Spring Sports Preview: Hackley Tennis

Sometimes a coach will lose a lot of players from the previous year due to graduation and think that won't affect his or her squad.

Hackley boys tennis coach Stephen Fitzpatrick however readily admitted that his team will have to work hard to replace the amount of players it lost from last year's squad.

"We lost eight seniors last season so we are in for a major rebuilding year," Fitzpatrick said.

Hackley's No. 1 singles player will be junior Brandon Alini, who is coming off a terrific year last spring when he finished 11-2. That came when he was swinging his racket in the No. 3 spot and Fitzpatrick is confident that his success will continue now that he will be in the top spot for the Hornets.

Hackley will have four  other players returning in juniors Bryan Hahm, Jason Yang, Mark Pianka and senior Jason Rosenfeld, who will all be vying for the two remaining singles positions and the other two will probably play first doubles.

Like it does every year, Hackley will compete in the Ivy League, where Horace Mann has formed a dynasty.

"We play a three-singles, two-doubles format in our league," Fitzpatrick said. "The league powerhouse is Horace Mann who has won something like 13 out of the past 15 seasons, and many more going way back, with schools like Riverdale, Trinity, us, Dalton, Collegiate and Poly Prep following. Horace Mann almost always has several ranked players and play an extremely competitive schedule outside the league."

This is Fitzpatrick's 14th season coaching Hackley as it comes off a 9-6 campaign.

"That (9-6 record) puts us about middle of the pack and that would be a nice season to repeat since we will have so many new faces," Fitzpatrick said. "I have not made final cuts yet, so I am reluctant to put any other names in the mix, but we do have at least one new student, a couple of freshman, and players from last year's JV squad who will be probably be moving up. We were able to hold some practices before our break, but we will pretty much be jumping right into competition when we return."

Fitzpatrick said that this is an unusual year because of so few returning players and also having to play by new league rules that he said will play out in an interesting way.

In prior seasons, each league team played twice versus each school, though only the second match counted towards the league title.

"Now, finally, we will have both matches count towards the title which should be a better indication of a team's strength throughout the season," Fitzpatrick said. "I'm not quite sure what to expect this season since we will have several completely new players in the starting lineup, but the talent level is pretty good. I have coached against several of the coaches in the league for over a decade and we have a generally nice routine."