Q&A with Tennis Senior Tyler Triolo

Boys tennis senior Tyler Triolo, a two-time PAC-10 Singles Champion and a PAC-10 doubles champion in 2011, is the undisputed leader of the Rams squad. Beating his rival, Karlyn Small of Phoenixville, twice last year, Triolo knew it would be difficult against the now-sophomore Phantoms star.

This year, Small came out and got the best of Triolo, defeating him in the regular season and on Friday in the PAC-10 Singles Tournament at Perkiomen Valley High School. Triolo will go on to the District I Tournament this weekend in Springfield Delaware County.

Triolo has committed to play tennis and continue his academic career at Allegheny College next year. He took some time to sit down with Editor Kevin Haslam to talk about his career, the future of the Spring-Ford squad and his own future in this week's Q&A.

Editor's Note: The interview was conducted prior to Friday's PAC-10 Singles Tournament.

LRSC Patch: Spring-Ford's star tennis player! So, how does it feel to be a senior now, being able to lead this team, hopefully successfully through the postseason?

Tyler Triolo: It's awesome. I thought it would take forever to be a senior year, but it came really fast. It's nice to give back to the program. It did wonders for me. I grew a lot here. To be able to help these guys get better and better is awesome.

Patch: Tell me about your tennis career. When you began, when you fell in love with the sport and when you realized this is what you wanted to dedicate yourself to in high school.

Triolo: I took lessons at the YMCA when I was three, like once a week, then just kind of stopped and faded after a while. When I was 11, I was doing basketball, soccer, baseball. Nothing really stuck. I said I wanted to try and play tennis again and loved it. It just kind of came back to me.

Patch: Best match of your career?

Triolo: Oh my goodness. High school match? Good question. I think I would have to go with last year, regular season when we played Phoenixville. I had a really big win. Beat him in three sets and then our team won 4-3. It was like a four-hour long match. It was just absolutely crazy.

Patch: How about a match in your career where you didn't play so well and you took a step back and learned from it?

Triolo: I probably have to say even this year, when I played Karlyn this year. He played really well. He got a lot better. I had to look at what I did too. I didn't do anything to hurt him. He dictated the points. I was just kind of there, trying to get balls back and everything. That's helped me through this season. I need to step up, hit the ball, better footwork, rely more on your serve, not so many unforced errors. So, I think it opened my eyes this season, that match with him.

Patch: Tell me about your style on the court. Who are you?

Triolo: I would have to say I'm an aggressive baseline player. I love playing inside the baseline, on top of the baseline, taking the ball early, taking good rips, picking good shots, hitting my corners. I'm trying to be an all-court player. My volleys have gotten a lot better. Serve has gotten a lot better. Trying to incorporate all of that in my game, but that's what I love: aggressive baselining.

Patch: OK. Who are you off the court? What do you like to do besides tennis?

Triolo: Besides tennis... I'm really involved with my YMCA. We have a teen leadership program. I love it there. There's awesome people I work with there. Awesome kids my age. I love spending time with my friends. I'm away at tournaments a lot. That's actually died down now that I committed to college. I don't have to play in as many. I missed most of all of my weekends. But now I can actually now hang out with friends. I missed that.

Patch: Tell me about the college process. What made you choose Allegheny and the entire recruitment process.

Triolo: Allegheny is one of the first schools that contacted me. I went through Tim Donovan's recruiting process. He basically makes his living off of that and has contact with every college recruiter imaginable. Before I even met with him, Allegheny contacted me and said, “We've looked at your tennis and your grades and we really think you'd be a great fit for our school.”

At the time, I didn't really think much of it. Then I went to visit it, and along with the other 25 schools I visited, I really felt at home there. Especially when I went back the second time for my overnight with the team. Amazing group of people. I can totally see myself here for four years, working with these guys, working with this program. I love the school and the campus. My dream school. It was hard. I narrowed it down to about six schools and really I didn't know where I was going to go until March when I went back to Allegheny. The coach there is an awesome person, great coach.

