Your League Tennis Podcast
Tennis talk, for people that love to PLAY tennis.
Your League Tennis Podcast
Between the Courts: A Conversation on Golf, Tennis and Education with Ray
Join us as we discuss the rewarding yet demanding world of being a teacher and coach at Great Oak High School. Ray takes us on his educational journey, from his bachelor's at Cal State Fullerton, to his master's at Azusa Pacific. Listen as he discusses the importance of teaching as a learning process itself and delve deeper into the individualistic nature of tennis. The pivotal role sports play in shaping our character becomes evident during our conversation.
As we close this engaging episode, Ray offers valuable insights from his tennis coaching and playing experiences. He shares how to master a good backhand stroke (which he is the King at :), using your opponent's pace to your advantage, and how the mental strength tested in tennis matches and tournaments is unmatched.
Lastly, we discuss the mission to keep tennis alive amidst the growing popularity of Pickleball (haha). Join us for this enlightening chat, perfect for all tennis enthusiasts and aspiring players.
You are listening to your League Tennis Podcast with your host, anthony Radonia. Anthony is an avid weekend warrior tennis player, just like you. Every week, he'll be interviewing new and exciting guests that will not only differ in experience and skill level, but also in age and physical ability. Your League Tennis Podcast is about making you a better tennis player, whether you're a beginner or have been playing for years, in your 20s or in your 60s. Now here is your host, anthony Radonia.
Speaker 2:All right, Ray. Well, we're live.
Speaker 4:Sounds great.
Speaker 3:We're good.
Speaker 2:I love it. So thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it. So I forget you're in Murrieta or Temecula.
Speaker 4:I live in.
Speaker 2:Temecula. You are Whereabouts.
Speaker 4:In Redhawk, the Redhawk area.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're Redhawk.
Speaker 4:Close to the casino. Close to Great Oak.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, and close to the golf course.
Speaker 4:Very close to two or three golf courses.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 4:Play a mall, Play to make it a creek all the time. Journey is one of the best courses I've ever is the best course I've ever played Low journey.
Speaker 2:Journey is Pachengas. Yeah, it is Great. So I've only seen it. From when we've stayed at Pachengas Hotel, I've only seen it. And the greens look amazing. Like they keep it so nice, the like everything looks immaculate.
Speaker 4:Back in the hills they have either recreated or just the old. A lot of the stuff from the tribe Really great. And there's one hole that's pretty close. We went on a tour back there. All the teachers are Great Oak. We saw the Great Oak. It's amazing place and it's right by hole number 10.
Speaker 2:What is that?
Speaker 4:It's a, it is a great. It's a massive tree Six, seven, 800 years old.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, it's.
Speaker 4:it's not as tall as it is just big Really. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's a it was really interesting.
Speaker 4:Interesting tour. They took us through the reservation a little bit, but just, and the golf course itself. Just a couple of holes there, just. There's one overlooking the whole valley, a couple overlooking the whole valley. Just a great shape, fun to play. What you do is you get the membership or to make it a creek. Okay, so you get some dollars and it gives you like four or five free rounds to make it a creek, plus a free round journey.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, yeah, seriously, how much is journey if I don't have a member, if 120, 120?
Speaker 4:more than that, maybe two to something.
Speaker 2:Really yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4:So I'm not sure I can't pay for the real rounded journey, but I can get that free round.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Oh, that's so cool. I got to do that, yeah, Cause I would love to play a journey. I haven't been playing a long time. You know we played. What was it when Paul set that? Tournament up a couple of years ago. Oh, was that prior to COVID? It might have been. It might have been prior to COVID. Huh yeah, that's how time flies. So it's probably a good four years. That's probably the last time I played a course. Oh shit, that's pretty nuts.
Speaker 4:I when COVID hit. I mean I've played. My parents taught me a long time ago. I took a few lessons when I was a teenager, Always had fun playing golf and I can hit a good golf ball. But I always had trouble with short game. When COVID hit, I would just jump onto Redhawk, whole number 10, whole number 14. I had nothing else to do so I just would sneak on and just chip all around the course, all around the greens, and I'd do that for hours and it was crazy that like when you practice something, you get better.
Speaker 2:You get better at it, and so my short game was so much better, so much better.
Speaker 4:It used to be a. It'd be a catastrophe anytime I get near a green.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Now I can, now I'm doing okay. So I'm shooting the eighties now. I mean before it was eighties between 80 and 180, just depending how bad the short game was Well, you know what my problem?
Speaker 2:well, my short game. Obviously I can improve, but I've always been bad off the tee, like I'm losing balls, and, you know, once I get in the fairway.
Speaker 2:I've sort of been able to be a little conservative, like minded, and so I've always been pretty good If I can place the ball 200 yards out in the middle of the fairway, like I might you know, if you gave me one, that one stroke, like without you know, um, letting me hit out of bounds, like I can probably bogey that, that hole for sure, um, but it's the off the tee stuff I'll, I'll put it out out of bounds every time.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, the longer the hole, the better I did. Sometimes I was okay on the tee. I mean I'm not. I mean I played with Mike, vic and Paul and those guys just bombed the ball. I mean, I'm not that big a guy, I don't have to ball that far but I can hit it yeah.
Speaker 4:And I always thought, like one of the things where tennis or golf, I have hand-eye coordination, it's a ball, I hit it. I don't, I don't. Never took that much instruction, I just see a ball, I do what they see on TV and see what happens.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean, I don't have a short game with my touch, but imagine that practice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's what's comparable in tennis to the short game the whole putting for dough. What is it? It's, yeah, driving for show. Putting for dough, isn't that the expression?
Speaker 4:That is.
Speaker 2:So I can't think of anything comparable in tennis, where there's the putting for dough, I guess Is it the serve?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I can see that it might be. I also think just finishing points, and you know, when I'm playing my, my strokes, I can always hit a tennis ball and I've got my forehand or my backhand, as I'm playing, more going back into it because I've with my health and other issues. I haven't been as playing as much over the last 10 years. But now coming in working all through the point and then getting that last shot and putting it somewhere, that always that's like the short game.
Speaker 4:That's you know you work all the, you work your tail off to get a good it's a good situation. You got to finish the point.
Speaker 2:And that could be. No, that's so right, cause I was just having a conversation with someone the other day. It's like we're playing the point to get that one ball and then, when we get that one ball, we're not, we're not doing anything with it, and sometimes I find myself hitting and running back to the baseline. It's like what am I doing? This is, this is the one ball. I've been hitting the last six shots for Right and I don't know why I'm retreating.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Once you retreat especially on hard courts out here it gets a good player.
Speaker 3:Sometimes you're retreat, you're in trouble, yep.
Speaker 4:I like going. I mean I'm, I'm basically a counter punching baseline. Yeah, and there was. There was a point in the 80s and late 80s, early 90s. I was a servant volleyer all the time come in.
Speaker 2:That's really as.
Speaker 1:I saw yeah.
Speaker 4:I'd come in all the time and I had some pretty decent volleys, but that's that changed as I got older. I think the racket technologies change that it's harder to come in and people can hit passing shots from all different angles pretty quickly, Totally.
