After battling through 126 individual matches this season, the boys varsity tennis team came up just a single match short of a birth in the regional tournament. Despite a narrow, 5-4 late season loss to West Springfield that kept them out of the playoffs, it was a solid season for the Atoms, who went 8-6, with wins over Lee, West Potomac, West Springfield, T.C. Williams and South County.
Annandale’s Mitchell Frank, who is rated the second best high school player in the country by Tennis Recruiting Network and will play for the number one ranked Virginia Cavaliers in the fall, doesn’t play on the team due to his extensive travel and training schedule. But Frank isn’t the only tennis talent in Annandale.
The Atoms team was led by senior Erik Morton, who excelled in the number one singles spot and will attend Virginia Tech in the Fall, and Dave Hookey who did yeoman’s work in the two hole. Hookey is headed to William & Mary. Both Morton and Hookey have been mainstays on the varsity team since their freshman year, with each playing in one of the top three singles positions for their entire high school careers. The two seniors both made it to the quarterfinals in both the singles and doubles in the individual regional tournament.
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According to Mike Scott, the Atoms’ coach, the team’s most impressive win came in its first encounter with district foe West Springfield.
“Beating West Springfield 5-4, even though we had some guys out that day, was definitely our most impressive win,” said Scott, who also coaches the AHS football team. “We were down 4-2 going into the doubles, and we had to sweep all three doubles matches to win and we did. The guys showed a lot of character.”
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With the departure of five seniors, next year’s team will rely heavily upon younger players to hone their games in the off season.
“Phil Ousman, who was our number four singles player and is a real good competitor, and Kyle Jameison, who played number six will both have to step up,” Scott said. “They’re likely to start as our number one and two guys, but I make ‘em play each other and earn it, so we’ll see where they end up.”
For the moment, Scott believes this year’s team has a lot to be proud of.
“They did a real good job, they worked hard and we got better as the year went on,” he said. “I just would have liked to have seen them get a chance to play in the regional tournament.”
Annandale Patch asked some of the team’s seniors to describe a memorable moment from their tennis careers in their own words.
Erik Morton: In our first match against district rival, West Springfield, we were quickly down 4-2 after the singles. After #2 and #3 doubles, we tied it up 4-4. It was up to David Hookey and I to win our doubles match. It was a close match the whole time and they tied us 8-8. We broke West Springfield to go up 9-8 and I had to serve for the match. With words of encouragement from my coach and fans, I was able to win the doubles match for us and clinch the match for the whole team!
Luis Parrado: My funniest memory is when our coach referred to my doubles partner and I as the Hispanic Mechanics.
David Hookey: Coming into the season, we had tempered expectations for a deep playoff run as a team because our #1 player, Courage Okungbowa, moved to Florida before the school year. However, Erik Morton and I had fairly high aspirations as an individual doubles team to advance to regionals for the first time in our high school career. Even though we came up short of this goal, the team we lost to at districts went on to place third in the Region so we can still be content with the loss in a tiebreaker. My favorite memory of the season came when we beat West Springfield the first time because we were down 4-1 after 5 singles and we swept the remaining four matches to win the match 5-4. They were all cocky before the doubles and it was great to give them a harsh dose of reality by winning. What I'm going to miss most about AHS tennis is coach Scott. He was the funniest coach I've ever met and he had me looking forward to the tennis season all year.