The Oak Park High School boys tennis team is diligently preparing for their upcoming season. With 29 players, the team has built strong camaraderie and are ready for their upcoming matches.

“I have the most amount of players that I’ve ever had of any of the [past] teams,” OPHS tennis coach Adam Nielson said. “We have some transfers, some players that have worked hard that did not make the team last year, and a lot of incoming freshmen with tons of talent.”

Having been the undefeated league champions for three years and two time California Interscholastic Federation semi-finalists, the team is looking forward to a strong season. 

“Our past two seasons have been about as good as they can be, getting to semifinals, [and] CIF for two years in a row,” Nielson said. “I think we’re 28 [wins] and 2 [losses] over the past two seasons, so that’s really good [and] I’m really proud of that. We’ve gotten really close to CIF, so the CIF Championship would be the icing on the cake.”

Four seniors graduated last year and the new captains are expecting leadership to arise this season. 

“I’m most looking forward to seeing a lot of people stepping up to meet the needs of all the good seniors that left last year,” senior and captain Angus Rein said. “I think we’ll have a really strong team even though we lost good players.”

Aside from rigorous training, the OPHS tennis team is excited to spend time on the court together.

“I want to have fun, meet some new people, and have a good time,” senior Cade Stratton said. 

The team will face an array of competitors this year.

“We play Harvard Westlake this year, and Notre Dame, two top ten teams in SoCal, so those two teams are on our schedule for the first time, [and] that’s going to be tough,” Nielson said. 

Come support the boys tennis team at Newbury Park on Feb. 17 for their first match of the season.