Speaker 2:With a string and racket. You're right.
Speaker 4:I mean you've got to have a massive game, massive serve to be behind it. And even if you have a massive serve, then the ball is coming back that much quicker.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean so the points last longer and yeah, so that's.
Speaker 2:That's changed a little bit but, I think you're right. When you have the ability to bend the ball, put more dip on it like, I think, the older era, the heavier rackets, the rackets that weren't so like pliable or bendable. I think you're hitting more of a flat return or a slice return and obviously you can do more at the net with that. But if they're hitting that dipper, obviously it's it's tougher. You want to stay back.
Speaker 4:It's tough and they can hit it from all angles.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Just get it. You know, the athleticism of the game has changed. Yeah, Maybe it's because I've gotten slower.
Speaker 2:The athleticism has changed, but I was slow already.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I always thought, like when I was younger. I always thought, well, I'm just going to keep battling. All these, all these really quick guys will slow down to me. I didn't realize I would slow down more than they did.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was frustrating.
Speaker 2:Well, that's, that was good already, but I want to go a little backwards here and start out a little more about you. So I know you're teaching tennis at high school. You've been doing that for a while and that's great oak high school.
Speaker 4:I've been a great oak for eight, for 18. This is my 18th year.
Speaker 2:Is it both boys and girls?
Speaker 4:Both boys. I'm a high school teacher, that's, I'm a teacher first, coach second. I teach right now I'm a social studies teacher. Right now I'm teaching all economics, all day long.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:I used to teach. I've taught a lot of US history, a lot of government, from the very start, and I tell this, I was been telling this story to my, to my classes when I because I'm just getting them this last week, when, I I was brought up in an age if you want to be a teacher, you had to do something else, and so he had to coach this, coach that I was, and you had to do other stuff on campus.
Speaker 4:And so I mean I thought, okay, well, I'm going to be a social studies teacher, tennis coach I can also coach basketball or other things. Well, the first student teaching meeting that I went to, there's all these student teachers and they're all going to be assigned somewhere in Orange County to student teach, and I'm realizing there's a ton of people here.
Speaker 1:And I knew enough about my friends who were still teachers at the high school.
Speaker 4:My mom's an art teacher. I do know about teachers that social studies teachers teach forever. If you want to get a job, teach English, teach, teach science, teach foreign language. But social studies teachers teach forever. So, the question was is there any student teacher here can teach economics? And everybody, like everybody, looked around scared.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I took major in political science. I had some one economics class in college. I got an A in it, but I don't really understand it. But I looked around and I just raised my hand. I'll do it Because I realized, you know if you put yourself in a position where your skills are wanted. So I'm just a couple of chapters ahead of the kids. But you want to learn something, teach it.
Speaker 2:Oh, without a doubt.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I was teaching economics and from student teaching on, I've always taught 12th graders either in government or economics, and that those of me was history and because I like teaching that, yeah. Now just coaching the demands of being a full time boys and girls coach got to the point where I didn't want to teach more than one subject.
Speaker 1:I teach economics all day.
Speaker 4:I mean I'm doing that, and then I have the coaching, because it's all my prep time A lot of. It's just stuff I got to deal with my teams, and so the schedule is working out pretty well for me right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I like that quote, the learn. If you want to learn something, teach it because you're so right. It's not just learning it right for yourself, but you need then the ability to I always say dumb it down. I don't know if I like that expression because I don't want someone to feel like you're talking down to them but I mean you have to be able to regurgitate it back to the whatever level they're at. So you have to recognize what level they're at, number one right. And then you have to be able to get your point across to them at their level and somehow make it make sense to them. Absolutely Right. And so it's so interesting. You're right To be a master at something. You almost need to be a teacher at it at some point. So true. So you've been doing that at Great Oak High School.
Speaker 4:Been coaching and teaching at Great Oak. I've been teaching. This is my 31st year teaching. I had one and a half years at junior high school, but this is my 31st year as a professional educator and I've been coaching tennis in some way, shape or form, since 1988.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:This is my 24th year as a boys varsity coach.
Speaker 3:It's my 23rd year as a girls varsity coach.
Speaker 4:I was thinking about that when he asked me to do that. I was like, oh, I'm going to add up some numbers. I've been doing it for a while.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. And I just heard you tell my wife downstairs you're 57. I'm 57. 57.
Speaker 4:Oh, wow, and it's been, the years had helped quick, yeah they really do yeah, no, totally, oh my gosh, okay.
Speaker 2:So, and then I, when I looked you up, I saw you graduated from Cal State, florida Go.
Speaker 4:Titans.
Speaker 2:And that was what year 91, 90, somewhere in there. Okay, and then you have a masters.
Speaker 4:A masters from Azusa Pacific and Curriculum and Development.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's cool, Okay, and then Zusa Pacific great school. I love that school that's local down here in, I guess that's what city is that. It's on Azusa, though, is it.
Speaker 4:Well, there is a campus on Azusa Pacific.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I had friends that went there. They have the I mean for educators, and things have changed. When I got into teaching, they told you not to get your master's degree because you were cheaper without it.
Speaker 3:Interesting.
Speaker 4:Now that you get your, when you get your teacher credential, you get your master's degree at the same time. Oh, okay, because now that all the districts want to say that all their teachers have masters.
Speaker 3:Masters.
Speaker 4:You get, I mean, at the point where I was, I needed that masters to go move up the pay scale and the program was good. There was definitely got some stuff out of it, some stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I thought I could teach the class, but so it was. But it was a good program, but it was a local. I mean, there's been a couple of different satellite campuses here, and so I told you. Oh, okay, and doing that while I was coaching and while I was teaching.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that's tough.
Speaker 4:It was a couple of you, but just powered through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it wasn't online, not in 2012,. Right?
Speaker 4:Not online.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet you, nowadays you can get away with doing it online maybe?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean the online learning and online teaching can be tough.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:It was an adventure In fact, the COVID year. Really it was difficult. I'm not the biggest techie guy. I've gotten better.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And there were days where and then I just realized there were days that were tough doing that but I realized I'm going to do my best and put on my show and make the best of it and some of the stuff. Like I opened up every class with some sort of music that I would tie into whatever I was teaching in US history.
Speaker 3:And I'd eat by the time, and so now, I do that in class, the kids come in and I've got YouTube on some music.
Speaker 4:I did times like these for the Foo Fighters on Friday. I liked a little teaching economics opportunity cost. We did the class. Should I stay or should I go the other day?
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 4:And they get my musical tastes. I try to vary it up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you got the who shirt on. I've seen the who 25 times 25?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I like going to. Just saw Trumbone, shorty, mavis Staples and Ziggy Marley down the shell. That was a great show.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, it's so fun. I like going to shows the clash, obviously is not Joe Strummer passed. Yeah, passed away right. Yeah, I love the clash, I told you.
Speaker 4:I was telling my classes, like the spirit days we have on campus, like where everybody dresses up and they're always on 80s day, fish, why aren't you dressed up for 80s day? I am 80s day, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm a watcher.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I'll crack up. I mean this is some people would debate this. I don't care. I told them that, yeah, you listen to your 80s music the best thing that came out of the 80s by far was the clash.
