Last year, the New Providence boys tennis team had one of its best seasons ever, finishing third in the Union County Tournament, winning their fourth straight North II Group 1 sectional championship, and capping off the season with the NJSIAA Group 1 championship, their second in the past three years. The tennis team clinched the Group 1 Shop Rite Cup, cementing New Providence as the best athletic high school in Group 1.
With a core of four returning varsity starters from last year, the 2013 tennis team is poised to return as defending champions in the state tournaments. When asked about this team’s goals, junior co-captain and returning second singles player Kevin Maluso said, “As a team, nothing is different this year than last year. The goal is to repeat as Group 1 champs and we nailed it last year.”
New Providence also gets a boost from returning first singles player, junior Alex Hocken. Last year’s second doubles team of senior co-captain Ryan Turner and Sophomore Kevin Stinchcomb round out the returning four varsity members. The main focus for the rebuilding of the 2013 team will be the bottom three courts: third singles and first and second doubles. The Pioneers will be looking for big contributions on these courts from Turner, Stinchcomb, and a host of first year varsity players, like freshman David Sann, sophomore Conrad Provan, and seniors Nick Xu, Jason Mango, Ashim Gudwani, and Mike Glendinning.
Two areas that the Pioneers will be looking to improve on this spring are its county and conference finishes. However, with a very tough county that includes perennial powerhouse Westfield, this task will prove difficult. However, head coach John Delloiacono is optimistic about the young team: “Whatever way the lineup shakes out, I’m really excited for the potential of the team this year.”
One of Coach Delloiacono’s philosophies is to always play bigger and better teams, since facing off against the best in the state and losing is a better learning experience than crushing a smaller, worse opponent. Accordingly, New Providence will mostly play larger, Group 3 and 4 schools to better prepare themselves for the state tournament, and they will rely heavily on the guidance of Delloiacono, 2012 Star Ledger Tennis Coach of the Year, to navigate a tough schedule that includes the likes of Summit, Scotch Plains, Bridgewater-Raritan, and Morristown Beard. The 2013 spring schedule shows that the ‘Neers only play one Group 1 school during the regular season, county and sectional rival Dayton.
Despite holding on to several key players, the team did lose five seniors and three starters from last year’s varsity team, so inexperience is one challenge facing the team. However, senior co-captain Ryan Turner does not think that this will be a problem facing the Pioneers: “We have a very young group of players coming up, so I expect it to be a very successful growing season. I think with the young talent we have this year we can make some serious noise in the state tournament just like we have the past few years. As the season progresses we will all develop into better players and better teammates. But overall, I’m expecting us to keep our title of Group 1 champs.”
Team building, especially with doubles teams, is always an issue facing a young team. However, with the experienced leadership of Delloiacono and prior state championship experience, nothing is impossible. The New Providence team starts their title defense as practice begins on March 4.
Come support the Pioneers in their home opener on Friday April 5 at 4pm, as they take on their rival Summit.