Patch: So what's the future hold for you? Are you thinking about a pro career of sorts? Or at least in some aspect of getting into the circuit? Are you thinking about taking up a major and sticking with that?

Triolo: Yeah, nowhere near good enough to go pro. But, yeah. I'm hoping to go there, play my [Division] III tennis, but it was really important for me to go to school and have that balance of athletics and academics. I knew I wasn't going to be a pro and making a living traveling the world. I'll major in history there and find something to do with that. I'm thinking about teaching. That would be awesome. Hopefully I'll coach in the future.

Patch: Two time PAC-10 Individual Champion... Tell me about the differences between those two matches.

Triolo: My sophomore year was kind of just, you know, I went undefeated in the league. I didn't have a three-set match in PAC-10s. That was the year I felt I could step up and do it. My final match, I played Chris [Chung], who's still number one for Boyertown. It was a really competitive match. It was hard for me. I was inexperienced then. I would try to smack the ball wherever I could. It made me work on my patience, because he's an amazing athlete. He gets every single ball back. I think we might have had 50 ball rallies at some point. He does not miss. It's very rare you can get a free point off of him.

Last year was a big deal for me. I played Karlyn the regular season and beat him in three sets, but really that match I felt it was my team powering me through that one. Once the actual title match came and I had to play him again, my team showed up and that was awesome. I wasn't expecting that at all. But, it was mostly for me. Last one was for my team. So, I had to think, “This is for you, you deserve this.”

It was hard mentally. There were calling and let calling issues. It was good though. For me, it was a mental match rather than a physical match. That was a milestone for me as well, to be able to say, you know, “You hung in there mentally and didn't let anything get to you.”

He played a great match. It just went my way that day.

Patch: What's it going to take for you to add number three this year?

Triolo: Same thing. It's going to be a mental battle. My worst enemy is my mental demons. Working on that with my coaches. Mr. Brennan is working on me with that, as well. He told me at lunch today that I need to go out and play tennis like nothing else is going on. He said you have the skills and techniques to perform really well, but it's just going to have to be good tennis. I have to bring nothing but my A-game.

Patch: This is a young team, obviously. What types of things are you trying to impress upon these guys before you get out of here?

Triolo: One thing definitely would have to just be the transition from myself and Joey [Graziadei], who are two returning varsity players. It's that adjustment to varsity. I think we felt from the beginning that a lot of them were like, “Wow I'm playing varsity now. I want to win for the team.”

You have to impress upon the fact that you do have to step it up.

In [junior varsity], too, you play eight-game pro sets. They're not used to coming out here and playing a best of three match. Normally in a pro set, you can't come back from a deficit. In matches this year, though, we've had guys up in first sets and lost, or lost the first set and come back and won.

It's also probably too just loving the game. If you're going to come out here with a negative attitude and not saying I have fun doing it - being angry the entire time - then you're not going to improve. You're not going to get any better. But it's awesome. For being such a young team, we're doing really well. We're at a position to get third in the PAC-10, which is one spot lower than last year. They're really putting in the time and effort and doing an amazing job.

Patch: If you could go back to your freshman year and talk to yourself - give yourself some pointers on how to become the person and player you are today, what would you say to yourself?

Triolo: Get a better serve, number one. I think just my whole high school career, it's been four stages. It's been awful, OK, kind of good, and now I think of it as kind of a weapon, which is really nice. And also, get your head on straight. As a freshman, I was spraying balls, trying to hit every ball as hard as I could. I had no sense of constructing a point, or patience. I just wanted to hit a winner and get it over with or just nothing.

Also listen to your coaches. Up until this year, I was probably the most stubborn kid ever. Mr. Brennan was really good with me. He actually got me to be able to listen. Even my private coaches, whatever they said, I said I wanted to do it my way. I figured out this year I was 100 percent wrong. They knew what was best for me. Thinking how much better if I could listen to them way back when in my freshman year, how good could I be today?