Speaker 2:Love the clash. See, for me, though, my 80s are because I was born late 70s my 80s are more garbage Pell kids because I was young, buying cards at that time and like British pop music. You know, because that's when you're young, you listen to the radio, you know. So that's my memory of the 80s. I love the 80s, that's fun stuff.
Speaker 3:I love aha you know, that kind of bands Take on me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally Okay. So you have you always done varsity, or is it JV2 or someone else there?
Speaker 4:was a few year, let's see. I was coaching at. I was teaching at a Yala high school in the 90s.
Speaker 4:My good friend, jim Asgato, was a varsity coach there. The year I year and a half I taught at junior high school was just down the street or a moment in junior high school and during that time all the kids they had just had white cement courts outside. I just got a whole bunch of rackets, wood rackets, whatever rackets I can get. I had a little tennis club. All those kids went to Don Lugo and the girls who were on that program called got a hold of me like when they got to high school our coach quit. We need a coach, we need we want to play tennis and so, even though I didn't, I was teaching at a Yala down the street. I was coaching the varsity girls at Don Lugo. My buddy, jim, was my JV coach and I we flipped when he had at during the boy's season he coached the varsity and I did the JV, but I helped out with a. I mean to me a JV coach is an assistant varsity coach too.
Speaker 4:Yeah so okay, so I, yeah, so I've. But since 2000,. I got hired a king and my whole, my wife and I I'm going to tell my classes this I got hired in Chino to teach a junior high school. She got a communications job working for Cox communications in San Diego. We looked at the map Well, there's Temecula. We got a place in Temecula and I just did everything I could to get closer and closer to home and now I live. One song on the radio to what's on the radio.
Speaker 4:Exactly. Most days I don't get on a freeway, yeah, and so that's, that's easy.
Speaker 2:That's cool. I've never, I've never heard anyone describe the distance they drive as one song on the radio. That's so cool. How is it teaching? Okay, so high school I could imagine, like my daughter's eight years old. I could imagine teaching young kids as it's almost like all fun, like make the games all fun. Teaching college, I think they're a little more focused, I would hope maybe a little more angrier, I don't know, but at least focused on what they want. But high school, I don't know. It just seems so much harder to me. Is it like? Is it tougher, do you think?
Speaker 4:I'm going to teach, I'd like to tell when I coach, I teach and when I teach, I coach I. Just I'm just always trying to build. So we, we get as many kids as we possibly can to come out for the team and we don't cut. We have three levels from the girls.
Speaker 4:We have a varsity of JV and the JV reserve. The JV reserve only makes meets on Fridays. By that time the varsity and JV they can have the day off. We work with them a little bit and always just trying to build and gain depth. And so as many. If each girl tries to get improved, if each girl are the guys team, each guy tries to improve, whoever the best nine are going to be are going to be darn good.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And that's what we try to do, and try to make it a fail. Try to make it a we, not me, when we're on the court. Yeah, you know, you both, we, we both play tournaments sometimes, and sometimes tennis is an individual sport where you're going to play tournaments. And sometimes in my life I've loved just going out to a tournament where it's me against the world or I take people on, but you know that gets a little bit lonely Sometimes.
Speaker 4:The team tennis, the stuff we do in USDA stuff or it's, it's us against them and as you're playing with your buddies and you're working hard to do your job the best you can, yeah, and that's fun. So I try to try to push that on my try to try to create a little family with our teams and we go out and I told I was having a discussion with the girls the other day. Here we don't do this to hang out with our friends, although we get to hang out with our friends.
Speaker 4:We don't do this just to have fun, although this is a lot of fun. We're trying to be the best we possibly can be as a team and all these people you're with right now. They might not be some of them are your good friends, but they might not all be your best friends but they're your teammates and you remember your teammates forever, totally. And so we just do the best we can.
Speaker 2:What? How important is it? Do you think to teach sports to kids so you get to see it from both sides? You're in the classroom teaching classes that they need to graduate, but then you're also there was sports. Like, for me, I found sports to be so valuable in all the sort of extra stuff that I didn't get in the classroom. But I don't know if I can put my finger on it, but I just know I'm a better person because of sports. Growing up, like, do you feel that it's so important, like you would never leave it kind of thing, teaching tennis and yeah, I'm a sports addict always have been.
Speaker 4:It doesn't matter what sport, and I think for kids, sports and morality play, it's an area where you get to grow and try to achieve something and do the best you can. I mean, and as much as I love sports and I get upset with my teams lose not my high school teams when my has broken up, as I am about what's happening with the angels right now it's just a game.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't care what. It is just a game. We're just trying to do something to be the best we can be, but let's not overdo it. So I think, like when I'm trying to convey to my team, we're going to work as hard as we can and we're trying. Our goal is to go out and win, to be the best team we can be by the end of the day, when it's over, we shake your opponent's hand, you know, and so I don't want my. I was thinking about the Wimbledon final. I'm brains off. My. The woman from from Morocco lost.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:My brain. I can't think of her names right now. She wanted that so bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And she was. I could see that she was really afraid of the pain of losing that match, and some people get driven by fear of losing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I think fear of losing a lot of times leads people to really choke. Yeah, ons, ons.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're right, that final was her sort of shutting down, because I remember watching it and I was like she's not, she's not very emotional. And I saw myself in her too, because I feel and I've said this before when I'm playing best, I'm a little cocky, I'm a little confident, I'm talking, I'm, you know, I don't know, I'm interacting, maybe with people, but at the same time I'm focused. But I've been very quiet, like her too, and when I'm very quiet I'm not playing well, because something about me is very I don't know how to explain it like I don't know it just everything about me, sort of like reserved, you know, and maybe I am worried internally and I don't want to show it, and that's, you're right, that's how she was. She was very scared that day.
Speaker 4:It's tough because I mean and everybody's been there, yeah, every athlete has been there and had things like that happen. But I Think it to me for my teams. I really want them to know that if you lose, I mean, I don't care any less about you. Yeah, win great it's, but you're, it's just a match.
Speaker 4:Yeah let's go out and do the best we can. Let's go out win because winning is more fun, yeah, but in the end I mean you kind of have to separate that from who you are, and so I tried one of the things I was. I saw a quote a couple years ago. We were doing a mental health week on my campus and I saw, right before the playoffs for my girls, there's a big poster and it said don't be perfect, be brave. Took a picture that, shared it with my girls and was it a thing? We just kept saying I mean, you're not gonna be perfect, yeah, I mean, just have the courage to go out there and compete the best you can.
Speaker 4:Yeah if you do that, everything will work out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always I wonder about that a lot actually. Which is I wonder if if you somehow tailored a kids Practice to letting them always win versus tailoring a kids practice to making them always lose I'm always trying, I always think about that like I wonder what the result would be, and I guess it depends on the person. But you sort of need both. You need that confidence and winning, you need to learn from your mistakes. When you lose, kind of thing. And you're right, I think at that age it obviously doesn't matter, or even our age, it doesn't really matter at the end, but we want to win.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was talking about like the first varsity team I coach was that girls team at Don Lugo and I still, through social media, talked to some of those, I'm gonna say, kids in their 40s now and they didn't win a match but a year before I got there and they're played in a very tough league. There's a bunch of beginner kids playing against Claremont and upland.
