too well. Once we got closer we started cheering more. The energy was there, the bus rides were better, they were talking strategy against opponents. You 100 percent need that bond for success.”
It all added up to a 19-8 season — the most successful in program history. Both Deeds and the first doubles team qualified for the state individual tournament and, most importantly to Burchell, his team played with class and excelled in class.
“I’ve got good players coming in all the time,” the coach said. “In the end these kids are scholar-athletes. They go to school, they’re excellent athletes. They don’t just play tennis, they do other things. I’ve been praised by our opponents for our guys being good sportsmen. There’s nothing better than to hear your kid played a good game and is a good person.”
The Hopewell Valley tennis team of head coach Dave Burchell, Om Sharma, Adithya Shrikanth, Zach Weisenfeld, Danyal Rizavi, Manas Sinha, Eshaan Doshi, Kaito Mahon, Andrew Hou and assistant coach Gary Gall with the state champion plaque at Mercer County Park on June 7, 2024.,
