Carl Sandburg’s Boys’ Tennis team is beginning to prepare and practice for their upcoming 2025 season. As the tennis season begins, the team is ready for success under Coach Ostrander’s leadership and experience with the sport.
While there is a mix of experienced players and new talent, the team is determined to win as many matches as possible, hoping for a conference title and a state championship. Coach Ostrander has been preparing the team with a focus on teamwork, skill development, and sportsmanship, and the players are eager to make their mark this season.
Coach Ostrander has been involved in tennis since high school but started coaching thirty-one years ago. Ostrander says, “I played [tennis] myself, and I kind of naturally gravitated towards always teaching, even because I was the best player on my high school team. Since my teammates didn’t know anything about tennis… I was kind of [teaching] them as a high school kid, and then I started teaching adults as a high school kid [as well], and it led me into coaching and teaching.”
Different players, with varying skill levels, work hard to do their best no matter how the game is going, and they try their best to stay focused during their matches. Nathan Carandang is a senior on the varsity team who started playing tennis at the age of five. He states, “The hardest part is probably endurance, and staying on par, because matches can last almost two hours. Also the mental part of it, trying to stay focused and not get mad at yourself for mistakes.”
Eamonn McDevitt, another senior on varsity, who started playing tennis around seventh or eight grade, agrees. He says, “I would say the [hardest part is] the competitiveness and the unpredictability. It’s such a mental game, and being able to stay strong in your head is a big deal, maybe even more than other sports.”
Tennis is unique in itself because the players have to referee themselves. The sport requires players to be honest to themselves, but also to play with integrity for the sake of the people around them. Coach Ostrander states, “I think what makes this sport so unique is that everybody referees themselves. Like golf, it’s kind of like an honest[y] thing. In tennis, it’s supposed to be more like an art. It’s okay to cheer for the other side when they make an awesome shot.”
Working together is also a crucial part of tennis. In the sport, you either play singles or doubles, and each match could last anywhere from two to three hours. Charlie Murray, a junior on varsity, who started playing tennis just last year says, “I really like doubles a lot. Playing with a partner, you can strategize and communicate with them, so that’s always fun.”
Carandang echoes this statement when he states, “I like playing doubles, so the team aspect of the game, and [I like] how I get to strategize and compete against other people around the suburbs.”
Alex Vallianatos, a senior on the junior varsity team who also serves as its captain, also thrives on the partnership component of tennis. “I really like doubles, because I like the teamwork that’s necessary. It’s not all dependent on you, but how you play with your partner.”
Each memory that the players have contributes to bringing the team closer together. Whether that memory is a personal success or something that happened to the team as a whole, they are all important in shaping the tennis team we see today.
Coach Ostrander states, “Winning sectionals is always a good memory because when you win sectionals, kids get the chance to qualify for the state tournament. When you’re a state qualifier, those kids remember it the rest of their lives. I think those are my favorite moments, when someone qualifies for state and gets to represent our school at the state level.”
Each player has a part of the sport they enjoy the best, but it seems that the relationships are what keeps bringing them back at the start of each season. Win or lose, players know that someone has their back no matter what. Carandang says, “Last season, I was playing with a senior and we didn’t win, but it was nice to have those memories with him and having him play his last season as a senior.”
McDevitt echoes the importance of team camaraderie. He said that his favorite part is “being able to play with the seniors on varsity as a sophomore, being able to meet everyone, and being a good team.”
Teammate connection is a powerful force, but the wins energize players, too. Murray states, “A good memory from tennis is when me and my partner were down 2-5, and we came back, and won second.”
Valianantos agrees that a strong partnership dynamic goes hand in hand with success on the court. He also speaks about the power of a motivating coach. “In sophomore year at conference, my partner and I won the first set, lost the second set, and on the last set we were down by five and our coach pulled us over to the side, and pretty much said ‘just finish the game already, I want to go home,’ and we ended up winning.”
Team members have different reasons for joining the sport. They may have already been passionate about tennis, but many find their way to the team through friends. Murray says, “A lot of my friends were playing tennis for a couple of years, and I just needed something to do, so I just joined in.”
McDevitt had a similar experience when it came to friends playing, and states, “I used to be a hockey player, but I knew people that played tennis. It’s a fun sport, and I think people underestimate how difficult it is and the skill level [required]. I also think it’s fun to be able to play an individual sport, too.”
Tennis is a challenging game that keeps its player on their toes. Coach Ostrander states, “It’s one of the more grueling sports. It’s [also] one of the most popular sports; it’s in the top four sports played in the world. Everyone here gravitates toward football, basketball, baseball, softball. Tennis is a worldly sport. You can play it anywhere, and the United States is home to the most public courts, meaning it’s free to come out to the tennis courts. It’s easily accessible, and it’s one of the most popular sports in the world.”
Both Varsity Tennis and Junior Varsity have their first games versus Chicago on April 3 at 4:30pm. In the words of the tennis players and Coach Ostrander, Tennis is “grueling, smart, classy, resilience, teamwork, comradery, perseverance, mentality, calmness, strategy, and agility.” Come see the boys begin their season with an attitude hungry for success.