Speaker 3:Yeah and and.
Speaker 4:Glendora and just, and so the first thing I did was found a non-league. I found teams that we would beat. I Would found less. Let's get a feeling of winning some matches and we improved throughout the year. We had those wins and that helped, but the same time, for my teams that I've had, I Go out of my way to find someone who's gonna kick our butt.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you need to get, we need to push ourselves. You know challenge, I mean you. You don't get better in our sport, any sport, if you don't Push yourself. And sometimes in tennis you need that person to just To show you what the next level is. Yeah, you're never gonna Step up a level if you don't see those levels above you totally and so it's okay, and you know what's okay to lose. Yeah if you're giving your all and going out there and battling. If someone's better than you, shake their hands.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I've also lately and really enjoyed playing someone I think is exactly my level and I and I've been learning a lot recently with that battle and like just trying to to just squeak out a win is so beneficial Because it's like I know he, this person, could beat me next week, I can beat them next week, but right now I'm gonna do everything I can to win. You start finding Other little things about yourself in that moment, you know. But you're right, you learn everything. When playing a person who's Not as good as you, you learn a lot. Playing a person who could destroy you and kick your butt, obviously you learn a lot. And then finding that person, I think who's your level and you trying to squeak out a win is pretty important to especially in a tournament.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I love that. I love what you said battle Joey Joey Jr.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 4:That's right. I tell it to the kids all the time. We just battle through and fight, yeah, and you know, playing that guy, that's better than you. If you really push them, you know you've got it. You've got a chance a lot of times that when you push that player, that's better than you. And now they find they're in a fight. You get to get into their. You get to find their weak spots. You get to find that all wait a second. There's a way I can. I can play this person.
Speaker 3:Yeah away. I mean, we've had the, I've had those wins.
Speaker 4:You've had those wins where you come out and Beat somebody that you have no business beating. Yeah now one like One of the things I also say when you do that, don't be surprised. Act like you deserve it. Act like you do, because you do deserve it, but act like you know. Okay, I've done this and don't let down the next time. Just keep battling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's very true. Yeah, what? When did you start playing? I know you said you sort of mentioned you thought it would be important to do other stuff with your teaching, but did you play tennis when you were young too?
Speaker 4:or my dad. My mom both played in the tennis craze of the 70s. They played and they gave me a racket a few times and I messed around with that. I used to hit against the garage all the time. I played a lot of baseball growing up and then my dad and I my dad played a lot of tennis for he'd like to hit the ball as hard as he could and eventually, like we'd play every Saturday, I've actually started beating him and he's yeah then, it wasn't as much fun for him.
Speaker 4:Yeah but then I I got tired of tennis because I had a little temper on the court and I just I didn't pick up a racket until my again to my Into my sophomore year in high school.
Speaker 4:Okay and I started. Then I played on the high school team which we got to the CF finals are my without any seniors. So we were brand new school, my junior year, and I wasn't even in the starting lineup. But I just came out, I was. I was getting better all the time by the couple years after college. I could beat most of those guys.
Speaker 4:Hmm, so I in it after call, after after high school, like a big muscles guys. After high school I started playing a lot of tournaments and really got into it. I I made a point where I was gonna play every single day and and I liked the tournament scene just going out and doing that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so.
Speaker 4:I heard you played at Cal Poly for a while.
Speaker 3:Come on, oh yeah, I was here.
Speaker 4:I was there for two years. Oh really before you and I played. I worked out with a team for a while. I Wasn't real happy at Cal Poly. Pomona and I transferred to Fullerton. Okay transferred there. There was no guys team and I met my wife oh wow, my wife was on the women's team. Oh the D? D one athlete of my family is my wife. Wow, was now my JV coach.
Speaker 2:So oh yeah, they're D one still right. Fullerton's yeah yeah, and they have the amazing softball team They've had, so they've had a softball team. That's not the same level anymore. Oh really.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean they've they're they compete in the big West and they've they made the NCAAs now and softball yeah, but yeah tennis wise. Yeah, my wife is so funny like so she played at Fullerton for two years. We went to a Cal State Fullerton basketball game a couple years ago and we're looking at the program and she's all the time. I see her face just red and seething and look what she's reading. She's reading to the team. The year before was oh and 18 and she was Crackin the tennis team yeah.
Speaker 4:They got better since that. I don't know, though, what happened that year To see her, like her competitive juices flow, yeah, going out there. So yeah, so um oh my gosh, yeah, so, so yeah, I've been. I mean, I haven't had any lessons or anything. I remember taking a lesson with somebody, like in the 70s, and they were Teaching me a one-handed backhand and I was like I saw Jimmy Connors do it with two and yeah, please, can I try with it?
Speaker 4:No, we teach one. I get begging the guy. Please Let me do it. It's like fuck. Okay, try it with two, damn yeah just destroyed it. Okay, you do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for the rest of your life, I would have.
Speaker 4:I just give me a two-handed backhand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is it about? Because, for those that are listening, that don't know you, we all joke about your two-hand backhand because it's ridiculous. So why is it so amazing? What is it like? It was it always? Because, like the story you just told, sounds like it was almost always good, naturally good.
Speaker 4:I'm a little well. I don't know about amped extras. I see things I right, left-handed, okay, left-handed. I see things well on the left side. I can't serve left-handed, I can't do anything overhand, but I see the ball I make I in baseball I could switch it.
Speaker 3:Okay so.
Speaker 4:I see the ball well on that side. I just lean into it. Pretty well, just take two hands. God gave you two hands. Hold on both rackets and rip, yeah, yeah and rip it interesting.
Speaker 2:That's so interesting, so do you think it? You know that? Um, I forget his name now. Rooney's coach, the in. He was a Serena's coach, patrick, yeah, yeah, but he's always talking about left. I dominate, right I dominant Like who cares, but maybe it's important. It sounds like somehow you can see the ball better. Maybe on that left side I see the ball.
Speaker 4:You do so. I mean, I was thinking about that I came would kick right Larry Bird and others who were use both hands a lot. Do that they're right with their left and use them. You know, other things with their right, and so I my class was asking you, so your amped ex-reist. Well, I don't do everything equally well on both sides. Yeah just some things I do better my left, Some things I do better my right but you can write with your left. I write with my left.
Speaker 2:Oh, you write with your left. Yes, oh wow that's interesting because you're a righty in tennis righty and tennis overhand, but yeah.
Speaker 4:I got a buddy who plays tennis right-handed and does a lot of other stuff left-handed, so I'm you know that happens.
Speaker 2:And then you said you kick which foot?
Speaker 4:Right foot, probably right foot. Yeah, it's a little bit about skateboard.
Speaker 2:Do you know what you do? Are you a goofy?
Speaker 4:I think I'm a goofy foot, you're a goofy in the last time I Skateboarded. My daughters are doing all my youngest daughter. I'll skateboard anyway, but I think I'm goofy footed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I wonder because I'm goofy footed too, but everything about me is righty.
Speaker 4:I was on a skateboard when I was 10.
