Ramapo Tennis Ready For Tide To Turn

They lost one of their top players to injury before the season even began, and then they proceeded to lose more close matches than they care to remember. What they still haven’t lost, however, is the confidence of their coach—and that looms large as the Ramapo boys tennis team begins play in the state tournament at home Thursday afternoon.

As far as coach Kim Marchese is concerned, Ramapo’s 11-10 record is ancient history, and so is their run as the Heartbreak Kids. During Wednesday afternoon’s 4-1 win over Teaneck in the regular season finale, this young Raider team looked like it was capable of doing some heartbreaking of their own.

“The states mark the beginning of a new season, and we’ll enter [Thursday] with the mindset that we want to get off to a good start and go from there,” said coach Kim Marchese. “Anything can happen. I still really believe we’re that good.”

If the bounces and breaks do in fact even out over the course of the season, perhaps this Ramapo squad has a few things destined to go their way.

“In 25 years of high school tennis I’ve never had a team play so many three-set matches,” added Marchese. “We played one of the most rigorous schedules in the state, and we were very competitive with every team we faced, but we didn’t win the close matches.”

Last season’s success, which included a county championship and a loss in the Group 3 state finals, left its mark. Ramapo entered this season with only two seniors, after would-be No. 2 singles player Taimi Ando was lost for the season when he suffered a torn ACL in a skiing accident in December.

That forced some lineup juggling that left some kids “playing out of position,” according to Marchese. As it was, four of the seven starters were up from the JV, meaning the team had little experience at this the varsity level. “To play JV matches are one thing, but varsity is a whole different ballgame,” added the coach. “And that’s what enabled some teams to sneak up on us.”

Not a single opponent was able to sneak up on first singles player Jonathan Carcione, a junior, all season. Carcione won 6-0, 6-0 Wednesday to complete the regular season at a perfect 20-0. He is seeded No. 1 in the upcoming county tournament, and No. 2 in the state. He’s been playing since he was six, and most of his days for as long as he can remember have been centered around tennis.

Jonathan’s father played in college, and now so does his older brother Christian, who won 100 varsity matches in his Ramapo varsity career and now plays at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia. “I’m hoping tennis will help me get into a great college program where I can maximize my potential as a player,” said Carcione, who went 37-1 as a freshman and 26-1 as a sophomore. “If playing professionally is an option down the road I’d like to pursue that, but I’ll always have my education to fall back on.”

When Ramapo (seeded sixth in the state) takes the court against Wayne Valley (No. 11) this afternoon, they’ll do so with a lineup that includes Carcione, Shant Marootian (second singles), Daniel Lee (third singles) and the teams of Jack Yang and David Brooks (at first singles), and Jake Kaplan and Jeff Gitlen (second singles). Wednesday at Teaneck, the teams of Ara Paraseghian and Mike Rubacky (first singles) and Luke Imperatore and Charlie Yang (second singles) came off the bench to win their matches handily.

“It’s been a learning year, and a year where we’ve improved as we’ve gotten more experience,” said Marchese. “And with that, we’ve gained more confidence.”

And with more confidence often come more victories.