Speaker 2:I Thought you would skate. Still no, not at all fall.
Speaker 4:I don't mind skating, just falling, it scares me yeah that's true.
Speaker 2:What's um? I mean, we talked a little about the coachings, your coaching style. You know, your focus on Teamwork and all these Intangibles. Like, do you have sort of a coaching style like when you're there in the moment, like are you pushing them like what's going on? Are you going more technicals?
Speaker 4:I'm not as technical as I am. Let's get as well rounded a player as possible. We do a lot of doubles drills.
Speaker 3:Okay, even though, yeah, we have singles players.
Speaker 4:But yeah, I think singles is good for your doubles and doubles is good for your singles. Yeah trying to build well-rounded players the most we can building a team. And I'm also like I don't do privates. I mean I consider if I'm since I make the lineup, I consider a conflict of interest if I'm given privates plus in time to forget yeah. So I like to get kids over to the club. Bill Barron Slav is teaching a lot of great kids, by the way.
Speaker 1:I have great assistant coaches right now.
Speaker 4:I've had great assistant coaches in my lifetime, but it's helped having Slav out there. It's incredible having my my wife, as my JV coach. I mean, she's an inspiration every day. Yeah, she's been just doing it for a couple years, but it's just, I mean she's always been behind the scenes as an advisor and helper and I mean she's just, I don't know what I do without her, but having her on the court, just seen her with the kids, is great. Slav is great with the kids really awesome as much as a tennis player.
Speaker 2:He's great with the kids. Oh, that's so cool.
Speaker 4:And so I mean, when you're teaching coaching tennis, yeah, you're teaching us for probably coaching kids.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And so same thing in the classroom. I might teach a subject I don't like teaching kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how many do you think in your high school get to go to college and play like from a year to year?
Speaker 4:I haven't had really that many I mean. So when I was coaching at Chaparral, naza Gazal Was number one of the 18s and she played in Northwestern, haley Dixon at Great Oak and Molly at Loy at Great Oak and Hannah Stone at Great Oak, all on the same team. Haley was going to Boston College. She got hurt and her shoulder was thrashed. I mean she really couldn't play anymore. Molly played For St Mary's and coached at Dominican. Hannah was at Northern Arizona and then at Cal Poly. Slow, I've had some other. Stephen Howe was.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm.
Speaker 4:Colorado, mesa, joey, at Pacific and Oregon had a lot of guys, a lot of guys and girls that definitely play Division 2, division 1, if they want, or Division 2, maybe even some lower Division 1, but that wasn't their interest. They played a lot of club tennis. I'm just happy, happy every once in a while when I see kids out there that I've coached. They're out there just playing for fun playing in leagues, in fact, trying to get some of those guys to help us on our USDA team. We need some young players out there.
Speaker 2:It's funny how we will play a team and everyone's a lot younger than us.
Speaker 4:It'd be nice we tried the year of the pandemic. I was trying to get Josh Robbins, one of my best players ever, to get on our team and that didn't work because of the pandemic and he had to go. He was helping me coach and he's a great coach, but he had to go be a doctor and like a priority. Yeah, what a jerk.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. I just joined a 5-0 league in San Diego and some of the guys were like, hey, let's play. I didn't really met them. You know we're all texting each other, I show up and I'm just talking with them. I guess I sort of expected people older like our age 24, 22, and 23. That's what I played doubles with and I'm like what the heck Double?
Speaker 2:your age Double, you know close to, and it just for the first time. It really struck me because a lot of the leagues we've been playing were sort of older guys, but this whole, this whole team is comprised of just young guys. So I think the older, the older ones are in their 30s, mid 30s, and I'm obviously the oldest then. So it's really it's getting a little strange for me. Only recently I've been really feeling, feeling it a little like dang, I'm getting up there.
Speaker 4:It's kind of fun. I mean, really, I feel like I hit the ball almost as well as I've ever hit the ball.
Speaker 2:But which is you know? It's funny though you say that, though, because the more I think about it, it's like how strong do you have to be to hit a tennis ball? Not that strong, so we're not losing things, for, like, our muscle mass is getting a little less as we go older. It's not like we should be hitting slower because of that. Do you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think I lost some of my serve. I definitely lost some.
Speaker 2:You're right.
Speaker 4:But I don't. You know my strokes and just but the movement, all that stuff has just been, and I wasn't a great mover before. I always could fake it, though yeah. And so it's kind of harder to fake it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, but you're right though. The big thing is the cardio, like lasting is long, and then the quickness. Obviously, these young kids are a lot quicker than us. Me and you got joint issues and everything else hurts on us.
Speaker 4:Always something. It's whack-a-mole, something always comes up.
Speaker 2:That's like someone texting me this morning to hit. I go ah, my foot hurts, like your foot hurts. I'm like I don't know why. Just my ankle, my foot, my toes, everything about my whole foot is just hurting. So whatever.
Speaker 4:You fix that and something else comes up?
Speaker 2:Oh, totally, you're so right, so you plan on staying as a coach. I mean, that's, that's your, you love it.
Speaker 4:Well, I do love. I was thinking a few years ago. I mean I was thinking about that. You know I've done it long enough and it's I'm enjoying it, but but right now I'm still having fun. Um, I, when, when I retire from education, I'll probably the year the sweet spot is when you're 61 and a half. I mean I'll have been teaching 36 years at that point, and so when I retire, lori and I've talked about and I'm moving toward the beach someplace else a little bit, and I'm not going to be you know, I'm not going to be coaching when I retired.
Speaker 4:probably there's got to be some time where I give it up. So I mean I think. And now the other thing is health. I mean if, like right now, my uh with the girls team and I'm going to have a boys club team and I'm teaching all day and I'm like doing lesson plans, last night I was announcing the football game. I'm the PA announcement.
Speaker 2:Do you really? Oh, that's great.
Speaker 4:And now you're a great uncle back.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that's so cool.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I'm on the. They asked me to do it a few years ago and I'm a ham when he gave me a microphone. So I'll do all that stuff, but there comes a point where it's, it gets too physically exhausting. Yeah, I'm not there yet.
Speaker 2:Is Wolfpack the mascot or is it? We are the Wolfpack. Yeah, it's the Wolfpack's the mascot. Okay, cause I saw that. When I looked you up too, I saw you wearing a shirt, something about the Wolfpack, and I didn't know if that was you. Just you know. I didn't know if you were the wolves or, which is funny.
Speaker 4:I taught at King for four years and helped start. That meant a boys program and we were the wolves, and so now we play King every year. It's a wolves versus Wolfpack and I respect people like King all the time, but I I told my boys team and my girls team a wolf is just a solitary dog. A wolf pack is a killing machine.
Speaker 3:That's so awesome.
Speaker 2:How did you get into doing the announcing for the for the football team then, right.
Speaker 4:Well, I started at King when I was at King. We have our rallies and we're you introduce your teams, my, and they gave me the microphone and here's my the. Here is your CIF finalist or semi-finalist, your league champion great, I'll go, Dennis, and I announced one guy, the names and the basketball coach is a friend of mine. It's like you're now our new PA announced.
Speaker 4:So I started doing King and that year the team the King basketball team made won the state championship and so I did a few of those games toward the end and then the whole year after that and I was the basketball game. I'm sitting right in front.
Speaker 3:I got a great. I know what I'm doing. I love basketball. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And so I I mean I never was a great player, I can shoot give me an 18 foot shot and I'll just hit it every time.
Speaker 1:Play defense I'll never, make it yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And then when I came to, I did it at Chaparral, when I walked over there, worked over there and I did it from that day one. The basketball coach was a buddy of mine and I did it there, for I mean, I still do it to this day.
Speaker 2:It's fun. Oh my gosh, that sounds fun yeah.
Speaker 4:So I got the best seat in the house and I get to see all the players and it's.
Speaker 2:Do you have to do research into each player? Like do you? I'm thinking like, like Vince Scully, I mean, that guy was like a wealth of knowledge. I always wondered about that. Was he researching? Obviously he lived a long life, you know, just an experienced man. But are you doing research into the kids prior to or?
Speaker 4:To be professional at that. Yes, To be a high school announcer, high school teacher I should. I get this thing on Max Max, perhaps I see the light up and go from there, yeah. I mean I see the kids and I know some of them. I mean I'll know, I'll know the kids in our team and I'll know a little bit about the other teams. Yeah, I spent football. I knew that the Marietta Vila Coat quarterback yesterday I guess he's signed with or he's kind of committed to Alabama.
Speaker 2:I knew that.
Speaker 4:Oh wow A little bit about them. I knew that they were good and I know of our guys, so yeah but other than that, give me the binoculars and it's Taco by number 50 and yeah, yeah. I'll give the guy who ran the ball and they have public. They have announcements for me to read. I read those and yeah, yeah. And hammer it up a little bit, have some fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean, it's just a PA announcer. It's not that broad, I'm not broadcasting.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, I get you.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, you're at the game.
Speaker 2:Okay, what's your favorite sport right now to watch besides tennis?
Speaker 4:then that's a hard one, because I'm on TV. I'm a sports addict.
Speaker 2:You're watching everything, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:I don't understand cricket, but everything else I mean I'm, I mean I love the soccer, I love the soccer, I love to do I'm a football, I'll watch football. I love college football. I mean I've got like three fantasy football teams going and I'll watch. I'll watch baseball and basketball and everything hockey I love. I like international sports, like I love the Olympics.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's so fun Went to a as a fan.
Speaker 4:went to LA, went to Atlanta, saw a lot of that stuff there, saw Salt Lake City the winter Olympics.
Speaker 2:My greatest story always is my neighbor at the time was uh, she's passed away. Now I don't like talking about people who passed away, but this story is so funny. She used to drink whiskey, like that was her thing. We had the torch runner run by our street. She was so drunk. I remember I was a young kid. What year was that? The? The? Was it 80,? You know, 84?
Speaker 4:84, 96.
Speaker 2:If it's a LA, LA was okay, that when I was thinking, when I was really young, so 84. So she tossed her whiskey glass at him. I don't remember why. I don't remember why she did it because she was just a crazy person when she drank. But we just remember laughing so hard Like what does she do? Oh, my gosh, Get out of here. I was so mad. People were like on her block. They ran right past our street. That was so funny. Yeah, that was that's my memory. And we went to watch. We went to watch the Olympics too. Yeah, that was that was so fun. Yeah, I went to Dodger. We went to Dodger's A's World Series. These are like my memories as a kid Dodger's A's World Series, when um Oral Hurciser pitched, you know, and um, what's the what can I think?
Speaker 4:of his name, gibson.
Speaker 2:Gibson hit the homerun. We didn't see that game, um, but that was the series that I remember going to and then went to Olympics. That was the big sporting events when I was a kid, yeah.
Speaker 3:That was fun, Totally.
Speaker 2:Um, give me some sort of I need a pointer. I know we talked about the backhand and this is leading into my gift to you, but we talked about the backhand. I need some sort of pointer to make a person have a good backhand, and my gift to you is Andre Agassi obviously because obviously one of the best backhands ever.
Speaker 1:And I thought I gotta give.
Speaker 2:I gotta give fish a great, a great gift here. And instantly I looked through my tennis cards and I'm like, oh right, when I saw it I said, um, giving you Agassi. So that's one of my more prized cards, by the way. I love this card, I love Agassi.
Speaker 4:It's a really cool card, so that's for you. I got a couple of Agassi stories.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 4:First of all, I love how I watching him hit the ball um taking the ball on the rise. If you see sometimes one of the drills on the Monday nights, you'll see me scoop something off the rise from the baseline. I don't like to bug into, bug and high. I struggle with that high big forehand. I got a big guy's whack the heck out of it. I'm going to use someone's pace against them, and so I mean different levels for for different advice for a backhand. First of all, get your racket back early.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:If you got your racket back early and then you got options to do anything with it. Um, as you get more advanced, take that ball on the rise, take that ball early. The earlier you get the ball on your racket, it's earlier. Regardless how hard you hit it, it makes it harder on your opponent. I mean, I can see took the ball so early and so I think the game now you'll see a lot of people let and getting that ball to the drops into their strike zone. I love getting the ball on the rise.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And a lot of it was watching Agassi.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny now that you're saying that I'm picturing you on Monday nights when we play. And you're so right, you, you just catch it right off the ground and you have the ability to sort of put it anywhere you want. And it's cause you're catching it so early, you can sort of just flick it over there, flick it up the line, and you're using our pace, and I can. I see it now the way you described. It is exactly now how I see you hitting and I couldn't quite grasp it. But you're right, it's so early, you're using their pace and you're just sort of putting it where you want from that point.
Speaker 4:I'm taking the pot and I'm not swinging it as hard. I mean can swing hard, but by getting it early the ball still has more momentum and I'm taking momentum going the other way and also the amount of time from when I make contact, as opposed to if I wait till the ball gets at a different level. I've cut off time back and forth, so I'm rushing and putting pressure on people and that's the goal anyway. When I played my best tennis, I was really taking the ball on the rise before you know, and taking the balls early as I can, and you look at my fair players to watch. Venus, I think, did that better than Serena especially in the returns.
Speaker 4:Agassi, serena can do it too, but Venus, I always liked Serena had the better serve Venus on her game. Her return to serve was vicious, and so I like taking the people's pace against them. So I'd say, on her backhand side, just staying down getting that ball in front and using people's pace against them. That'd be my advanced lesson on toward the beginning lesson Get your racket back and drive through it and give it a ride.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the pace of the ball after it bounces on the up. When you say use their pace, it's so much different than if you let that ball hit its arc and now is on the drop, which a lot of people do nowadays. You see that they're sort of waiting back, they're letting it drop into their strike zone.
Speaker 4:Makes sense on a clay court too, because a clay court, the ball doesn't bounce as consistently. So you let it bounce and they're using Now. When you do that and let it get in your strike zone, the stroke is all yours. You've got to do the driving through it which is okay if you're a big, strong guy, If you're delpontro it's just blast. But last time I checked I'm not one marketing delpontro.
Speaker 3:I'm not that big.
Speaker 4:The ball is going to be in my strike zone earlier, so I'm going to hit it out of my strike zone earlier. So I mean one of the things about creating about tennis is, you know, there's different advantages for different people. I mean, the taller guy might be able to blast the serve and might be able to. Big, high bouncing forehand might be able to give that a ride. Let us guys who aren't that big, let's get the ball early.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I felt because it's something happened to me last year where I had a situation where the guy was hitting not really deep but sort of high to the service line and I was letting it then drop and I was like the whole match. I didn't figure it out till maybe the last game I ended up losing. But I was so mad and I was like at the last game I started taking everything on the rise and, because I had to generate all the power, he was hitting this high ball service line and then it was coming into my strike zone.
Speaker 2:I felt like oh, I can hit a great shot here, but I had to generate all the power and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't hit winners and that was his game right. He was I don't want to call him pusher, but just a grinder right, and he was sort of just doing that every time and I couldn't do what I wanted and I didn't figure it out till the last few games that take it on the rise, use the pace of the ball before I let it drop, because then it was almost like it felt like it was zero miles per hour at the time I was hitting it. I had to generate all the pace right. It was really tough.
Speaker 4:It gets exhausting. Yeah, you're right what I'm telling, what I'm saying by getting the ball early. I mean, I remember I played a tournament and when they had the old 5-5 division. There was a guy who was one in the 5-5s and he was beating everybody and I first of all advice for players that drives me nuts Scouting a player, don't look at their UTR because it doesn't mean anything. Don't look at their ranking. If you got scouted how they hit the ball, that's great.
Speaker 4:After you play them, look at their UTR and look at their rank. But like I, get kids that are psyched up he's a UTR.
Speaker 3:this I don't care how does he play, so I saw this guy he hit a lot of times, a lot of topspin.
Speaker 4:I said I'm going to take every ball early and I don't know what was that day, but I played out of my head. I just played so well I beat him 6-1, 6-2. And later he came to apologize. I started with a jerk. I mean, you just played so well and I was getting on my young, and who is this guy? Like I told him, dude, no apology needed. I didn't even notice. I was in such a zone. I don't even know what you did, I didn't care.
Speaker 4:If I don't see a guy, I mean, yeah, it was a fun match, I don't really care, I played great next and so that's yeah. It. Just when I'm getting the ball early, like that, takes work and takes timing and takes practice. You can't just do it, but to play the grinder with all that topspin. It's the only way to do it. I mean I can't, I'm not going to, I'm not going to outlast a guy for six hours hitting topspin where I've got to do generate all the pace.
Speaker 2:Totally no, I agree. So you are playing tournaments still.
Speaker 4:I try to get back out there. I played a couple of singles. I mean I was playing the league and been doing that for years. Yeah, I got thumbed the last two times I played, but I played at open level 55.
Speaker 3:And through the second seed.
Speaker 4:this guy ran down every ball and I had to be the aggressor and he just played down. And then I played somebody else at a four or five second seed again.
Speaker 2:A four or four or five tournament. Yeah, oh, okay, cool.
Speaker 4:Second seed big, strong guy with exactly the game you're talking about, and I had to. I had to be the aggressor.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And I knew what I had to do and I know I'm beating guys like that, but it was hard. I couldn't do it this time. Next, this part you get back out there, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm playing a men's 40 in the couple weeks in it's in Newport. But there's it's all age you know, 35 up to I want to say, 75. I think our friend Mike Deegan's playing it with Joe Valloway. That'd be fun, yeah, but it'll be fun. So I'm trying to focus more on the age division tournaments. Obviously I love playing openings. I like seeing people smack the crap out of a ball to me, you know it helps me see a different ball. But like me and you talked about earlier, they're a little too quick and it happens sometimes where I'll think I'll hit a winner and I'm like what they got the ball back. It'll literally surprise me because I'm not used to it. But the age division group, you know those tournaments are really fun, yeah.
Speaker 4:You might get. There's some 40s that are out of this world.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, Amazing the 40s is no joke of a division. Oh no yeah. There's a lot of talented, but you know, at every age you'll see some real talented people. I won a 40s.
Speaker 4:It was a funny story. Well, first of all, it was a very small tournament, so you know when the bigger the draw and they were getting prize money. That's where, like if I went, around or so that's then. I've had a great day. But yeah, I went a couple of rounds and I'm playing this guy and he's in San Diego and he lives in Orange County. Big serve and we in the semifinals the day before he has hey.
Speaker 1:So I don't want to drive this all the way to San.
Speaker 4:Diego, we'll just meet in Marietta, because I know that's close to you. I saw the weather report and it's going to be like 102. Yes, orange County, dude, I want to play you at Marietta tennis club and 102 degree heat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one o'clock.
Speaker 4:Let's go.
Speaker 2:He didn't know he was getting into he had no idea.
Speaker 4:Like we're warming up, he had a serve, hit the back fence and hit me in the head and was knocked me out and like I could not break him for the life of me, but I held and I beat him in the first set, tiebreaker seven, six and by the second set, oh, you've got here in the spiders web dude. Now you know, I got you and run them all over the place. Six, three, it's hot. No, you're the one that wanted to play on Marietta.
Speaker 3:Like these are our courts. Come on.
Speaker 4:That wasn't the oh yeah. So that's how I won my 40 opens.
Speaker 2:Wow, nice, who did you play? I remember the first time I really saw you play, play, play, not just hit, but was there. It was that tournament at Marietta. You were playing on court too. Who did you play?
Speaker 4:I was playing Deegan probably Was it Mike, it might have been Deegan or Bobby. Bobby Kilty too.
Speaker 2:No, it must have been Deegan then, Because I knew someone Last time I played.
Speaker 4:I played. I played Vinny too, vinny Rivera one time.
Speaker 2:No, you're right, it was Mike, it was. Mike Deegan I remember that match you guys were playing. That was a good match.
Speaker 4:He got me seven, six, seven, five or something.
Speaker 2:Oh, did he really yeah.
Speaker 4:And I just oh, wow. Yeah, I was coming, coming back from when I had my wrist surgery. I had so, but I was playing a little better when I played Bobby. Oh my and you asked Bobby Kilty about that match we were out there forever.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 4:I'm two degree heat and we got to five, five and a third, and I'm but so many times I'm great at the end of the matches and I'm like, okay, I got him.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I thought I got him. I'm a professional athlete over there. He had an extra.
Speaker 2:He gets better in the tighter spots.
Speaker 4:He had an extra gear and I thought I had an extra gear. I didn't have an extra gear that day.
Speaker 2:He's. He's interesting because I this is one of the things I talked about with him too was when I've played doubles with him. He's I'm not saying he's average, but he's average for him but during the match. But then when it counts, there was this other gear I've never seen. He didn't miss, he didn't do anything spectacular, it wasn't like he turned into a pro. It's not what I'm saying, but there was something about him where he just became so focused and just didn't miss. He made it work and it was so impressive to see. And obviously that's just cause he's a world class athlete. But those people are on a different level.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he was fun to play, but we talk about that match and I literally took two months to recover from that match Really. He jokes about it too. It was so hot, it was so brutal.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, it was a physical match, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh well, that's funny. And then so is there league going on right now. Are you in a four or?
Speaker 4:five. Well, yeah, if we got the four or five league, I got that, I've got. My high school team is starting out planning our first matches this week.
Speaker 2:Should be fun, I'm both for guys and girls are starting girls.
Speaker 4:Girls are in the fall, guys are in the spring.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 4:And so, in fact, you gave me that card I was going to tell you this is for Ila.
Speaker 3:Oh, so cool. She'll love this. That's for Ila, right there, thank you.
Speaker 4:And this is for you to represent little great. Oh, can I wolf pack girls test. Oh, she's going to love that that's for you, check out that so cool, so love this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you oh long sleeve.
Speaker 4:I like it. Yeah, that's the boys teams is in the spring. Sweet girls team in the fall is in the fall and.
Speaker 2:Excel that's my perfect one.
Speaker 4:Our girls team. We won league last year even though we were rebuilding. We're deeper this year. Got a lot of girls back, Got some new girls coming up, but we're deeper. We'll be fun. Boys team we had some kids graduate, but that happens every year. Yeah, we got some new kids coming. I know Marietta's going to be very strong, but it'll be fun.
Speaker 3:We'll compete, yeah, and in the end of the day, we'll go out and play.
Speaker 4:And when losers draw we'll shake their team's hands, but we're trying to win.
Speaker 2:So in high school are you playing all Temecula high schools, or do you get to branch out, to out? We branch out.
Speaker 4:Well, absolutely, we play. We play some non-league matches. Some people call those preseason. I hate that term, like preseason football. I will never watch a preseason football game because it's a practice. Yeah, it's a practice.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Non-Lig games are important because it kind of gets you standing around the rest of the CIF and then you have your league which determines your league championship. Also who gets to go to the CIF playoffs. And then you have CIF and We've been in division one for girls and guys for you for the last few years. But we're Moving move down to division two, Division one. We have the Married Attentives Club. We have a lot of people in the area but really some of those kids were playing Irvine schools, we played Sage Hill.
Speaker 2:Oh, really yeah in the playoffs. Sage Hill.
Speaker 4:So they what those kids have, the amount of courts and yeah just the tennis community in Irvine, it's just. It's a different world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, orange County, so I love to play those guys.
Speaker 4:Yeah, some of my favorite high school wins, or when we go out and beat in an Orange County school to beat my boys team a while ago beat Campbell Hall. This is a huge win for us. But you know, eventually See I have it gets pretty. When you're playing division one, it gets pretty ferocious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the CIF, when you, you guys, will get into a CIF tournament.
Speaker 4:I don't remember how I so we have, you have your season, and then there's a CIF playoffs, just like every other sport. Okay and then you also have the individual championship and there's also a CIF individual tournament. So, you have two different things going on the same time.
Speaker 3:You have a.
Speaker 4:CIF Team playoffs and I'm more of a team person over the individual thing too.
Speaker 2:But then you have the CIF individuals and Is that the one in Ohio, or is that something totally?
Speaker 4:different. Oh hi, for the boys is a Individual championship where they do out center California. So the city sections.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 4:Okay, I love going up there.
Speaker 3:Oh, heck yeah that's.
Speaker 4:I know you went up there last year.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I'm just tennis dizzy man. I'm very a little worried about what happens though. Hi, now the Pac-12 is dissolving. Yeah so, hopefully, what? Maybe they'll do something. Maybe though, the WCC, the big West, or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Or maybe the Big Ten comes in plays there.
Speaker 3:Hmm.
Speaker 4:That'd be awesome. How state in Michigan?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that'd be amazing.
Speaker 4:Whatever happens, but that's just such a special experience. And love, seeing the Love, seeing the Pac-12 guys my kids get to, just get the experience of being there, yeah, and so I try to go every year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally. That was the funnest time of my life going to watch that tournament when I was a kid. Yeah, watch all the great players, your age division, all the way up to college. So you play at West Covina yeah well, that's where we practice West Covina high school. And then when you said the cement white courts that was my memory, it was West Covina high school was the steel nets? And and the white. You know cement floors.
Speaker 4:I play a dime a bar.
Speaker 2:Oh, you play a dime a bar.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah, so yeah we went to West Covina many a time. So yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's one. High schools I mean I know it's make a valley, still let people, but that's when high schools used to let anyone jump on.
Speaker 4:Come jump on our courts.
Speaker 2:You can at yours too, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 4:So, like the other day, I was driving around and taking my daughter. She just got a truck that's a stick shift and I'm teaching her how to drive that, and so I went behind the courts there's a little fire drive just to mess around and learn getting first and second gear and I was. I don't go to my courts at seven o'clock at night, hardly ever. Yeah there were kids Up and down and people teaching lessons. Yeah, it's so cool that was huge, and so we need we need that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, totally the tennis club for our kids and traffic after school is an hour away.
Speaker 2:We traffic. Yeah, that's terrible. Yeah, I'm so mad when I see high schools all locked up like the track too. That was one of the things. I remember a big memory as a kid. We would go as a family to the local high school track and everyone would be walking all these families, people were strollers and it was just fun exercise as a family, you know. So I don't know, I just doesn't really exist that much. So I'm glad to hear your high schools open. That's so cool.
Speaker 4:The trouble is sometimes we'll have the skateboards. Yeah, they're messing up and the public Leaves their trash out and we have to deal with it and stop. I mean their potential vandalism. But yeah, you know it's it's worth it for the kids to play and yeah, so Hopefully we keep it's hard to lock our kids courts up because you can hop the fence pretty easy our our courts. But yeah. Hopefully we keep them open because there's just so much going on and we have the lights there, the city put the lights.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 4:So I need my courts to be resurfaced so, and they just totally did a chaparral.
Speaker 2:They tore down the courts and putting in new ones. I haven't seen the new ones yet. I don't know if it's done, but I don't know. I haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 4:Yeah they need the chaparral courts.
Speaker 2:I remember they're like slanted right.
Speaker 4:Because of drainage, because you got a drain, because it rained so much in Temecula.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is that why they built? Did they purposely build it that?
Speaker 4:way, those drainage courts are like that or like. You'll see that on the Some place where it rains 50 inches a year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but not to make it yeah not so much. Oh, that's hilarious. Well, fish, my friend, I think we're at a good stopping point. We're a little over an hour, so I so happy you came. I learned a lot. It was really fun. This was fun, yeah, this was fun.
Speaker 4:Everybody out there Get out and play, yeah great game. I love the sport and just Try to get as many people out there to play us. So I I've been saying things that are anti pickleball. I'm not really anti pickleball, I'm just pro tennis. Get on the tennis court, take our tennis courts back from the pickleballers.
Speaker 2:Totally I might play. There's a pickleball tournament coming up. I'm looking at it. I'm like, but I still haven't played pickleball yet, so I haven't, I don't know yet. I was thinking like, should I do it? Put on camera.
Speaker 4:I don't know yet We'll see this.
Speaker 2:players usually dominate, I guess I don't know. It's just such a weird thing to me, pickleball, I don't, I still don't get it. But thank you, my friend. Thanks, fish yeah so awesome, thanks you.
